Nadia Turner, Scott Savol Turn Bad Note Good

Nadia Turner remains one of my top American Idol contestants. She has style, she can sing, and I believe she has excellent musical intuition (with one blaring exception "Time After Time"). Tuesday night's performance of Oliver's "As Long as He Needs Me" left me relieved that she would most likely not appear in the bottom three this week except for one blaring flaw. The last note went noticeably flat. She did manage to pull it back up, but it left me gasping for air. Would America notice? And then something miraculous happened: The note fixed itself upon replay. During the recaps, Nadia's off pitch money note became an on pitch honey note, leaving me confused and delighted that the producers would interfere on behalf of one of my favorites. J and I replayed it over and over again to be sure...and after tossing about ideas of digital correction, J surmised that the recaps are from the dress rehearsals and that Nadia just performed the song better the previous day. I had never noticed this "tweaking" before and wonder if it had any impact on the voting.

To quote a very wise young man: "Jesus Saves." (article not related to quoted individual)

This was in response to my confusion why wife beater and serial killer costume model, Scott Savol continues to remain in the competition. He just isn't appealing and his initially smooth and surprising voice is now bland, boring, and "pitchy." I thought he was getting through the competition by playing the God card, but now being characterized as a violent wife beater made me believe that he finally blew it. And alas, Scott was in the bottom three this week and as the weakest of the three performances, I crossed my fingers that my prayer would finally be answered. But no. Nikko Smith (who I don't really like that much) gave a brilliant performance of "One Hand, One Heart" and reaped his reward: a kick out the door. Why, oh why? "Jesus Saves." According to the aforementioned wise young man, people like the story of salvation and if Scott was able to turn his life around through his lord and savior Jesus Christ, that's good enough for the bible belt's vote.