American Idol 2009 Season 8: Top 36 First Round

« Thinkbox issues Fantasy Challenges for 2008 | Home | American Idol 2009 Season 8: Top 36 Group 1 Results »

American Idol 2009 Season 8: Top 36 First Round

By Jeff | February 18, 2009

American Idol Season 8 truly begins and with a new twist. Tuesday, February 17th, brought us the first group of 12 contestants vying for a shot at music recording glory. This season the producers of American Idol have split the top 36 contestants into three groups that we will see perform in the coming weeks. The twist: only 3 contestants get voted into the next round from each group. Obviously, that would only give us 9 contestants when completed so we have a Wild Card round for the final 3 contestants in the Top 12. Basically, that means 9 contestants that performed last night are potentially one and done. Wow!

I applaud this new strategy. I for one got immensely tired of the same boring bad acts from some of the contestants last year that obviously had no shot of winning. This season, those acts should be eliminated practically immediately. Nice! The top vote receiving guy, top vote receiving girl, and the next in line will see their way to the Top 12. This leaves very little room for a “bad night”. So you better bring it, or you’ll be nothing but Static ThinkBox blog fodder.

For this first part, this series is simply going to supply my personal notes on the performances and at the end, I’ll tell you who will advance in my opinion. Once we get to the Top 12, I’ll get more detailed.

American idol Top 36 Group 1

Group 1: Performances

Jackie Tohn - horrible outfit, good performer, bad performance… no chance to advance
Ricky Braddy - solid vocals, forgettable song and performance… to be truthful, I had totally forgot he sang until the recap at the end
Alexis Grace - A few moments bothered me, but I’m being pretty picky. This “dirtied up” girl rocked it out. Very soulful.
Brent Keith - I’m biased and I pretty much have a real disdain for country music so I was not a big fan. In trying to be objective, he may have done the song justice but I was bored out of my mind.
Stevie Wright - Say it isn’t so Stevie! I “wonder” how such a cute girl could sing and dance so awkwardly. Ouch! That was painful.
Anoop Desai- Anoop Dog is one of my favorite likeable personalities. He has no shot at winning but he sings very well. Anoop! Anoop! Anoop is on fire!!! I still get surprised every time I hear him sing. It’ll be tough for people to bypass his “look”, which is completely unfair; but unfortunately, life is still not fair. He does have a long shot to make it to the top 12.
Casey Carlson - Whoa! Is this Stevie again? No, much worse. That was extra painful. but hey, you’ve still got modeling as an option.
Michael Sarver- Nice guy. Bad performance. Bleh…
Ann Marie Boskovich - boring; some off-key notes; thanks for playing. Game over.
Stephen Fowler - At least you remembered the lyrics, but I’m afraid you forgot one of the most important lessons taught in past American Idol seasons: song selection. It can make or break you. Stephen was broken.
Tatiana Del Toro - The absolute most annoying contestant this season. She disappointed me for the most part by doing pretty well for the most part. I was able to rejoice with some off note keys. Should be last song we hear from her unless all the other girls bomb and she makes it to the Wild Card round. Dang it.
Danny Gokey - My personal favorite and front runner so far. Great singer and a strong heart-felt story follows him that helps us pull for his continued success. Appears genuine. Danny should go far.

Group 1: Prediction

Top Girl: This is easy - Alexis Grace by a mile.
Top Guy:This is a no-brainer as well - Danny Gokey who is my overall favorite at this point.
Last in: This is tough… but I have got to give a nod to my main man - Anoop Desai. You can do so much with that name and it sticks with you. I say Anoop and you know exactly who I’m talking about. I say Brent and you say, “who?”

Share and Enjoy the ThinkBox: