"Proud Mary" wouldn't be so proud of Syesha Mercado

This week's theme is the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so the contestants have so much to choose from -- I imagine the choices tonight will be varied, with Jason Castro picking more folksy, hippie-like songs and David Archuleta going for those classic and extremely well-known ballads.

But let's get started. Thank goodness, after last week's confusion, Ryan says the judges will critique the contestants after each performance. Last week was just a disaster the way they set it up. I imagine this week will be way more organized.


First up tonight is David Cook. He says he is singing "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran. He says it came out in 1982, the year he was born. He says the song didn't immediately jump out at him, but the more he listened to it, he could kind of feel some changes that would work for him.

You know, I'm in love with David's voice, and he sounds fantastic tonight, but he said in his interview that he planned to change the song and I don't hear any changes. Is it just me? I was kind of expecting him to work some magic on this song, because as popular as this song once was, it's kind of gotten old for me. I used to watch an old friend of mine and his band cover this song almost every weekend, so I've hit a saturation point. David could have really changed it, modernized it, made it relevant, but instead, he sings it pretty much as it was written and recorded, so as much as I love him, tonight, he comes off a little bit karaoke.

Randy says it was an OK song choice and a solid performance, but he's looking to see who's gonna bring the mad-hot vocals tonight and that it was just OK, not amazing, just OK. Paula says his "Hungry Like the Wolf" left her with a big appetite ... Yuck. She says it's been truly remarkable to watch him grow and flourish. Simon says it was good, but he knows where Randy's coming from because it was a little bit copycat and he didn't do what he's done in previous weeks: choose a song and make it his own. But he says it's good enough at the moment to get him through to next week.


Syesha Mercado is next and she is singing "Proud Mary," by Tina Turner. She says this song has been covered more than 100 times and she was scared to even attempt to do this song because of Tina Turner's famous choreography in this song. But she said she looked at herself in the mirror and said, "Syesha, just do it. Just have fun with it," and she says that's what she's going to do.

OK, my first problem with her trying to imitate Tina Turner's steps is that she's going too fast. In the beginning, during the slow part, Tina does that hip move like at half the speed that Syesha's doing it, so it started out all wrong for me. Her voice sounds great, but too smooth for the song ... I don't know -- this song is so closely associated to Tina Turner it almost shouldn't be touched. I guess it's just hard to accept a different version. Meaning that Tina's version is hard and edgy, with her raspy voice making it sound rough and almost raw. Syesha's voice is so different -- it just sounds kind of out of place with this song. I mean, she's not out of tune or anything, but it's sort of like having a crazy heavy-metal singer like Marilyn Manson attempt to sing "Ave Maria." It just doesn't go -- that's how I feel about Syesha and this song: It just doesn't go. But I do give her credit for the attempt -- she mimicked the dance moves the best she could and really tried to perform the heck out of the song.

Randy says this is the third week in a row that Syesha has shown up and been in the zone. He says she has pretty good timing because she's showing the heat late in the competition when she needs it. Paula says she looks like a star and that she has this magnetic voice and presence. Simon says he's sorry to put a slight damper on things, but he thought it was a bad, shrieky version, a bad impersonation of Tina Turner. Syesha responds and says, "I was trying to have fun." And Simon responds with, "Well, OK, good. I didn't." Hilarious.