Tatiana Del Toro Stuns on American Idol

The judges' decision to put the emotional, dramatic, and downright strange Tatiana Del Toro through to the final 36 contestants on American Idol left many viewers scratching their heads and dreading hearing more of the shrill laugh that annoyed America through Hollywood Week. Coming into the show, Del Toro even received the endorsement of the website Votefortheworst.com. But on Tuesday, she showed the viewers a new side to herself that could actually sing.

During her pre-taped segment before her performance, Del Toro tried to explain away her odd behavior during Hollywood Week by saying she was nervous, and doesn't normally behave in that way. She chose to sing a Whitney Houston song, which is usually a kiss of death for contestants, but performed it admirably and did not look out of place choosing such a big song. The judges seemed impressed by her performance, but also seemed to try and goad the more psychotic version of Tatiana out, though she didn't relent, instead insisting that her friends told her they had never heard her laugh like she did in the show's opening weeks.

But will America forgive her after such a rough first impression? It's certainly possible. American Idol becomes a very different show after the two week reality show-esque canned drama of Hollywood Week. Contestants are forced to work long hours, under heavy stress, with other people that are under high stress. It's understandable that someone wouldn't come off looking their best. But from now going forward, we see little of the candidates aside from brief pre-taped and heavily edited segments, and short interviews with the judges and Ryan Seacrest. Even if she truly was a babbling psycho, it would be easy enough to fake normalcy.

Aiding Del Toro in her hopes of advancing is the fact that at least one female has to advance from her group of 12 and she gave the best female performance on a night with a lot of underwhelming female performances. On the men's side, Danny Gokey gave the performance of the night, and looks like an early favorite in the competition, Anoop Desai already has a giant fan base, Brent Keith gave a performance that will apepal to country music fans, and Michael Sarver has many endearing qualities. But there wasn't much to choose from on the female side. Ann Marie Boskovich and Jackie Tohn both chose big songs, but gave very average performances. Alexis Grace and Stevie Wright were good but easily forgettable. And Casey Carlson not only bombed her performance, but did so with a series with a series of bizarre dance moves and facial tics.

Tatiana Del Toro came into last night with a death sentence, finally having to rely on people liking her to get their vote, but she did absolutely everything she possibly could have to make them forget about the drama in her past and convince them that she could be the next American Idol.