American Idol Goes Country with Shania Twain

American Idol's remaining contestants welcomed Shania Twain as their mentor this week. Each of the remaining Idol contestants received advice from Twain and took to the stage to perform one of her songs.

Lee DeWyze performed "You're Still the One" and received praise from each of the American Idol judges for his performance. Of course Randy Jackson was concerned when the song started out "pitchy", but was satisfied that DeWyze had made the song his own.

Big Mike Lynche brought a tear to Shania Twain's eyes from the American Idol stage when he performed "It Only Hurts When I'm Breathing" and the judges generally enjoyed his performance, although Simon claimed it was a bit "wet". No one had any idea what Cowell meant by that, so it wasn't exactly constructive criticism that Lynche could sink his teeth into.

Idol contestant Casey James performed "Don't" in an attempt to redeem himself after irritating the judges last week with his uninspired performance during songs of inspiration week on Idol. This was probably his best performance to date and it went over quite well with the judges. Once in awhile, there is a glimmer of something that comes through with James, he needs to hang on to it and be consistent.

American Idol contestant Crystal Bowersox performed "No One Needs To Know" and the judges didn't hide the fact that this was not their favorite performance. It wasn't a bad performance, it wasn't huge in the way last week's performance was. Bowersox stood by her performance saying that she was connected to it and that every performance can't be big. It wasn't my favorite either, but I still think Bowersox is likely to win American Idol this season.

Next up was Aaron Kelly performing "You've Got a Way" and it was pretty good. Aaron hasn't been pretty good for weeks, so he needed this performance. The judges, including Simon, only had positive things to say.

Siobhan Magnus sang "Any Man of Mine" receiving praise from the judges, although Simon thought she got a little out of control at the end. Louder at the end does not equal better.

Out of all the American Idol performances, I think Casey James had a bit of an edge tonight. He seemed completely connected with his song and he did a great job with it. It will be interesting to see who gets sent home Wednesday night.

Source: American Idol