What was Sanjaya thinking?

A.J. Tabaldo dedicates his song to his parents, too. Again, because they were so supportive of him and whatever.

He sings "Feeling Good" by Michael Buble and he is slowly, but surely growing on me. I liked his voice - liked the song choice for him. It showed off his range really well and he seemed really comfortable singing the song. I think he may come out some week and blow us away like Carrie Underwood did when she sang Heart's "Alone" two seasons ago. I wouldn't count him out just yet.

Plus, I'm just noticing this week... he's really a good-looking guy, quite attractive. Would hate to see him go too soon.

Anyway, Randy likes it and comments on his improvement from last week, says that he's showing that he's got skills. Paula says he has a real good voice and Simon says it was "actually, nearly very good." which is as close as he's come to complimenting some of these guys, so A.J. should be happy with that.


Now, Sanjaya Malakar is up next and I've been wondering since the beginning of the show tonight why he's dressed like Michael Jackson. I hope he doesn't plan to imitate him in any way.

He dedicates his song to his grandfather and no matter how I try to fight it, I find that I'm drawn to this kid - he's just so sweet and lovable. He could stand up there and spew profanities and I would probably still think he was adorable. But in all seriousness, he mentioned how he wears his grandfather's ring for good luck and support and I can relate to that.

He sings "Steppin' Out With My Baby" by Irving Berlin. Ooh... not sure it was a good idea. The song is way too old for him - wonder if his grandfather used to like the song and that's why he chose it. I mean, he does OK with it - kind of smooth sounding. But really, he's like 17 years old. This song is so old that Fred Astaire sung it. I see now that he was going for a smooth kind of Rat Packer look with the hat and his hair pulled back, but he still looks like Michael Jackson in his "Smooth Criminal" video to me. I'm afraid to see what the judges think of this...

Randy didn't like it at all - says it was really weak. Paula brings it back to what the competition is really about - the singing - and says that he was on pitch, but mentions that the song was too old. Simon says it was ghastly. I don't know if it was all that bad, but he does need to do something about these song choices - they're killing him.