Fantasia sang really bad last night, and on top of that, she looked horrible
Jennifer Hudson clearly should have won that season
Scotty and James are the cream of this crop
Scotty and Lauren's duet last night was awesome
I refuse to watch Jacob sing another song
Lauren, when on, is the best female singer in this competition.
Scotty, if he can do something besides country and western (and he does the real thing as opposed to what young people call "country" which is the newer country/pop) then he can win. Steven Tyler got it right when he said it was amazing how Scotty did country western since when Aerosmith was starting out, country music was country-western or country and western. Being a fan of the original artists, I don't know why the industry took out the "western" in the title as that totally ignores all the great stuff that came out of Texas, Oklahoma, California, Arizona, etc as well as the hugely influential "Bakersfield Sound" which influenced country-western, country, rockabilly, and jazz. If Scotty wins this whole thing, I hope he can introduce people to the western cowboy side of country music which were at its roots but lost favor to Nashville and the southeast and their own influential takes on country.
I think Jacob has the best chops but his weakness is that he can be a one trick pony like Scotty.
James, when on, is as good as any winner from AI but he has to hold back on those high notes (Jacob, too, for that matter) because people can tire of it and it can cost them the competition as we all saw with Adam Lambert. People were wowed by Adam's high notes but bored by his over-use of them.
What is great is about this season is that there are quite a few people who have to potential to go all the way. The only singer who I thought was not a possible winner was Thia, even though she's very camera friendly and humble.
Stefano, if he could get back that pitch perfect performance in his R & B style a couple/few weeks ago, he can win this whole thing. Whenever I think of anybody who I think can't win, there's always at least one performance where they showed they can go all the way. I am partial to James only because he's a local from my parts, but in the big cities near me, there's so many singers who have made it from SF, Oakland, San Jose, and surrounding bay area that in a way James would have a huge set of shoes to step into if he wins AI but then has to represent northern California.