Idol Re-Cap: Finals, Round Of Five

For me, this is my favorite phase of Idol, because each contestant sings two songs a night from here on out. Tonight they're singing a song from the year they were born as well as a current top 10 song. Which means they're singing one song that I know and another song that I've never heard. Off we go.

Elliott Yamin -
"On Broadway" - A George Benson song seems like a pretty obvious choice for him - and I like that he tried to do a little something different with it. His vibrato got on my nerves a little bit...I think he spoiled me with last week's performance.

"Home" - Nice. Eh. A little boring. But he's good regardless. David and Simon made the exact same comment: "I'm not so sure I would sing a song that says, 'I wanna go home' at this stage in the competition."

Paris Bennett -
"Kiss" - NO ONE should sing this song besides Prince. NO ONE. The end.

"Be Without You" - Her mouth was moving, but all I heard was blah blah blah blah. Apparently, according to the judges, she did a good job with the song, but it's not my bag.

Chris Daughtry -
"Renegade" - David and I both loved this song when we were little. I loved it again tonight. His version of this song would actually be a great single now, and I thought his performance was really, really fun. LOVED the instruments dropping out at the end, too.

"I Dare You" - Please quit screaming at me. I didn't do whatever it is that has made you so angry.

Katharine McPhee -
"Against All Odds" - Okay, only one of my most favoritest songs from the 80's (which isn't saying much, since I'm not a big fan of 80's music in general). But I didn't think Katharine sounded good on this song. Randy would say "pitchy." David said, "cruise ship performance - wouldn't have gotten her through auditions." We didn't like it very much.

"Black Horse and the Cherry Tree" - I hope I got that title right. I've never heard of it before. Very, very fun performance. She totally redeemed herself from that first song fiasco. She seemed much more comfortable - and now I want to hear the original version.

Taylor Hicks -
"Play That Funky Music, White Boy" - I like any performance where Taylor starts off saying, "Okay, y'all, get up!" BACK IN HIS ELEMENT, HE IS. I smiled the entire way through this song - and will immediately be searching out a clip on YouTube.

"Something" - Now y'all, this is dangerous territory, because Taylor is singing the Beatles, and I think I've made my feelings about the Beatles very clear. Honestly, I was bored.

Best of the night: Chris' first song
Should go: Paris
Will go: Paris