Curtain call for Siobhan

The minute she stepped on to the stage, to do Aretha Franklin’s “Think”, I thought she was going to shoot herself in the foot. The Queen of Soul is a tall order to climb. How could a white girl, that is as skinny like a twig, belt out a signature performance on that song. Siobhan Magnus dispelled my beliefs. She grabbed the song by the throat, and wowed the audience, including me. It was the kind of performance that, for whatever its flaws, will be remembered as the best moment on American Idol last week. The excellent performances by Lilly Scott, and close runner up, Crystal Bowersox, have long been forgotten.

So who are favored among the guys? For two weeks in a row, my vote went to Lee Dewyze. He sounds current, and with the right producer, he could be making records right now. Two other guys I like a lot are Alex Lambert and Andrew Garcia. Again, these guys have the kind of voices that should make a recording engineer happy.

Todrick Hall seems to fit in the mold of an artist with the talent to intrigue those who like contemporary jazz and the improvisation that goes along with the genre. You wonder how long the judges and audience will go for him. He is not exactly out of the cookie cutter.