Does Anoop Desai's 'Dim All the Lights' Performance Dim His Chances in the American Idol Competition?

Disco week arrived and departed with very little fanfare on tonight's American Idol. Three, yes three, Donna Summer songs do not a competition make especially when the only one worth hearing sounded nothing like Donna Summer.

First, the good news. Tonight, Kris did a remarkable job of reinventing Summer's huge hit "She Works Hard for the Money." I loved the arrangement, I loved his voice. Kris just really performed well tonight. I got scared when I saw that guitar in his hands but he definitely pulled off exactly what he was trying to do - avoid sounding disco and keep himself in the competition. And once again, Danny's performance merits an honorable mention too - his version of Earth, Wind and Fire's "September" was really good tonight. Danny has an ability to use his boundless energy and personality to connect with the audience and his great vocals just make his performances strong week after week.

Now, the bad news. That's all, folks. The rest of the performances were pretty much forgettable. I wished that these performers chose songs other than the ones that they did. Allison was the best of the remaining five. But her song just reminded me of a rocker singing disco. She has a strong voice but she has a rock voice and it isn't suited to disco. She should have picked something other than "Hot Stuff" 'cause it was merely lukewarm. Lil did Chaka Kahn and I wondered why she's still with us along with Matt. Nothing spectacular here (far from it actually) which has become the norm for those two. Adam's performance was the sorriest of any he had to date. I didn't like the arrangement and I've come to expect more from him. The judges seemed to like it but they were more than slightly off tonight too. It seemed like three of the four were sharing one brain.

And that leads us to Anoop who closed the show. Because most of the performances were weak tonight, he had the chance to bring down the house. I just don't think he did. I like Anoop and I think he is a nice guy with a nice voice. He's friendly and he likes to smile. He does, like Paula said, have great teeth. I feel like he is connecting better with the audience which makes me happy because I think he struggled with that early on. But he struggled with the song tonight. He had pitch problems and he started out really slow and I don't mean the tempo. The arrangement was awkward and, unlike Simon, I was glad he upped the tempo halfway through, but it didn't help. I did; however, disagree with Simon when he said that this was Anoop's worst performance. I think he had some doozys in the past. And he had a great opportunity to move ahead in the competition tonight. He just missed it.

I will remember Anoop's performance tonight and not because he wore a pink sweater vest. I'll remember Anoop's performance tonight and not because just about everyone else was forgettable. I'll remember Anoop's performance tonight simply because it was last.

I don't think he'll go home yet (my money's on Lil and Matt) but I feel quite certain he's not going to the finals either.