Matthew Metzger, Our #1 Vote of the Night

Ryan Seacrest set the tone of the evening but imitating UC Berkeley junior, William Hung, who has become Cal's Big Man on Campus, and even bigger in Singapore. While Ryan moved and grooved on stage to the student who was used by Fox and the judges to show what they had to "put up with" reporter, Demian Bulwa was busy writing a story for The San Francisco Chronicle about the American Idol wannabe.

Will Hung, Courtesy of Fox Broadcasting

Two weeks ago, Hung was rejected from the competition on Fox, but fellow students at Berkeley and fans around the world have turned him into a Ricky Martin parody phenomenon we are calling the "Sing-a-poor Sensation." We love Will's attitude. His reaction to his performance on American Idol: "Never give up. If you don't then you can say to yourself that you tried your best and had no regrets." We agree and so, it appears, do his classmates and the producers of the MTV Asia Awards among others. Now, in addition to getting constantly asked for his autograph, he has gotten his wish to show everyone in the world that regardless of success or failure effort counts for a lot.

Perhaps the producers of the show will bring back Will for a cameo appearance. Better yet, perhaps Ricky Martin will invite Will to perform She Bangs! live on stage with him next time he is in Singapore or Northern California. Fox, if you're listening, we'd love you to sponsor the concerts.

In the meantime, the show has gone on. Last night, we got to see and hear eight of the top thirty-two top contenders.

Simon said Diana De Garmo's performance was "superb." He likened her to Grammy award-winner, Christina Aguilera," when she was nice."

Marque Lynche, who sang "Wind Beneath My Wings," was our 19 year-old's #1 favorite. And twenty-three year-old, Ashley Thomas got our six year-old's second place vote. She especially liked her good attitude. Last night, she was out to especially convince Simon that she has so much spark that she was prepared "to light all the televisions on fire."

Katie Webber, wearing a jazzy dress sang a jazz song that reminded the judges of Elvis. She got two #1 nods from our eight year-old and the one male vote in our house.

We were hoping to be "hungry" for Erskine Walcott last night. He sang a passionate Journey song. We learned that Randy was diggin' it, in part because he used to perform with Journey. However, Simon felt it was a "safe song." We agree with Paula that Erskine (pronounced Erskin) is the real deal. We love the fact that he is a sensitive family man, and we were hoping that he would shine like he did for us last week. But we felt there were better performers in the house now that the competition has gotten tougher.

Jennifer Hudson's "leather nurse look" was a huge step up from the space suit she wore last week. And any well-sung Beatles song is a hit in this household. So, when Jennifer sang John Lennon's Imagine, we were adding her to the high rankings. In fact, she ultimately was the second favorite performer of the night for our nineteen year-old.

But when it came down to making that one call last night, even though he was ranked #2 by three of us, Matthew Metzger got our vote. Because four of us voted him as their Top Two, the number we dialed last night was "866-IDOLS-07."

Dressed in black, Matthew stepped onto the stage looking like a star. The twenty-three year-old substitute teacher also sang like a star. We all agreed last night that if we were deciding whose CD to buy it would be Matthew Metzger's. We also like that his #1 personal goal in life is to be the best husband and father in the world there has ever been. You go, Matthew!

While I was outnumbered last night, I have to agree with Randy, Paula and Simon's assessment regarding Fantasia Barrino's performance. Paula said it best, "This show must have Fantasia in it." And if she doesn't win, I wholeheartedly agree that she does not need this competition anyway. Her uniqueness and original quirky presence together with the strength of her vocal sound gave us all something to talk about. While I couldn't convince anyone to add her to the top of their list, I'd be happy to promote her CD in RuggedElegance.com the minute it is released.

Likewise, until Will Hung's CD is released, you can buy Ricky Martin's version of "She Bangs" by clicking on Buy Related Products below. Sound Loaded is available here, along with Christina Aguilera's Stripped, which earned her the Grammy for Best Female Vocalist thanks to her stellar performance of Beautiful, as well as John Lennon's Very Best CD which includes the hit song, Imagine, one of our favorite CD's by Mark Cohn which includes his hit Walking in Memphis, and The Best of Bonnie Raitt which includes her version of Something To Talk About.

~Jennifer

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