American Idol Top 50 Performances: #50-41

I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now, and after having such a fun time with my So you Think You Can Dance? Top 30 Performances, it was time to give American Idol the same treatment. So here it is. Over the next five days, leading up to the premiere of American Idol season 6, my top 50 favorite performances of all time! Enjoy.

55. Bucky – Fat Bottom Girls

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Let’s kick things off with Bucky Covington from Season 6! I was one of the few people who quite liked Bucky, and this was his best performance. It was like his own little concert within the show and that’s a hard thing to pull off. Sucks that he got eliminated after this, but at least he went out on top!

54. Bo – Time In A Bottle

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Yeah I rag on Bo a lot, but let me just warn you this isn’t the last time you’ll see him on this countdown. I remember replaying “Time In A Bottle” a bunch of times after it first aired. A lot of his fans weren’t crazy about this performance, but hey, I have weird taste. The beginning was especially pretty and I loved how they set the mood with the guitar player on the side of the stage. Nice touch.

53. Fantasia – What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life

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I was never a fan of Fantasia, not at all, but she really doesn’t deserve all the hate she gets. I can actually understand why people did like her because she can portray the emotions of a song so effortlessly, and that’s one of the reasons why I liked this performance. She automatically made the song her own because her voice is so unique.

52. Kevin – Vincent

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Yes you read that correctly, Kevin Covais is on my favorites list. Why? Well I really like the song “Vincent” and his performance it was solid. Fair enough right? The kid took a lot of heat from a lot of people, including me, during his run on AI, but at the end of the day he wasn’t a bad singer and I think this performance shows it.

51. Katharine – Bringing Out The Elvis In Me

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I’ll never understand why this performance got such a negative response, not just from the judges but viewers as well. It wasn’t amazing but it was infectiously cute, and Katharine obviously had a lot of fun with it. I always thought she was at her best when she was singing songs with this sort of style.

50. Carrie Underwood – Love Is A Battlefield

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When I first started this list I didn’t expect to have any Carrie performances on it. Then I went back and reviewed her performances, and let’s just say this isn’t the only one. Oh and I’m completely aware that her performance of “Love Is A Battlefield” is PURELY a guilty pleasure, so what? It was the first time she woke me up all season. This was definitely training grounds for her massive hit “Before He Cheats”. Oh and her hair looked really good too!

49. Elliott – A Song For You

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This was the song Elliott auditioned on. I like this performance because he brought kind of this dark R&B vibe that we really hadn’t seen on the show. And of course, his vocals were just amazing, as usual.

48. Carrie – Making Love Out Of Nothing At All

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Let me first say that I love this song, and that’s probably one of the main reasons why I liked this performance. Carrie did good with it. I would’ve ranked it higher except her performance seemed a bit forced and rushed, but I guess that’s what can happen when someone else chooses a song for you.

47. Chris – Geek In The Pink

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Whether you loved or hated Chris Richardson, you HAVE to admit that “Geek In The Pink” was one HOT performance! It was so nice to see someone get up there and do something modern with style instead of singing “My Cherie Amour” for the 2945933282th time. So glad he introduced me to this song.

46. Trenyce – Let’s Stay Together

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Trenyce is one of those underrated idol contestants. Heck, even I forgot about her for a while, but I honestly didn’t forget when she sang “Let’s Stay Together”. Love the song and it was great to see a female spin on it.

Bonus #1: My Favorite AI Curses

5. You Keep Me Falling Off – Sing “You Keep Me Hanging On” in the top 12 show, get eliminated the following night. See Vanessa Olivarez and Leah Labelle. Defunct; broken by Blake.

4. The Three Album Curse – Two successful albums, third one tanks. See Clay Aiken, Kelly Clarkson, Ruben Studdard. Still in play.

3. Odd Year Shock Elimination – Every odd season of the front runners gets dropped off at 4th place. See Tamyra Gray, LaToya London, Chris Daughtry. Still in play.

2. Paula’s Pick – If Paula chooses a song for you in the top 3, expect to be eliminated. Defunct; broken by Blake.

1. The Green Mile Curse – last two to be put through to the top 24 get eliminated the week before the top twelve. Eerily still in play.

Next: #45-36 >>