The competition has just begun on American Idol’s sixth season. On Tuesday night, the top 12 dudes performed. Overall it was a lukewarm, if not downright disappointing, start to the festivities. Rudy Cardenas started things off with “Free Ride” by Edgar Winter Group. Ugh! He struck a sour note to be sure.

The judges really didn’t warm up to many of the male contestants – and neither did we. Sure, it was nice to see Chris Sligh tell Simon Cowell that his opinion isn’t that important. After all, he’s the guy behind Il Divo and the Teletubbies. (Oh man! This kid needs to sign up for Last Comic Standing if the singing thing doesn’t work out.)

However, Chris had a decent performance. It was one of the better ones of the night. He belted out Mute Math’s “Typical”. Other standouts included beatboxer Blake Lewis, Jared Cotter and Phil Stacey. Blake was rocking a sweater vest and crooning Keane’s “Somewhere Only We Know”. Jared did a fantastic rendition of Brian McKnight’s “Back at One” (of course it’s a sentimental favorite, so I could be a bit biased). Finally, Phil sang “Could Not Ask for More”. His wife was in the audience, and she was so happy to be there. It was a really nice moment.

Rudy wasn’t the only stinker of the night. Unfortunately, the guys gave us quite a suck fest. AJ Tabaldo sang a Luther Vandross ‘classic’ from the 80s, “Never Too Much”. However, he ain’t no Luther and it was NO good. Sanjaya Malakar with the bright smile and shining eyes tackled another Stevie Wonder tune. Unfortunately, “Knocks Me Off My Feet” knocked him off his pedestal. Hopefully, he’ll survive the vote on Thursday to sing another week.

And what happened to Sundance Head? He sang the Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” and made it even less interesting than the 1967 original.

Here are our predictions: Sundance will survive. Sligh, Lewis and Stacey will skate by along with backup singer, Brandon Rogers. Sanjaya Malakar could go home. Hopefully, he won’t. Rudy Cardenas is a shoo-in to be shown the door. AJ Tabaldo, Nick Pedro or Paul Kim could follow him.

Wednesday night, the divas took over the house. The ladies proved that they were way more talented than the guys in this competition. Most of the top 12 brought their A-game. Those who didn’t – Antonella Barba, anyone? – are almost assured a plane ticket back home.

Stephanie Edwards started things off with a bang. She sang her heart out on “How Come You Don’t Call Me Anymore.” Randy told her she “set it off.” That’s a good thing for those of you who don’t speak Randy Jackson. Simon told her it was her best performance “so far and a million times better than any of the guys.” Ouch!

Other shining stars of the night were Sabrina Sloan, Melinda Doolittle, Gina Glocksen and Lakisha Jones. Sabrina wowed the judges with her soulful and sexy rendition of “I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You.” Simon told her she looked like she wanted to win.

Melinda proved that she deserves to be in the spotlight. The former backup singer took on Aretha with “Since You Been Gone” and, according to Randy, she “blew it out of the box.” (Translation: You sing really well. That was a fantastic performance, Melinda. You are definitely not going home.)

Gina hit her high note with “All by Myself” By Eric Carmen even if Simon didn’t think so. She was sassy and seductive. However, I’d love to hear her belt out an Evanescence tune someday soon. It was a peculiar song choice for her.

Finally, Lakisha blew everyone else away. She dared to sing former American Idol diva, Jennifer Hudson’s, Academy-Award nominated song, “And I’m Telling You” from the Dreamgirls movie. Wow! She is awesome. Simon told the other 23 contestants to pack their bags. Unfortunately, we don’t think she’ll win the competition, but she should.

The worst gals were Antonella Barba, Alaina Alexander and Haley Scarnato. Barba warbled the Aerosmith ballad, “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. Oh Gawd! She even matched her shoes to her shirt and claimed she was nervous, but…oh man, it was bad.

Alaina tried to sing “Brass in Pocket” by the Pretenders. She is no Chrissy Hynde, okay, and Haley Scarnato, a wedding singer from San Antonio, would probably cause more than a few divorces with the way she butchered Celine Dion’s “It’s All Coming Back to Me Now.” Yuck!

Our Predictions: Edwards, Sloan, Doolittle and Jones will slide through. Jordin Sparks, who didn’t have a great performance, but is well-liked, will also make it to the next round without too much of a problem as will Gina Glocksen and Nicole Tranquillo. Leslie Hunt and Amy Krebs might be on the lower end of the vote scale, but they will hopefully survive the night. Antonella Barba and Alaina Alexander should go home.

The results will be shown live on FOX between 8-9 pm ET Thurday, February 22, 2007. Fantasia Barrino is going to pay the Idols a visit and sing a little something-something. If you wanna learn more about the Top 24, click here!