Vindication!!

I'm happy that I won't be needing to pursue my plans to move to Canada (in case America decided to KEEP Kellie on), but suddenly realized last night that now I'M in a pickle!! Now that Kellie is gone, it is going to be SO much harder to try to decide which of the final five doesn't deserve to stay.

Because, come on, I think we all know that any of these final five contestants is capable of being the next American Idol. I won't be disappointed at the final decision no matter what, just personally disappointed that there can't be a five-way tie. I honestly believe that each of these final five are equally talented. Each shines in a different genre --- Chris is the rocker dude, Taylor is the blues boy, Katherine is the ballad queen, Elliott can follow in Michael Buble's footsteps and Paris could be this generation's Billie Holliday. Hopefully, each of them will enjoy a career in their music category and none will disappear, as so many past contestants have (can you say Justin Guarini??).

I'd like to thank the producers for veering from the usual and not subjecting us to another Kellie performance. I think they KNEW that the combination of Kellie's obvious hitting the boundaries of her talent paired with the inevitable tears would make for a really, really bad performance. No sense beating a dead horse by making her sing again. Although at first I thought it was a little cruel to make the departing contestant sing one last time, don't forget, for some of them it was their last opportunity to sing onstage in front of millions of people. Most of the earlier "departed" will go home and return to their former life and probably never get this opportunity again. (But I'm still glad they didn't make Kellie sing again.)

I'm hoping that the confidence levels will skyrocket at this point. I mean, after all, it had to be hard to wrestle with your self-esteem when you were being lumped with Kellie (cute girl, but not musically talented).

You all know how to improve your tennis game --- by playing with people who are better than you. You don't get better by creaming some mediocre player, you get better by pushing yourself to beat the good player. And, that theory really is applicable to everything in life. You don't develop a taste for good wine by drinking Boone's. So, having Kellie go home will hopefully boost these last five to show us all that they can be.

I'm also hoping that they keep some of that awe and inspiration that was evident on their faces when they were watching Andrea Boccelli's performance. To have him on stage, delivering his performance (without screaming, Chris) so effortlessly and beautifully (which is how I became such an Andrea Boccelli fan --- never listened to opera or much vocal classical music until I heard him sing). You could almost see the lightbulbs come on in their heads!!

I also did not catch what the "theme" of next week's show is --- can't say I was anxious to find out, because I think the producers have done a (to coin a Simon phrase) absolutely dreadful job of choosing the themes this season, but I am hoping against hope that at last these final five will gain some momentum, step out of their comfort zones and blow us away and sing as if it's the last time they'll ever be on stage.