Eight contestants remaining and the theme for the week: "songs from the year of my birth." Another huge choice for each singer, even though several of them were apparently born in 1985, yet still the bad song choices abounded.

I don't know what it is about Idol this year. Still the most popular show in the US by some margin, and going into the finals everyone was saying how the finalists were the best crop of talent for some years, or maybe even ever.

Since then? Some early front runners have marked time and appear to be going nowhere, others have never really delivered on their early promise and have either already left or are obvious candidates for leaving in the next couple of weeks. Taking it from the bottom up:

Bottom three:
This week there was only one obvious bottom three candidate for me and that, sadly, was Scott. His choice of "The Search is Over" was the kiss of death and his screechy uncertain delivery put the nails in the coffin. Simon said he needed to get back behind his piano but I don't think it had anything to do with what instrument he was holding on to; he just wasn't that good.

For the rest of the bottom three, I couldn't call it between Anoop, Lil and Kris Allen. In the end Anoop's rendition of True Colours didn't find favour with the voting public (nice vocal, I thought, but not very exciting) and Lil's What's Love Got To Do With It only served to prove that she ain't no Tina Turner. But then, who is? Apart from Tina Turner, obviously.

A lot was made this week about the difference between a good singer and an artist, and I really agreed that this critique applies to Lil, along with some notable others. If Lil had any appreciation of who she is as an artist she would not have gone anywhere near WLGTDWI, and if she doesn't sort out (a) her song choices and (b) her personal style, she's not got long left in this contest. Which is a shame, cos she can really sing.

Middle Ground:
With eight singers remaining my middle ground is restricted to two this week: Kris and Allison.

Kris is a chameleon. When he's good he can be very, very good but, as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow almost said, when he's bad, he's horrid. All She Wants To Do Is Dance was a poor song, and his singing was mediocre at best. Perhaps more than any other, Kris has a chance to be in the final (i.e. the top three), but will blow it if he doesn't sort his song choices out.

Allison is one of the ones I was referring to above when I said some artists are marking time. She can really sing, and Bonnie Raitt's I Can't Make You Love Me - one of my favourite songs ever - was a fairly good choice for her and she sang it well, but she's not growing or going anywhere from week to week.

Top Three:
First up and first into my top three this week: Danny Gokey singing Stand By Me. Strong vocal, as always, but I was meh about the arrangement (as was Randy). He and Matt are head to head on the croaky vocal front though, and I hope there'll only be room for one of them in the final otherwise it's going to be a bit samey.

And talking about Matt, his Part Time Lover put him firmly in my top three this week too. It was a mixed performance though, with parts of it very good and other parts almost disappearing into the instrumental. Perhaps it should have been called Part Time Singer instead?

Standing head and shoulders (and for that matter, body, legs and feet) above the rest this week though, as usual, was Adam Lambert. What a perfect choice of song - Mad World - and what an incredible version. Taking the Gary Jules arrangement and twisting it up in his own unique way, Adam is still the only contestant this year to give me chills. If you missed it and want to see what all the fuss is about, here he is: