It’s getting serious. It has finally reached the big one. American Idol has finally heated up with the venue moving to the Kodak Theater. The opening was the four judges walking out to centre stage and Ryan Seacrest lording over them. That was intense. The atmosphere, spirit and the massive talent this year promises all American Idol fanatics out there a great show, topped off by four incredible, if I may say, judges. The audience was completely psyched when our Top 13 made their entrance. Favourites such as Adam Lambert, Kris Allen, Allison Iraheta and Danny Gokey made it in with much ease. Others like Scott MacIntyre, Jasmine Murray, Alexis Grace, Megan Joy, Lil Rounds, Jorge Nunez, Michael Sarver, Anoop Desai and Matt Giraud completed the Top 13.

What I enjoyed about this episode was that the theme was Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson, who as you may recall is one of the artists that the judges have said to not touch. So despite the fact that they’ve told Kris Allen, among others, to not sing Michael Jackson, we had a full night devoted to the contestants doing just that! Some managed to pull it off better than expected. Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert and Matt Giraud sang splendidly, ending their respective songs with standing ovations from the audience. Praises were all around from the judges for these few contestants. Some, however, failed to live up to par. Favourites such as Lil Rounds and Megan Joy failed to impress the judges, and received harsh criticisms from Simon.

With Simon announcing that it is going to be a double-elimination this week, let’s just hope our favourites are not in jeopardy.