Everyone's A Winner!

Did They Make You Proud?

There can only be one reason why Ryan Seacrest broached the topic of Lauren’s shredded vocal chords on tonight’s American Idol: 1) there was a chance her voice would fail thus jeopardizing her chances of putting on a good show; 2) to hush the rumors that had been swirling all day (Haley will return to replace Lauren!); 3) it was a lowball attempt on behalf of the producers to handicap the show, because anything sounds good if you think the singer is overcoming some horrible injury.

The more eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that there were in fact three reasons listed above — this is because all three are valid and basically the same reason.

Why does any of this matter?

Because Lauren Alaina tore it up tonight, AT LAST. Girl was saving the good stuff for the end! She came out swinging on “Flat On The Floor,” hit Pam Tillis’s “Maybe It Was Memphis” out of the Nokia Theater (excellent choice, Carrie Underwood — it’s almost impossible to screw up that great song), and slayed the weepfest “Like My Mother Does” while actually hugging her Mom.

This is not to say that Scotty dropped the ball at all. His choice of the song Montgomery Gentry closes their show with, “Gone” will have been an enormously popular with his voters, and was an inspired selection, seeing that both he and Lauren are playing to the same country audience. To have chosen George Strait as his idol was smart thinking too; folks will respect that call-out to old-school country. His rendition of “Check Yes Or No” probably seemed very old-fashioned to a large portion of the viewers but it leant the 17 year-old some historical chutzpah. Sadly, the weakest performance of the night wasn’t due to Scotty’s lack of talent per se, but a lousy song: “Love You This Big” not only sounds rude to The Inky Jukebox but does not have a chorus that matches Scotty’s particular register or skills; he’s far better at the long slow deep drawl note than the high punch.

Both of these young people seemed remarkably composed (or was that the “medicine,” Lauren Alaina?). The Inky Jukebox is looking forward to seeing the extravaganza finale tomorrow night because Fox always brings out the big guns for it.

Who do we want to win? Either one will do just fine.