The Road to Nine...

Gwen Stefani is in the house and awaaayyy we go!

Kiki leads off with Last Dance. Isn't this the closing of every wedding you've ever been to? Unless it's the rare wedding that ends with Life is a Highway of course. She's got some movement going on and looks to be having fun! That's what we wanted from her! She looks good too. I'm very happy with her performance.

Chris Sligh answering the CocaCola question and time to sing a Police song "Every Little Thing She Does is Magic". Love it! Good choice of song but he seemed off the beat a lot. He seemed annoyed at the end. Poor guy he called it a "my bad". Chris' unique-ness defined him earlier in the competition, but I think the Fro is fading into the background and the public may start getting bored with him. He could very well hit a bottom 3 soon.

Gina time. She got through her version of "I'll Stand By You". Wasn't a strong performance for me from the house rocker. She didn't seem to really push herself like she should have. Randy and Paula disagreed with me. Simon did too. Hmmm. Maybe I was wrong. What do you think?

Coming up next Haley and WHOA! WHAT IS ON SANJAYA'S HEAD!? HAHA!! Ryan's reaction = priceless!

Ok, this is the week I predicted Sanjaya to go home, if nothing else, his hair should make him go. PEOPLE! HE CAN NOT SING!!! I wish more people would listen to me. Damn you Howard Stern! Here's the bad news, this song may be perfect for him, there's no singing and what little there is seems to fit into his vocal range. Poor Gwen, watching him ruin her song. Simon finally said it! It doesn't matter what the judges say - America wasn't listening.

Haley is tackling True Colors by Miss Lauper. Doesn't someone do this every year on this show? Ok, it's very apparent she's going with trying to look sexy even if her vocals aren't. That's getting her votes. She's going for the votes, not the notes.

Phil is next and he's wearing a hat! Good call Phil. He's singing Every Breath You Take by The Police. A great song and a nice version by Phil. He's doing something I've come to call "Whisper Singing". Think about it, you know what I mean. He got the bridge very well. Good job Phil. Best performance I've seen from him. Even Simon liked it.

Gwen loves Melinda - well DUH! First, I need to say Gwen looks cute in these video clips. Melinda is having fun and 'younged' up her look! Do you think she read my blog from last week? Amazing job Melinda - thank you for having fun FINALLY! Does anyone doubt this girl will have a record deal the SECOND she leaves this show? No way. She will be a new R&B queen.

Blake and Jordin are standing together - did we just get a preview of the final show? Could be!

"Love Song" by Cure, let's see what Blake does with it. Love song. Interesting choice for him, slow it up and show some mellow. Paula is rocking out in her chair. She's ridiculous. Anyone thing the AI Band should get a CD. They are awesome. Ballad, but Blake still made it interesting. Well done young man.

Hey Baby it's Jordin! She's dressed like Maryann from Gilligan's Island, I don't get that choice, but she ROCKED the song. 17 people, she's 17. Simon is going to rip the outfit! This was no Disney song.

Does anyone else think the Cingular commercials with someone starting a conversation and then hearing silence and freaking out are great? Been there! Done that! Come on! I know you've been driving from work to home and on the phone and had 10 minute conversations with yourself not knowing your phone has died.

Chris Richardson closes up the show with Don't Speak. Gwen pretty much is saying, don't mess up my song with all your vocal crap. Everyone replay his performance with your eyes closed. Not a strong vocal.

Seacrest doesn't say "OUT" anymore, hmmm. ..thoughts?

Ok, who do I think the bottom three will be? Sanjaya, Gina and could be one of the Chris's.

What about you? What did you think?