This week's theme: Billy Joel Songs
This week's guest judge: Smokey Robinson

Be sure to participate in the poll.

Reported Song Choices:

Ruben - Just the Way You Are
Kimberly Locke - New York State of Mind
Clay Aiken - Tell Her About It

FYI - Here's how our poll fared for last week's results (votes from April 1 and April 8 combined):

Name	Votes	Percent
Ruben Studdard	39	30%
Clay Aiken	29	22%
Carmen Rasmusen	26	20%
Kimberly Locke	8	6%
Joshua Gracin	7	5%
Trenyce	7	5%
Kimberly Caldwell	7	5%
Rickey Smith	6	5%

We were pretty close with the bottom three and in fact our lowest (Rickey) was the bootee.

I predict one of the Kim will be gone this week.... hopefully Kim L.

im ready to get rid of everyone but ruben, joshua, and kim c

Billy Joel seems pretty stuck up!

OK, is it me only because I didn't think Ruben did that well tonite?

Zuffy, No it's not just you. Ruben was bland tonight.

Carmen really sucked, so far Josh is doing great. I missed everyone else though.

What did the others sing? How were they received?

As much as I hate Kim L., she's singing quite well the past few weeks.

Damn, Carmen really suck tonite. I'm gonna miss her

At least I'm not the only one

I got that impression as well. The whole spiel where he downplays by saying he's merely competent, and then goes off... "I can sing, I can play guitar, I can write, I can dance, I can walk on water, I can shoot laser beams from my eyes, I can leap tall buildings in a single bound... yeah, I'm competent."

Ruben was bland tonight, I agree with Simon that he's becoming very one-dimensional. I thought Josh, Ms. Antz, and Kim L. did the best tonight. Carmen and Kim C. were just terrible. Poor Carmen, I know she's only 18, but her skin looked really bad in those close-ups and that outfit was atrocious. No doubt, Billy Joel has a huge ego, but I liked the stories behind his songs, and there is no denying he has quite a large, impressive songbook. One of the better AI shows.

Carmen Sucked. She's been driving on fumes for the past 2-3 weeks. Give her the boot.

There's no doubt that the clear-cut best tonight was Kim Locke. She looked good and picked the perfect song for her voice. It's not unusual that Simon ends up saying everything I'm saying out loud during the performance.

Second up was Trenyce - and I don't want to like her, but like I thought (and Simon said), she took a chance, and although she wasn't perfect, she gave a unique performance and did a good job.

I'm so over Clay...I just can't envision his voice on the radio...he's got a good voice, but it's not a commercial sound. He should be a lounge singer.

Ruben has disappointed me ver the past few weeks....he hasn't impressed me in weeks, and he's very predictable.

Carmen...cute as a button, and "And So It Goes" is my fave Billy Joel song. I thought the arrangement was very interesting (since the BJ version is nearly an a capella), but her Stevie Nicks/Belinda Carlisle goat vibrato is so unlistenable, I wish someone would say something. She's been up and down, but I don't think she was one of the 3 worst this week.

Kim C. -- too Melissa Ethridge-ish for me. She has everything the Idol should have except she hasn't given a single decent performance yet.

Josh - ugh. I'm over his little country revolution. He did great for country week, but since then, his twang has grown old and I'm not impressed anymore.

At this point, I don't have anymore faves...it's week-to-week based on performance. Too bad Ricky's gone - he could have shined this week. I think Carmen will be voted off simply based upon the judges' slams (even though I thought Kim C., Josh, and Clay were worse).

I think Josh did the best tonight. Piano Man really suited him well.

The worst was definitely Carmen by far...it's a shame...no more of that cute face

quote of the night from Simon:
"I prefer you with my eyes shut, if you could just calm down that weird thing you do with your face" (to Clay) lol

I thought Clay sounded good tonight and liked the performance.

Also liked Josh, although I think he'd do an even better job with Shameless, it really fits his voice and attitude better.

