American Idol 6, February 28: We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off to Have a Good Time

Last night the guys showed that some of them do actually deserve to be here. Now it’s ladies’ night again. Ryan says hi to the girls, then introduces them. Roll call! Gina! Alaina! Lakisha! Melinda! Antonella! Jordin! Stephanie! Leslie! Haley! Sabrina!

Ryan asks Randy if he thinks the competition is more balanced now that the guys have stepped up. Randy thinks it is, and now the pressure is on the girls. Ryan asks Paula how she thinks the girls have been affected by the guys’ performances last night. Paula says they’re ready and gorgeous. Way to not answer the question, Paula. Ryan asks Simon what traps the contestants can fall into. Simon says the biggest is not giving themselves an identity.

Tomorrow we’ll say goodbye to two guys and two girls. Tonight we’re still with the dedication theme. Gina Glocksen is dedicating her song to her boyfriend Joe. He’s her rock and she wouldn’t be here without him. Gina wasn’t going to audition because she felt so bad about being rejected before, but Joe encouraged her. He also dyed his hair red to be punk rock for her. She thinks he’s cute and the best thing to ever happen to her.

Gina sings Heart’s “Alone,” and just like her choice of “All By Myself” last week, it’s a great song for her voice. She’s a little off , but I still think she’s a good performer, and she has the pipes. She still has some work to do, considering the other girls in the competition, but I think people like her.

Randy: Good song choice; Gina should stick with rock. She started out pitchy, but she got it together and hit the high notes. He compliments one of the background singers, Charlotte.

Paula: Carrie sang this song in season 4, which surprised the judges, but this was excellent.

Simon: He agrees that song choice was good, but her vocals sounded forced at the end. He’s confused about her and says she’ll never outsing some of the singers here. (She knows.) Simon doesn’t think Gina is edgy enough for the song, citing her wardrobe. Paula notes that Gina shouldn’t be taking fashion advice from him anyway.

Ryan says Simon is just trying to figure out Gina’s personality. She says hi to her boyfriend (they’ve been together almost two years, and Ryan thinks it’s ring time).

Ryan chills with Lakisha Jones and Alaina Alexander in the red room. He notes that Lakisha has gotten a lot of good media buzz, but she hasn’t paid attention to it. She admits to being nervous, saying it comes with the territory. He thinks she’s wearing an “I want to show it all off” outfit. Ryan turns to Alaina, who says she’s picked a well-known song and wants to connect with people.

Alaina dedicates her performance to her mom, who worked a ton of jobs to support her kids. Her strength makes Alaina want to keep going and not give up. We see a clip of her mom comforting her after The Chair, saying she knew Alaina would make it. Alaina wants to support her mom because she’s done so much for her and her siblings.

Alaina sings the Dixie Chicks’ “Not Ready to Make Nice.” Oh, Alaina. She’s committing the cardinal sin of singing a current hit. She’s very off-key, and maybe it’s just because of what we’ve seen of her, but she sounds like she’s crying through the whole song. This was not the way to try to stay in the competition. It’s both unmemorable and not good, a bad combination.

Randy: He starts off with a, “Well….” It started off good (it did?), but then the pitch went away for most of the song. “It was a mess.”

Paula: That’s a hard song to sing (no, it’s not) and she was off, but not as bad as Randy said she was.

Simon: In plain English, “it was like Randy taking part in a 100-meter sprint.” She ran out of steam three-quarters of the way through. Paula pipes up that Alaina is still adorable.

Alaina asks for suggestions. Ryan and Simon gang up on Randy, who thinks Simon got more personal than he did.

Next up is Lakisha, who dedicates her song to her grandmother, who will be 90 on March 30th but is still very active. She said she’d come to New York to hear Lakisha audition if it was the last thing she did. Lakisha says Grandma is in “luv” with Ryan.

Lakisha takes another page from a previous Idol contestant by singing “Midnight Train to Georgia.” She’s fabulous, of course. I’m starting to worry what will happen when they get to theme nights. I don’t know how Lakisha will handle country and current stuff. But until then, I’ll just enjoy. Oh, and the purple eye shadow/orange shirt combination isn’t working for me.

Randy: He loves that she switched things up from last week and did something upbeat. He wasn’t sure she would be able to pull it off, since it started a little shaky, but he thinks it was probably nerves, which she shouldn’t have.

Paula: She loved it and loves Lakisha.

Simon: He says her dancing was “interesting,” but she’s a phenomenal singer. It wasn’t as good as last week, though, because she didn’t have the same “I have something to prove” attitude. Lakisha should start acting like a star (and dressing like one). Still, she’s great and will do well.

Randy immediately tries to get Simon’s attention to talk about his fashion insults. Ryan tries to say Lakisha’s shirt is salmon, but Simon says it’s orange. (For the record, I’d call it orange sherbet.) Ryan reminisces about chatting with Grandma at Lakisha’s audition.

Melinda Doolittle, looking gorgeous in a suit, is next. She’s dedicating her song to two of her closets friends. They’re her Gails (Gail to her Oprah). One is her vocal coach and the other is her stylist, and without them, she would look horrible because she doesn’t like to shop. Melinda didn’t know how much she would need her friends’ advice, but she’s glad they’re here.