It was a night for sweet dedications to Grandma, Grandpa, Wife, Mom and Dad.

But was it a good night for singing? I will say right off the bat that the guys rose to the occasion...or most of them did.

I REALLY like the tonal quality of Phil Stacey's voice. His range, phrasing, and diction are excellent and he has a very natural stage presence. When I heard the song choice, I was a tad concerned, but my worry was for nothing. Phil has one of those voices that will sound great in the studio. I don't think we'll be missin' Phil next week.

Jared Cotter is just plain HOT. He has the face of a male model, the body of an athlete, and well, he's very easy on the eyes. There are good things and not so good things about his voice, however, and since this is about singing, I'll go back to that. He has a nice falsetto and last night he showed that he also has more power that I originally thought. But on the down side, the song was a little too familiar (almost note for note like the original song), he had some minor pitch issues, and at times his voice sounded "tight" as though he was nervous.

I kept waiting for A J Tabaldo's song to get faster...it seemed to take forever to get to the more animated part of the song. The middle and ending were much better, and he seems to have grown in confidence since last week. He has a really nice high range, but so do a lot of the other guys. Will I remember him in a few days? Probably not.

Sweet Sanjaya Malakar needs to embrace the music and he needs to do it FAST. His lack of experience was painfully obvious as he performed last night. His voice sounded very weak, there were no dynamics and the hat that covered most of his face just detracted from an already low-key performance. I think he is an adorable kid, but that was very lackluster both in vocals and performance.

I don't think Chris Sligh is in any trouble. This guy has such great vocal control that I simply put down my pen and watched and listened. He did a beautiful, heartfelt performance with virtually perfect pitch and dynamics. He seemed very relaxed this week, a heck of a lot more humble (maybe because wifey was there), and that was a job very well done! He has a beautiful voice.

Nick Pedro sang a great song, "Fever", but it didn't really cause my temperature to rise. He has another soft-toned voice (like AJ), very nice pitch, nice highs...it was all very NICE. He had a wonderful finishing line and it was pleasant at times, but it was another performance I don't think I'll remember two days from now.

I will definitely remember Blake Lewis. I give him MAJOR props for his well placed use of scat and beat box during the song. I was impressed. But I hated his hat too...but that's just me. Blake has a really good voice and the song was fun, upbeat and he is another natural on the stage. He had a few pitch problems and fell out of the falsetto at the end, but considering the difficulty of the song, I thought he did a wonderful job overall.

Brandon, Brandon, Brandon. I want MORE from Brandon Rogers. From his odd song choice, to the plodding beat, to the lack of dynamics and variation, it was just not good. I know Brandon can sing and perform better than that or he would not have worked with the people he has. The song was way too EASY for him, and it did absolutely nothing to showcase his voice.

I howled when Chris Richardson dedicated his song to Grandma. I wonder how she felt about her Grandson as he wove his way through the song "Geek in the Pink?" Chris executed the song fabulously and he got all of those words in with that rather unique voice of his. I did think he had some control issues with diction and breathing (go figure...try to spit all those words out talking, much less singing), but it was extremely entertaining, and I think he probably inherited Grandma's spunky nature. I also give him big credit for the degree of difficulty.

Hey, the aliens that took Sundance Head finally brought him back! I was tickled to hear the same voice and passion we saw in his original audition. He wailed, hollered and sang....that's southern-ese for he done good. He was having a great time and showed the vocal range he possesses. It was really 100% better than last week, and I was happy for him. I also like the fact he trimmed that beard...I think there is a cute face under all that hair.