Final Group OfTwelve Perform on Tuesday, March 3rd on "American Idol"

In the spirit of leaving the best till last, "American Idol" had Lil Rounds, the mother of three who can belt it out, perform her bluesy best at the finale of Tuesday night's show on March 3^rd. The judges seemed to consider it a given that she would advance to the next round.

Picking the finalists for this night's group will be more difficult than it has been for the previous two groups because the "stand outs" were fewer and further between. For me, the best of the night were (in no particular order) Von Smith, age 22, of Greenwood, Missouri, who sang first and earned accolades like "This is the way to kick off a show. Welcome to Idol." (Randy) "You're coming into your own." (Kara) "A memorable first. Quite the showman. Quite the performer." (Paula) And, in one of the few negative moments, Simon expressed his opinion: "You look appalling." (Von was attired in a brown suit with an orange tee shirt and orange tennies.) Simon added, "You sang quite well. You remind me of Clay Aiken." Von's response was, "I'm ecstatic. It was positive." And, when asked how he felt about being compared to Clay Aiken, he responded, diplomatically, "I have to digest that."

It should also be noted that the following candidates performed well enough to potentially go forward: Ju'Not Joyner, Kristen McNamara, Kendall Beard, Felicia Bartonand Jorge Nunez. The judges also spoke as though Scott MacIntrye, the 19-year-old blind piano-playing contestant from Scottsdale, Arizona would definitely advance.

Those who fell short this night were Taylor Vaifanua, age 17, from Hurricane, Utah; Alex Wagner-Trugman, age 19, from Studio City, California; Arianna Afsar, age 17, from San Diego, California; Nathaniel Marshall, the Drama Queen with the piercings who also has the sad story of the incarcerated mother. Even Nathaniel's Grandmother and Aunt were less-than-enthused about his Meatloaf song, "I Would Do Anything For Love."

I do think that Jorge Nunez's crying may do him some good. The 24-year-old from Puerto Rico turned in a very good vocal on "Don't Let the Sun Go Down On Me" (Elton John) that caused Simon to say, "You actually are a very, very good singer," and caused Randy to add, "It's the vocals that matter. This wasn't the perfect vocal, but it was very, very good." Kara said, "You were born to sing." Jorge responded by crying and saying, "When I get so emotional, I can barely think in English."

Of those I mentioned in the third paragraph that have a chance of going through, I would, personally, like to see Lil Rounds joined by either Ju'Not or Von and, of the girls, Kristen or Kendall. The only problem with selecting the extremely attractive Kendall (and both of these girls have the same blonde California-girl look) is the prospect of more C&W songs, which did not seem to please Simon and would not please me much, either. While Scott MacIntyre, the blind contestant, certainly seems like a nice guy and has overcome a bigger handicap than anyone on the stage, he was not the next-best singer.

Stay tuned for Wednesday night's decision on who stays and who goes.