American Idol: At Least Sanjaya Didn't Suck

It was Latin night on American Idol with coach Jennifer “don’t call me J-Lo” Lopez. But, unfortunately, like her movies of late, the music pretty much tanked. The songs that reflected the beats south of the border were not kind to our eight finalists. (And really, can’t we do a little better than picking boring Gloria Estefan or Carlos Santana songs?)

>> Melinda Doolittle started off the show with “Sway,” and this was the first week that she didn’t wow us.
>> LaKisha Jones chose “Conga” and it was pretty much a karaoke version, a good karaoke version, but still...
>> Chris Richardson took on Rob Thomas’s/Carlos Santana’s “Smooth” and he at least turned in a more passionate performance than Melinda or Lakisha.
>> Haley Scarnato sang “Turn the Beat Around” pretty badly, but she did a good job of distracting the audience by wearing almost the shortest shorts possible.
>> Phil Stacey covered “Maria Maria” and it was a little better than last week. But was it us, or were his stylists working overtime to make sure that his cap pinned his big ears back?
>> Jordin Sparks was a little less spunky this week with her rendition of “Rhythm is Gonna Get You” (which we thought sounded like the “Conga” song).
>> Blake Lewis turned in the best performance of the night by picking Mr. Jennifer Lopez’s “I need to know.” But really, he didn’t have much competition tonight.
>> Ending the show was Sanjaya Malakar's version of “Besame Mucho.” And he wasn’t that terrible. He wasn’t great, but he wasn’t terrible.

If it were up to us, it’s “Legs” Scarnato’s time to go, but then again, we don’t vote. We leave that up to the rest of America to decide.

AP Photo/Franka Bruns