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They say Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend, but I am not sure Syesha Mercado or Brooke White would agree.

As if having to listen to Neil Diamond songs at sporting events with half drunk fans waving their arms back and forth to “Sweet Caroline” isn’t bad enough, tonight we had to sit through 10 Neil Diamond songs – each one a bit worse than the other.

Sure – Neil Diamond is an icon of music and to be honest, a lot of his stuff is classic like “September Morn” and “America”, but a whole night of amateur performances of songs that only Diamond can really sing is a bit too much for anyone.

First up was Jason Castro who limped through with boring performances of “Forever in Blue Jeans” followed by an equally limp performance of “September Morn”. He had his typical attitude of a 1969 pot smoking hippy. All he needed was a tie died T-shirt.

Next up is David Cook – he puts his own rocker style by picking up the guitar and creating the mood for “I’m Alive”. He follows up with his own acoustic rendition of the ballad “All I Really Need is You”. No doubt he will be here next week.

Third one up was Brooke White. I thought this was Neil Diamond night – how in the world could she decide on “I’m a Believer”. I had flashbacks to Davy Jones and the Monkees. It looks like she had too much sugar tonight as she bounces around like a woman with a mouse in her shorts. Her next number “I am I said” saves her chances as she nails it. She seems really at ease behind the piano. They should have nailed her feet to the floor for the first number.

In fourth position, David Archuleta with Diamond classics, Sweet Caroline and America. These are two of the most identifiable Diamond ballads and a dangerous choice. And dangerous it was as it doesn’t sound anything likes the Diamond version and he falls way short on reaching the high notes. “America” was not much better but the judges love David and he will move on.

Last but not least is Syesha Mercado; I always thought that is a name you don’t want to pronounce after you have had a few. She does a nice rendition of “Hello Again” and her voice was in good form this week. Syesha followed this up nicely with “Thank the Lord for the Nighttime” although as Simon put it “not a memorable second song” it was a good performance. She should be ok.

My guess is that we will not see Jason Castro next week. His performance was weak and he really doesn’t seem to want it as much as the others. Better hope that the audience was toking when they were watching your performance Jason.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Syesha Mercado, Neil Diamon, Jason Castro, David Cook, Brooke White, David Archuleta, American Idol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.