I HATE Kim L, however tonight she sounded GREAT, but still don't like her attitude/personality and wouldn't mind seeing her leave.

Carmen - not too good.

Kim C - looks the part and good attitude and presence on stage, just doesn't have the voice.

Trenyce - didn't care for it tonight.

Ruben - always sounds good, but tonight was sounding very scratchy and rhaspy, the judges gave him too much credit tonight.

She's getting my votes tonight.

This week is a difficult one for me to decide who is going to get the boot. The other weeks have seemed pretty straight forward, but I think, despite her "loyal fans" that Carmen will be gone.

As I've said all along...she isn't that cute. Tonight when they focused on her face, I think it should be apparant to everyone that makeup hides a lot of her flaws. She's not that attractive of a girl. The outfit showed how disgustingly thin she is, and of course, her voice was rancid. She truly gave one of the most mediocre performances I've ever seen on American Idol (this season or last).

The person who deserves to go, although he will stay, is Josh.

I think she's losing a few pound each week since the top 12 started. Beside, Trenyce is way skinner than her.

Writing this as I watch the show..

Kim C.: She needs to work on her phrasing.. her gasps for breath ruined the performance. Her confidence is impressive though.
Rubin: Edging on pitch problems throughout the entire song. Definately had a frog in his throat tonight. Too much credit from the judges, as briank said.
Kim L.: I don't think she has the look to be the next American Idol, but her performance tonight was absolutely stellar.
Carmen: Turn down the vibrato! She didn't look so great tonight, and her performance was weak. She's gone this week.
Josh: He's got a lot of energy, but the way he carries himself on stage doesn't do it for me. Also don't like the country thing. I wish he'd be voted off, even if Carmen's performance sucked.
Trenyce: Nothing special about this performance, it was quite generic. I concur with the horse statement made last week...
Clay: Hanging out with Josh lately? A bit of a country twang throughout the song. Could work on being a bit more subtle in his performances (duh).

As much as it kills me to say so I can't give my vote to Ruben this week. He just wasn't on his game this week. IMHO, the best performance this week was from Kim L. I may not like her as a person but her voice was dead on tonight. As for SImon's comment about Clay's face, I have to agree. Clay is always making these strange faces and he does this thing with his eyelids similar to that girl that sat in the front row of Indiana Jones' class in Raiders of the Lost Ark. And someone really needs to cut off Trenyce's fingers because her tapping on the mike is getting on my nerves. It isn't even like she is doing it to the beat.

The problem with Josh is he used to not sing with a constant country twang, then they told him to use it always, now he does and it back fired. Not every song needs a country twang.

I can't believe all the Josh-love. He sounded so out of tune and off-pitch to me. We were actually laughing and grimacing while he was singing. He just sounded awful and flat in spots. I don't get it. To me, he just sounds like a frat boy trying to sing along to the radio or something. His looks also bug me. His eyes shift around. I told my husband he looks like he got dropped on the head as a baby or something.

I also did not agree with all the Carmen hate. While she was wearing possibly the ugliest outfit ever (what was she supposed to be- a von Trapp Family singer?) I thought she sounded 100 times better than last week. I think the ballad sounded way better to her voice than Blondie or some of the other stuff she has done. She still isn't near the top, but her voice sounded much more pleasing to my ears than Josh's.

I liked Clay's slow then fast rendition of "Tell Her About It."

Kim L. and Trenyce were both quite good. Ruben sounded muffled, but he's still Ruben. Mr. Jadzia said "How can you look at his face and not love him?"

Kim C. is just Ugh. She is this year's Niki McKibbin-- she just growls her way through "rock" numbers and hangs on by her looks.

I would say that Carmen is gone. She must be pretty nervous - her face was broken out (my girlfriend pointed this out to me - she said that it is common with stress).

Anyway, it is going to come down to Clay and Ruben, so let's fast forward five weeks...

Josh is coasting on misdirected patriotism. If he weren't a marine, no way he would have made it this far.