In what may go down as the biggest shocker of Season 10 of American Idol, I, the Token White Guy, actually enjoyed last night’s performances. That’s right. I said it. I enjoyed last night. After three weeks of overall dreadful singing that made me want to pull my hair our, Idol finally had a night that soothe me.

The Top 11 took the stage and did Berry Gordy and Motown proud. Overall, they made great song choices and fit their voices well. Most of the contestants were on-key, and there were some really, really good vocals last night. There were far more good performances than bad last night. In fact, for the first time all season, I actually struggled to figure out which contestant should get the third worst performance of the night slot.

Alas, Haley Reinhart got that spot this week. While she did a much better job this week, it was one of the very few bad song choices of the night. Her voice was not a match for the song she chose, the Casey Abrams type growls didn’t fit her. What was really sad, for me, was that I thought she started off so good. She hit her marks, snag on-key, and had a ton of energy. But she lost that energy midway through the song, falling flat on her face in the process. She did get a second wind, but by then she had lost her rhythm and groove. I think the bloom has fallen off Haley’s rose, and I think this song won’t convince enough people to vote for her. She is my pick to go home this week.

Naima Adedapo takes the second worst performance of the night this week. Her take on “Dancing In The Street” started off flat and stayed that way throughout the entire song, which the judges never even called her on. In addition, her voice was too breathy in several parts. I did like her arrangement of the song, as well as the energy she displayed the entire song. It was a very fun performance to watch. But just because a performance was fun to watch doesn’t mean that it was good, something the judges should keep in mind.

The worst performance of the night went, hands down, to Casey James, who was also the first one to perform. His version of Marvin Gaye’s classic, “I Heard It Through The Grapevine,” has destroyed that song for me forever. As has become his customary trademark, Casey growled and screeched his way through large chunks of the song. Long ago he lost the ability to actually sing during these growls, yet you wouldn’t know it by the way the judges’ acted. Listening to them, you would think the second coming of Marvin Gaye himself was at hand. While I’ve given up trying to figure out what people see in Casey, I think his going first will catch up with him and land him in the Bottom 3.

Like I said earlier in this blog entry, there were far more positives than negatives tonight. Most everyone else improved over last week, including one who I had already given up entirely on. Who knew that putting a guitar in Paul McDonald’s hands could actually make his performance somewhat, almost, semi-sorta tolerable? Still, picking my three favorite performances of the night wasn’t hard at all.

The third best of the night belonged to Scotty McCreery. This guy just doesn’t know how to have a bad week. Singing Stevie Wonder’s “For Once In My Life,” Scotty countrified Motown in a way that it had never been countrified before. Then again, what else would you expect from the youngster whose deep voice causes mass outbreaks of goose bumps in women. Scotty is likely the most popular American Idol contestant at this point, which means all he has to do right now is show up and walk out on stage in order to move on to the next round. Performances like this one are just icing on the cake for him.

Second best of the night goes to someone who has been missing from my top 3 for two weeks: Jacob Lusk. Going into the night, you just knew that Motown would be right up his alley. Jacob knows how to pick songs, and last night he picked one that allowed him to hit a home run. His soulful sound mixed with a touch of gospel was perfect. Every note was on key, controlled, and touching. And when it came time to take it up a notch, Jacob knew just how to do that. Even before he finished that final glory note, judge Steven Tyler was walking up on stage to give Jacob a big hug for that performance. Jacob deserved every hug that followed as well.

The best performance of the night goes to someone who disappointed me badly last week: James Durbin. Many people compare James to Season 8 runner-up, Adam Lambert. And like Adam, James is always spectacular. Problem is, it’s either a spectacular mess or a spectacular win. Last week, it was a mess. This week, James brought it all back to deliver one of the best performances of Stevie Wonder’s “Living For The City” since Season 5′s Taylor Hicks. There’s a definite anti-James base in America, so we’ll have to see how much that will hurt him down the road. For now, I’m just happy to enjoy his awesome performances.

There you go. My worst and best of the night list for the Top 11. I very much want more weeks like this one. It was fun and enjoyable, and most everyone stepped it up a notch.

So what do you think of my picks for last night? Who were your favorites last night? Who didn’t do it at all for you? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

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