American Idol: Rock Steady

Who would have thought that Bon Jovi week would rock? Certainly not me - I can confess to raising my eyebrows a little when I found out that Idol had devoted an entire theme week to the music of an eighties rock icon who was more famous for his hair than his singing. But after last night, I must confess, I have a new respect for Bon Jovi because his Jersey rock classics certainly lit up the Idols like no other theme week could.

Take Phil Stacey, for example, who's been lagging ever since this season started with more times in the bottom two than I can count. He came out tonight singing "Blaze of Glory" with an intensity unmatched by any of his previous performances. He may have offset his cool factor on this cowboy song just a little bit by admitting that he dreamed about (and sang it to his bathroom mirror, presumably with a hairbrush as microphone) singing Bon Jovi on a stage since he was a kid, but it didn't really matter because the whole performance rocked. Even sans hair, Phil managed to do a great hair band justice.

Jordin was up next, and unfortunately she didn't fare as well as Phil. I think she was attempting some sort of Tina Turner meets Diana Ross look with giant black curls and leather hot pants, but she ended up looking more like Elvira. And she just couldn't seem to capture the soulfulness of "Livin' on a Prayer," perhaps because she was way too young to have remembered when the song originally came out, as evidenced by her comment to Bon Jovi, "Oh my God! My Mom loves you!" which I'm sure must have made him feel really good about himself.

If anyone had doubts about the range of Bon Jovi songs being too difficult for women, LaKisha blew all of them out of the water when she took on "This Ain't a Love Song," a tune which I am newly in love with after her soulful rendition (I wasn't crazy about Bon Jovi's version). Simon was so happy about her performance he kissed her, but I think not even their little love fest may be able to save LaKisha last week. Remember, this week two people are going home, and it's a compilation of last week and this week's votes, so LaKisha might get caught up in the Idol Gives Back overlap.

Bon Jovi didn't seem too crazy about Blake's version of "You Give Love a Bad Name" in the package before he sang it, and once Blake was on stage, it was clear why. The Blakester, newly brunette, gutted the song and replaced it with a beat box enhanced version, keeping only the catchy chorus intact. Simon wasn't sure if it would go over well with Idol fans who were interested in preserving the original (Newsflash Simon - none of them remember the original), but for my money it was the most original, and most inspired performance of the season.

After Blake came Chris, who had the unhappy task of following Blake's tour de force. Chris, like Jordin, couldn't quite capture the rock that's necessary to belt out a Bon Jovi tune and his "Wanted Dead or Alive" suffered badly for it. Chris is high on the hit list for tomorrow evening, as he's been lagging for two weeks straight now.

Melinda capped off the evening with what would have been a fabulous performance of "Have a Nice Day" if it had not been in the company of the previous performances. For one week only (the first week that this has happened), Melinda came out somewhere near the middle of the pack. Luckily for her, she's guaranteed not to be there for long.