Monday night was final performance night, Jaydee Bixby vs Brain Melo. The two flew to New York for some mentoring from Bon Jovi on their Bon Jovi songs which we saw clips of during the first round of songs.

Jaydee sang ‘Who Says You Can’t Go Home’ and Brian sang ‘This Ain’t A Love Song’. Jaydee does a decent job but there’s nothing standout about it. It’ll be one of those performances that will be soon forgotten. Brian sings the first half like he wants to eat the mic and then gets a bit ‘screamy/scratchy’ on the choruses.

- advantage Brian

Next round is the Idol Single ‘All I Ever Wanted’. No sense in repeating myself. Just read the above comments from the first round. The song is definitely more suited to Brian’s style than Jaydee’s.

- round goes to Brian

Last round is a performer’s choice. Jaydee is up first and does the Tom Jones hit ‘It’s Not Unusual’ Brian does the Leonard Cohen song ‘Hallelujah’. Jaydee seems more in his element on this one and does a decent job. Brian does an outstanding job on his song. It was probably my favourite of his efforts this year. He saved his best for last, definitely.

- and the win goes to Brian

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Something new from the Idol thinkers this year. An online poll was conducted allowing viewers to choose from a list of songs for each of the three competitors to decide on a song they would sing. The other song would be a judge’s choice with Sass Jordan as the mentor.

The first round songs were chosen by the judges.

1. Jaydee Bixby – Break It To Them Gently (Burton Cummings) 7.5

This was Jaydee’s best effort in a long while. There was none of the forced deep voice and none of the “impression” just Jaydee’s natural voice. In my view this made for a far better more believable listen.

2. Brian Melo – Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum) 5.5

Looking at this choice it would seem an excellent fit. Brian’s vocals of late though seem a little too forced as if he feels he has to push his voice to another level to impress. To me this song is far more suited to the subtle smooth offering provided in the original classic by Gary Brooker of Procol Harum.

3. Carly Jepsen – At Seventeen (Janis Ian) 7.0

For the very first time I actually liked a song by Carly. She seemed to have lost that “frog in throat garbling” of her words and I could understand her without much concentration. It nowhere close to approaches the feel of Janis Ian’s original but it was a good effort for Carly just the same.

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It must have been a real honour for the idols to have the opportunity this week to work with the legendary Paul Anka. What a fitting choice as a guest mentor for this theme. A theme that is supposed to hi-lite the performer’s singing ability. Paul, for his part gave the idols some solid advice and then on results night delivered a super performance of his classic ‘My Way’.

Unfortunately, the idols couldn’t translate Paul’s advice into their performances and Paul seemed to agree. When asked by Metro News who he thought should win he couldn’t come up with a name and went on to suggest that ‘someone who didn’t make the four might go a lot further’. Interesting, I wonder who he had in mind.

When I think back on previous standard theme nights there truly were some memorable performances. Melissa O’Neil’s spectacular ‘DeLovely’ and Eva Avila’s spotless ‘God Bless The Child’ spring immediately to mind. This year’s eight performances will be forgotten like yesterday’s breakfast. I really wish that a truly gifted vocalist like this year’s Martha Joy had been around to show these four how it’s done. Anyway, once again the judges were in fine form touting the company line for their favourites.

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Another Tuesday night just passed which means another hopeful sent home. This time Matt Rapley of Saskatchewan.

The show opened with a group number. A rendition of Eric Clapton’s ‘Change The World’. The performance seemed rather bland. Understandable I guess with the absence of the stronger singers like Martha Joy and Khalila Glanville who between them always seemed to be handed the challenging bits of the group numbers.

The show livened up with two stellar performances by this week’s guest mentor Kelly Clarkson. First ‘Never Again’ from her new album ‘My December’, and then ‘Because Of You’ from ‘Breakaway’. Ben surprised Kelly with a presentation on behalf of Sony BMG of a platinum disk award for the new album.

In the end, Dwight D’Eon and Matt Rapley were declared the contestants with the least of the nearly four million votes received. Matt sang us out with another strong performance of ‘Higher Ground’. Good luck in the future Matt!

Top 5 performances are based on the theme ‘My Own Idol’ which means the contestants will be picking songs by artists that they personally idolize. Kelly Clarkson is the guest mentor and she is seen in the video intros working with the idols. She’s also in the studio audience for the live performances and will be singing two songs live on the results show.

1. Matt Rapley – Higher Ground (Stevie Wonder) 6.5

Kelly loved Matt’s voice but thought he looked too easy in his delivery. She wanted him to liven it up more and get more into it. He took her advice to heart and put it into his performance. He looked fierce and determined throughout. His vocal may have suffered a bit though. At times it seemed the band and the background singers were a bit overpowering. Still an overall good effort.

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After two performances by this week's guests, Maroon 5, Ben announced the bottom 3. They were Carly Jepsen, Dwight D'Eon and Tara Oram who was making her first appearance in the bottom group. Ben didn't send anyone back to the couch. Instead he just announced the person going home. Tara Oram. She looked happy and sang herself out nicely. Goodbye Tara, Canadian Idol will miss you.

Top 6 night is billed as Pop/Rock and Maroon 5 is to be the guest mentors. They don’t actually do any mentoring live one on one with the idols but they do offer taped responses to questions from each. I was interested to see what the mood of the judges would be given one of their heavy favourites was expelled last week. Zack seemed most effected as his critiques seemed to stem out of boredom for the first several contestants. His interest seemed to peak later in the show.

Here then is how I see the performances.

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Greg Neufeld.

What Greg? How can it be? He's one of the judge's favourites.

Oh well, I guess Canada didn't agree with them. Brian Melo (undeservedly) and Carly Jepson were the other members of the bottom three. Carly looked shocked as she was sent back to the couch. I guess she was expecting to go herself. Ben Mulroney almost flipped out after he read the card. "Canada got it wrong" he chirped and chirped. I thought it was a bit disrespectful to voters and to the six remaining contestants. But anyway, we say goodbye to Greg.

Brian May and Roger Taylor, original members of Queen, are the guest mentors and the idol hopefuls will be performing songs from the stage presentation of We Will Rock You. So all songs below were by Queen.

1. Brian Melo – Too Much Love Will Kill You 7.0

Another very good effort from Brian. As with previous weeks he had good intensity and he sang very well. He lost me a bit in the middle parts but overall a good showing.

2. Greg Neufeld – We Are The Champions 5.5

At least that’s what I think he’s singing but that’s not how I remember the song. The changes he made (or at least copied from someone else that changes them) were for the sake of change and took away from the impact of the original. He sang okay as usual but the song was messed up as far as I’m concerned.

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It’s becoming more and more apparent that the judges have picked their favoured two for this season. Zack Werner even ran up and hugged both of them after their performances. It must be discouraging for some of the other more talented competitors and their families to see the obvious agenda the show seems to have this year.

The theme for this show is “Unplugged” and Enrique Iglasius is the guest mentor. We see him in video clips guiding the hopefuls and we’ll see him performing live on results night.

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