The top 12 guys gave their so-so performances on Tuesday. Chris Sligh, Blake Lewis, Phil Stacey and Jared Cotter proved themselves as strong contenders. Sanjaya Malakar and Sundance Head had some mis-steps but weren’t nearly as bad as the judges thought they were. Rudy Cardenas and Paul Kim had dismal performances.

The audience sent both Rudy and Paul home last night on the results show. That wasn’t a big surprise to me. I kind of predicted it already, didn’t I?

Now, the twelve ladies showed that they had more talent, chutzpah and star power than the guys do. A lady just has to win this competition this year. Lakisha Jones, Stephanie Edwards and Sabrina Sloan remind us a bit of the Season 3 divas – Fantasia Barrino, Jennifer Hudson and Latoya London. They were awesome!

Each of these three sailed through last night and got to enjoy a performance by Fantasia to boot. Oh yeah – and Ryan announced that Jennifer “J.Lo” Lopez, Barry Gibb, Diana Ross and other less well-known (and even more out-dated) musical entities will help mentor the wanna-bes this season.

Antonella Barba was just a horrendous mess. She did Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”, the tear-jerker from Armageddon. Her performance was wiggity-whack, yo. It sucked. She was “pitchy” as Paula and Randy said. That’s a nice way of saying she couldn’t hit the notes. She was a mess.

Unfortunately, as the TV series Family Guy reminds us, “America loves hot, white jailbait @$$.” La bella donna, who has a bit of a ‘provocative picture’ scandal going on these days, made it through when she should’ve been packing her bags for the Jersey shore. So, too, did Alaina Alexander, the LA-based singer who has more sex appeal than singing ability. (At least that’s what she’s shown us so far.)

Unfortunately, this left Amy Krebs, who Simon called “forgettable” and Nicole Tranquillo, whose soulful rendition of Chaka Khan was pretty darn good, to face the music, so to speak. These two talented ladies bid adieu to the competition a wee bit early because…

American Idol is not all about the talent as Simon, Paula and Randy have tried to say throughout the auditions. I mean they did let Perla through to Hollywood week for her Shakira-shake more than anything else and Tami Gosnell didn’t make the top 24 ‘cuz she’s “not what this competition is looking for.”

Let’s face facts. American Idol is a popularity contest especially in these beginning rounds. If the contestants don’t click with the public, the public will rely on superficialities to put a person through such as a pretty face or a wining smile rather than substance.

Next week, I hope that the contestants who haven’t made as much of an impression yet such as AJ Tabaldo, Jared Cotter, Nicholas Pedro, Leslie Hunt and Gina Glocksen will blow everyone away. Now, that’d be sweet!