Here We Go.

Kris Allen's turn is finally up tonight.  He's been my number one pick from early on, so I've been pinning my hopes on the roughly 3 seconds of screen time he's had so far.  I'm just hoping I'm not way off with how he sings.  But from his "A Song for You" audition to his "I Want You Back" White Chocolate perf to his "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" YouTube version, I think I'm safe on that front.

 

I've been following the internet buzz this past week, and it seems like Group 2 is a toss up.  As I thought, there's a lot of Matt Giraud and Adam Lambert talk -- but they also seem to be pretty polarizing.  Matt has a goat-vibrato issue that took down Cristina Christian, Carmen Rasmusen, and Chris Daughtry in previous seasons.  And Adam is dangerously toeing that line between popular mass appeal and esoteric musical indulgence.  As I thought, Matt Breitzke doesn't have the same natural appeal as Michael Sarver, so he's out.  Kai Kalama seems to be the dark house pick for the guys. 

 

There is, however, a faint buzz coming from the Kris Allen fans.  (Very faint -- EW.com won't mention his name even in PASSING -- Michael Slezak, you're on notice!)  He's got Christian music blogs rallying to his side, and he's consistently winning polls that ask for the most attractive male contestant.  I think that people have seen enough of him to be curious to see what he does tonight.  But again, this isn't just an uphill battle -- he's climbing up a friggin' well.

 

As for the girls, Megan Corkrey and Jasmine Murray have been getting the most buzz, but that buzz has very much NOT been deafening.  I think that the girls in the Top 36 have definitely suffered from the fact that the girls who've been getting the most screen time (save Tatiana) were all cut before the Top 36 (seriously, compare the early promos for this Season, and you'll see that the early female faves aren't here, whereas the guys are).  Meanwhile, Jesse Langseth is getting the "overrated" tag already.

 

The big story that I've seen is that Allison Iraheta is rapidly gaining.  Some positive YouTube vids have been popping up.  She could pull off an Alexis Grace type coup if she's good.