by Cathy S.

Created on: March 02, 2007   Last Updated: May 09, 2007

Before anything else, I want to congratulate Jennifer Hudson on receiving her Golden Globe award for Best Supporting Actress in Dreamgirls. Randy must be proud of his "Wild Card" pick of Season 3. We are too!

So what did you think of the Minneapolis show? A few of my coworkers were very disappointed with it. They felt the chemistry between the judges was not there (some blame Jewel's presence for that). Also, the editing was disappointing. People felt uncomfortable about having to watch the heartbreak of Jessica Rhode. The cameras followed her a little bit too long for some of us. She was a huge fan of Jewel and sang one of her songs, which I thought was pretty gutsy. I even thought that she didn't sound half bad. The judges were not impressed though. And, some of us wondered why we watched Tashawn Moore for a full two minutes when in the first 15 seconds we got it already she wasn't prepared, she was nervous, whatever it was she didn't know the words to the Prince song and it was never going to come to her.

So we were a little disappointed, but then 1-1/2 hours into the show, a beautiful, talented 19-year-old with lovely long brown curls named Sarah Krueger appears on our television sets and begins to sing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." A member of my family yells out "Top 12!" and I had to agree. So did the majority of my coworkers. I am curious to see how many others agree. We have to name her the winner of Minneapolis. A close second was Denise Jackson. She sang Jennifer Holiday's "You Gotta Love Me" beautifully. Her story of being born a crack baby and her "wonderful gift," as she called it, may get her into the finals. I'm thinking that because of how we bonded with Kellie Pickler (Season 5) when we heard that her mom abandoned her when she was a baby and her dad was currently in jail at the time. Honorable Mentions go to Perla Meneses (the Shakira look-a-like) and Matt Sato, the 16-year-old who sang "California Dreaming."

Before we move onto Seattle, can anyone explain what lion girl was all about? It was weird enough for Trista Giese to use that lion voice to sing "If I Were King of the Forest" but when she used it to sing Prince? Thank you though, that was pretty funny and you were fun to talk about, but you're not our new "William Hung."

The chemistry between the judges was back, we felt, in Seattle. Paula was back thank goodness. We need her niceness (however genuine it may or may not be) to ease the nastiness of Simon's meanness. Some of us thought Simon went too far making fun of Kenneth Briggs, saying he looked like a bush monkey. Some of us thought Simon was just being Simon.

The cream of the crop of Seattle was almost a unanimous decision with Thomas Daniels being the favorite of my family and coworkers. It's amazing that he auditioned with American Idol three times and didn't get noticed until now. His great afro and good looks, added to his talent, should get him very far. He had a beautiful tone to his voice, and I can't wait to hear from him again.

Some of our other faves were the Malakar siblings, Shyamali and Sanjaya. You couldn't deny that they were just too adorable. Honorable mention goes to Jordin Sparks, the 16-year-old daughter of a former NFL player, who sang Celine Dion's "Because You Love Me."

We are off to a good start with a couple of clear favorites. Are they yours?

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