Australian Idol: 3rd Finals Week

In celebration of Oz Music Week, tonight was Australian Music night on Idol. This is always an interesting night for me because you never know which NZ artist will get chucked in the mix (because, obviously, New Zealand is actually a part of Australia when it comes to music). Tonight's guest judge was Darren Hayes who was also responsible for picking Blonde Bombshell as a contestant so I was interested to hear what he'd be like as a critic. As it turned out, he was quite good. The singers have warmed to the challenge now and most of them are beginning to really hit their stride, so it was a no-brainer that picking the best was going to be tough.

Vietnamese John Farnham was first up tonight and surprised no one by attempting to sing the Real John Farnham. Not only that, but he tried the most histrionic one of all: "You're the Voice". He still sounds like a try-hard this bloke, but the judges were kinder to him this week.

Chrislyn (yep, ditched her nickname coz she deserves it) also went for the histrionics, taking a crack at "Chains" but unlike Tahn she carried it off. I was worried at first that she was only capable of making a good fist of black soul songs but after the last two weeks I'm not sure there's anything she can't do.

Despite the theme being Australian songs, The Kid sang an Evermore tune which should have been an instant disqualification because they're from New Zealand. Only Dicko mentioned this and seems as annoyed as I always am about the way the Aussie music scene adopts Kiwi bands as its own. Totally apart from that, The Kid was better tonight, but he still sings flat and sucks. Hines told him he was "solid" and "good" which shows how effective a judge she is.

Teale was better tonight too, but he still doesn't really stand out. Plus, he did "Black Fingernails, Red Wine", which is hardly a stretch for anyone who's come this far on this show. I've actually thought of a nickname for him now, but it's too late to use it now that I'm not really going to be using them anymore.

Roshani likes to test herself. Last week she took on Tina Turner. This week she went for Renee Geyer. And she gave it a pretty good crack too. Shame she won't get any votes because not enough people will know the song.

Wes is a champ. He knows what song to sing every time and he nails it every time. It's a bit of a shame he's had to go on this show to make a name for himself because he should already have one.

I thought Luke was going to blow it tonight because he just doesn't have the range for "Flame Trees". And he doesn't. He wasn't as good as he usually is, but he still rocked and got through a hard song pretty well for a guy who'd lost his voice.

The Blonde Bombshell really stepped up a level tonight. I wouldn't know a Potbelliez song if I tripped over one, but she did a good job in stripping it back to a style she seems comfortable with. The judges have been crapping on about her potential for a couple of weeks now, but it's only now that I can see any beyond looking good.

Mark showed Vietnamese John Farnham how to sing a John Farnham song, and that's with restraint, dammit! I don't think he was quite as good as usual either because he was thinking too much, but he's still better than everyone except Wes and Chrislyn.

Madam impressed me at first, but she's slipping more and more each week. She doesn't have the personality to pull off a convincing Veronicas cover, as she proved tonight.

So tonight's bottom three for mine were Tanh, Tom and Madam. Of course Tom will get saved by the training bra brigade so it will probably be someone totally unexpected like Blondie, because no amount of owning the stage can guard against being voted off by jealous bitches. I have to say that Darren Hayes was a pretty good guest judge too. He was insightful, interesting and he judged people on their merits, unlike the diva beside him who still can't find it in herself to criticise anyone for anything apart from their dress sense.

UPDATE: 290908 2033. For once, I was actually not surprised by who got in the bottom three, but I was surprised that the teenybopper brigade weren't strong enough to keep Tom for getting the boot. About time. Tip for the judges for next year: Don't put a pretty-looking 16yo boy who can barely sing into the final 12.