American Idol's Bottom 3 DiDi Benami ELIMINATED @ # 10- FOX photo Tim Urban lives in the Bottom 3 - Fox photo Katie Stevens - FOX photo

Video Beat - American Idol's DiDi Benami Eliminated

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Tim Urban lives in the bottom 3. Urban has been receiving tough critiques throughout the season with Simon Cowell saying after an Urban performance that he understood why they cut him in the first place - Bowersox rocks - Scibhan Magnus ABUSED - Recommended TV Listings

Tuesday April 6, 2010

BENAMI OUT

In a strange twist DiDi Benami found herself in the bottom three for the first time while Tim Urban is this season Alyson Iraheata as they both lived inn the bottom 3 for the first three episodes of their respective seasons. Urban is the contestant that nobody wanted. He was turned down during the tryout sessions in Dallas but was called back and asked to participate when Idol had a problem with contestant Chris Golightly who had the green light to be in of the Top 24.

Golightly was originally selected as semi-finalist. According to reports, he was disqualified February 17, 2010, after already being told he was in the top 24, over an old managerial contract. The contract had expired by the time the top 24 began to tape, but they disqualified him because he was under contract at the time of the tryouts, in violation of Idol rules. He was later replaced by Urban at the last minute of the last part of Hollywood Week.

Urban has been receiving tough critiques throughout the season with Simon Cowell saying after an Urban performance that he understood why they cut him in the first place. Cowell also has stated that Urban will never win the competition.

Katie Stevens was in the bottom three for the second consecutive week. The 16-year-old is receiving undeserving praise from the judges but the voting (they say) public thinks otherwise thus Stevens was sweating it out for survival again.

The result was Stevens was the first saved and Urban followed subjecting him to more of Cowell's insults. The Texan continually smiles through the judge's barrage of insults furthering drawing their ire. His explanation for the smile on his face is he's doing what he loves and if it turns out to be his last show he's going out (and not down) smiling.

But Benami was the victim of having the least votes. She broke out in tears and was embraced by her fellow contestants as she made her last stand on the show.

Our opinion is that she is one of several contestants who we feel lack the talent to have made the top 24. Stevens is another as is Andrew Garcia who we see as the judge's pet.

What is most disturbing is the rude treatment the judges gave Siobhan Magnus last week. The music theme was R&B/Soul and she sang "Through the Fire" by Chaka Khan. As we take notes when a contestant we noted how her lower register was good and the best part of her performance. Randy Jackson continued on with his too frequent too pitchy critique that was followed up by no nothing about music judge comedian Ellen Degeneres in agreement.

The shocker was miss know it all Kara DioGuardi saying that Magnus' lower register was weak. It was at this point that tears started to roll down Magnus' face. Cowell kept the insult ball rolling by stating, "It sounded like you were out of breath. It was all over the place." He then added a comment he made a similar comment that he made the previous week, "I'm getting bored with this at the end (of her songs)."

From the outset of the season Magnus had been receiving praise for her high octave range and her ability to sing extremely high notes reminiscent to 70's singing star Mini Ripperton.

Idol tried something different this past week by having a camera in the green room where the contestants wait to perform and return after. When Magnus returned back stage in tears and in a very sad mood, Michael Lynche was the only contestant to console her. When other contestants returned many of their fellow contestants embraced them and gave compliments or words of encouragement if they received negative reviews... not for Magnus.

Magnus is one of our top three picks as being the most talented. Crystal Bowersox was our top choice followed by Casey James.

Bowersox gave the best performance of the night while changing her presentation and playing guitar by starting off her song "Midnight Train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight & The Pips. Midway through her performance she stood up, leaned against the piano and finished the song. She was strong and gave the best performance of the season and showed how flexible her vocal talent is. She could be a tremendous cross platform type performer and R&B/soul is a major strength she possesses.

Crysatl Bowersox - FOX photo Paris Bennett from Season 5 - Fox photo

Bow wow Cowell had a different opinion as he told her that he was happy with the style she has performed since the competition began inferring that she should have not have changed. In contrast he also noted that, "You are the kind of artist that really knows what they should be doing.

Bowersox performance was great but for the five years that we have been observing American Idol the best performance of all-time on the Idol show (over the last five years) was when Paris Bennett also sang "Midnight Train to Georgia." Bennett was in on Idol's fifth season and finished in fifth place. Taylor Hicks won season 5.

NOTE - Paris Bennett:

Bowersox performance was great but for the five years that we have been observing American Idol the best performance of all-time on the Idol show (over the last five years) was when Paris Bennett also sang "Midnight Train to Georgia." Bennett was in on Idol's fifth season and finished in fifth place. Taylor Hicks won season 5.

The now 21-year-old Bennett's career hasn't taken off. Since her Idol participation she has had a child and is in the process of releasing her second album. Her first album Princess reached # 133 on the US album charts, # 47 on the R&B charts and sold 22,500 units.

Bennett recorded Midnight Train to Georgia for the American Idol Season 5: Encores compilation album. The track has sold 9,100 legal downloads as of August 10, 2006.

David Archuleta's performance of John Lennon's Imagine is our second all-time favorite song from the last five AI seasons.

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