AI7 - Idol Gives Back and Top 8 Results

Lots of show last week! I won't recap all of IGB, just highlight what I enjoyed the most. Most of the actual performances are available to download on iTunes and the proceeds to go IGB.

The opener was awesome - the Top 8 sang and finalists from all 3 seasons of So You Think You Can Dance performed as well! I'm not as familiar with Season 1 dancers, but I did see Nick. From S2 I saw Benji, Donyelle, Travis, Ashley, and Dmitri. And from S3, Danny, Lauren, Lacey, Hok, Dominic, Pasha and Anya! Much fun. The ballroom guys also performed during Gloria Estefan's song.

I know I'm in a minority, but I think Fergie is one of the best singers on the planet right now, and I love her! She sang "Finally" with John Legend on piano, then introduced Heart and sang "Barracuda" with them.

The Top 8 sang "Seasons of Love" (from Rent). Carrie Underwood sang George Michael's "Praying for Time" (and was awesome). The Band from TV sang Carrie's "Before He Cheats," which was much fun (Teri Hatcher can sing; who knew? and no Hugh Laurie unfortunately, but we did get fellow House star Jesse Spencer on violin - love!). And Annie Lennox sang "Many Rivers."

There were also cute bits with Robin Williams as a "Russian Idol" winner and Billy Crystal introducing Miley Cyrus. And the (female) stage manager coming out to fix Brad Pitt's mic, then saying, "I just needed a reason to touch him"! I know the show was taped days before it aired so I thought it was funny they left that in.

The Top 8 closed IGB - and opened the results show - with "Shout to the Lord." (Not sure what's with all the religious songs this year, but I won't complain!)

Ryan announced there were over 31 million votes and over $60 million dollars raised so far.

The contestants are shown waiting backstage, and as he's been doing, Ryan brings out one at a time to announce their fate. Brooke White is safe. David C is safe (and the perennial Word Nerd, when Ryan asked what he thought after Simon called this week's performance "pompous," said that Simon had previously called him "arrogant" and "smug" so he was wondering what other words he might use to say the same thing! Hee, he was thinking about synonyms!). And David A. is safe.

Ford video is "I Just Want to Celebrate" with lots of paint being thrown around. Guest performance is Jordin Sparks with Chris Brown singing their hit "No Air" (which I just heard for the first time on the radio this week; guess I should listen to the Disney Station more often... wait, did I just say that?). Then Jordin was presented with some nice framed pieces commemmorating certain sales numbers (her CD is Gold, and 2 songs had hit downloading milestones).

Next out from backstage is Jason, who is safe. Then Kristy, who is also safe! That leaves (camera goes backstage) Michael, Carly, and Syesha for the bottom 3 - wow, I got it right this week!

"After the break," they are now center stage w/Ryan who announces that both Carly and Syesha are safe. Everyone assumes that means Michael is out and they adopt stunned expressions. Then Ryan reminds us that last year during IGB week they didn't eliminate anyone. However... (dramatic, painful pause) tonight Michael will be leaving. He is shocked (I'm not, honestly, nor am I disappointed other than feeling bad for my friends who like him), but he recovers well and has a good sing-out.

Next week's theme: Mariah Carey songs. btw she also performed during IGB (with Randy on bass, yawn), but I only understood about 3 words in the whole song so I didn't actually enjoy it. At least it will be "interesting" to see what some of the contestants do with her songs!