American Idol, Week 5 Review

On week five of "American Idol," the remaining eight singers not only regaled us with their musical abilities, but charmed us with their baby pictures. This year the performers were not the only people on the show to have their baby photos revealed, the judges and host Ryan Seacrest also entertained fans with the photos.

So far this season the weekly song choice themes have been very open offering the singers a wider choice of sings to pick from as this week the theme was the yer they were born. Some artists had the whole year to themselves while others had to share, 1985 was a busy year for would be "American Idol" singers with three of the eight contestants being born in that year.

As the field of singers narrows each performance carries more weight and becomes more important, so much so that even a front runner can be eliminated by a bad song or performance.

Baby week saw repeated comments about mad vocal skills and great voices while chiding singers for choice of arrangements and karaoke style performances.

With only an hour for eight performances and the clutter that surrounds them, the show ran long on time and once again anyone who did not stick around to the end missed a significant Simon moment.

The show did not start off with the expected bang with the oldest Idol Danny Gokey as the judges comments were mixed on Danny's arrangement decision for "Stand By Me". And so it went with Kris Allen's "All She Wants to Do is Dance", and Lil's Tina Turner impersonation of "What's Love Got to Do with it?", but Anoop showed sparks of a comeback on his rendition of "True Colors" when Kara said that he controlled the song. Simon referred to the proud North Carolina fans as a singing yo-yo with this week being a good one. Resident piano virtuoso Scott MacIntyre followed Paula's ill faded advice to ditch the piano and traded in the ivories for an electric guitar in a performance of the "Search is Over" that judges found only okay with Simon telling Scott to go back to the piano.

Then the youngest Idol hit the stage when 17 year old red head Allison Iraheta put her spin on another red head with Bonnie Raitt's "I Can't Make You Love Me" that had judges praising her voice but telling Allison to lighten up and show some personality. Randy Jackson compared the youngster to the very first "American Idol" winner Kelly Clarkson. Matt Giraud brought his star back to rising with "Part Time Lover" by Stevie Wonder that had judges saying it was one of the best performances of the night so far and had Simon proclaiming the performance a million times better than last week.

And then there was Adam who has mastered the stage putting on an award winning performance of "Mad World" by Australian rockers Tears for Fears that as time ran out had Simon saying he would be the only one talking but words were not needed and gave Adam Lambert a standing ovation.

The returning "American Idol" alum on this week's results show is award winning country singer Kelly Pickler while fans wait to see if the judges will finally employ the save rule on a potential Idol elimination.