After hearing all 12, here are my rankings:
- Chris Daughtry
- Ace Young
- Will Makar
- Taylor Hicks
- Gedeon McKinney
- Elliott Yamin
- Kevin Covais
- Patrick Hall
- Jose Penala
- David Radford
- Bobby Bennett
- Bucky Covington
I'm 35, my teen years were spent drooling over Jon Bonjovi. When someone belts out Dead or Alive like Chris did, my jaw ends up in my lap!
Ace surprised me with Father Figure, wasn't what I was expecting, but it was strong. And can that guy work a camera or what?
One thing you'll learn about me is that I'm not a fan of Motown. I can probably count on one hand the number of Motown songs I truly like. So when Will Makar can make me sit up and take notice, then you know he's done a great job on "I Want You Back."
In fact, it was only the "Motown shock" factor that put him above Taylor Hicks, because "Leave On" is an awesome song. He put a lot of emotion into it and nailed it.
As for Bucky, his "Simple Man" was simply yucky. I was SO excited about his choice because I think he has the voice to do great things with a Skynyrd classic. But he wasn't hitting the notes. While he was at MY bottom, I don't see him being voted off. His loyal legion will vote him through.
Bobby Bennett, what can we say? He had a blast, but Copacabana was just not the right song for him. There was a reason he made the top 12, but that wasn't it. I think his gig is up.
I said Bucky was probably going to get lucky, so who is it that I think is going home? Let's go up my list from the bottom. David is likely safe. He didn't do a bad job but the song was an odd choice for a crooning teen. Jose Penala should be ok, also, as Sway seems to have attracted a following that will vote early and often. Patrick Hall. His song was nice, but didn't overwhelm me. He was just above average and I haven't seen anything about him so far that really IS much above that. He is my odd man out, because Kevin Covais has that underdog factor. We may pick on kids who look like him when we are IN school, but we can relate to him so he's going to be around for at least another week.
My picks for a first round exit are Bobby Bennett as the lowest points guy and Patrick Hall as second lowest (but I by no means think Patrick was the second worst!)