American Idol: the top 8 women

There are eight women left. Two must go.

Ryan looks dishevelled and haggard. The women look poised and ready. Paula looks pickled.

Paris has royally screwed herself by choosing Gloria Estefan's "Conga." It's forced and pitchy; her dancing is considerably more comfortable than her singing. This sort of thing reminds you of how good Ms Estefan actually is. Randy wants Paris to challenge herself, but that's the wrong advice. She did challenge herself with this, and she lost. Paula just brilliantly slammed her without saying anything nasty. Brava! "You made some interesting choices melodically; they certainly captured my attention." Hell yes! Simon instructs American to vote her through.

Lisa shows us how it's supposed to be done. The confidence and control really stand out after Paris. Too bad the song is a snoozefest, because the performance is as strong as it can be, given the material. Randy wants her not to be so old, wants her to overornament the melody (at least, I think that's what "slay it" and "do the runs" means). Whatever. Paula and Simon both are skeptical about the song choice, but they like Lisa, as they should.

Melissa continues the "I'm really a tomboy theme" of the evening, which is really odd. She sings Heart's "What About Love?" Good for her: she's bringing her A-game tonight. She knows she has to stand out if she's going to stay. Personally, I like the smokiness and intensity. She seems majorly relieved at the end, oddly. Randy proves again that he doesn't know what 'sharp' means, but he liked it, as did Paula. Simon thought the last note earned her a ticket home, and I have to admit that I was too busy typing at the end to hear the last note. Maybe Simon was right, and Melissa's big expulsion of breath at the end was self-recrimination rather than relief.

Kinnik has chosen a dreadful song and she's having serious pitch problems. This is her last appearance, I think. Yet she gets a standing ovation for some reason. Randy loved the song, says it started out amazing (wrong!), went sharp (wrong! unless by 'sharp' he means 'flat'), stayed sharp. Paula even admits the pitch was bad. Simon is predicting her departure. He's used up that line for the night, I suppose. I'm impressed by her good attitude after the really dismaying comments from the judges, but I doubt that will be enough to save her.

Katharine sings Aretha! Bold, or foolhardy? OK, I repent of everything bad I've said about her, because that was seriously first-rate. That was Kelly-Clarkson-on-big-band-night good. Effortless singing. (I used the word before Simon did, I should point out.) Splendid. If I weren't a big homo I'd be so into her.

Ayla is overwhelmed by her song, by the backup singers, by the band, by her complete inability to support in her lower register. It's not awful, by any means, but it's not great. Standing ovation, of course. Randy nails it when he says it's "not a great singer-song."

Mandisa sings "I'm Every Woman," which is hard for me to like, so I suppose it's not surprising that I don't warm to this performance. Vocally it's quite good, though. Randy grossly overpraised it. Best this season? Not even best tonight -- and I really like Mandisa. Simon says it was in a different league from the other women. So maybe it really was that good, and my intense and unreasoning hatred of anything remotely connected with Chaka Khan blinded me to its fabulousness.

And finally it's Our Lady of Cornpone. And darn it if she doesn't do Melissa Etheridge proud. Yeah, it gets screechy a bit in the middle, but Kellie can sing with passion and real feeling for the lyrics when she puts her mind to it. One of the best performances of the evening. Simon calls er a "naughty little minx," which is high praise for her. I don't believe it! He just said he likes her better than Carrie Underwood. Then Kellie ruins it all by saying she's a mink. That poor, deluded, stupid, talented child.

Recaps: Paris makes me wince, Lisa makes me unclench, Melissa rocks, Kinnik disappears, Katharine soars, Ayla strains, Mandisa belts beautifully, Kellie nails it.