Welcome to the Round of 4 - the land where the singers in trouble get saved, and where the top singers who are mediocre get their walking papers. We'll get to that later on in the show, but first, we will hear the singers and get some opinions from The Jason, who has decided to show up this week and chime in with his 2 cents worth. Speaking of 2, we'll be seeing 2 performances from each American Idolist.

We have Barry Gibb themes this week. Him of the 'Saturday Night Fever' and 36 Singles claim to fame. Melinda Doolittle will start us off with the 'Fame' part, as she tries to 'Claim' a good musical performance with 'Love You Inside and Out'

The Good - It was a technically sound, overall good performance.

The Bad - At this stage of the game, if you are going to select a song that people haven't heard of, the performance can't be just good. It has to be spectacular - and she didn't make that happen/

The Jason - It was just there. It was technically competent, but didn't emotionally wow me.

The Verdict - This is a song that will get you to the top half of American Idol. This is NOT a song that will help you win the competition and this could be a problem.

Blake Lewis is going to Beat Box with 'You Should Be Dancing'. Blockster did a sweet techno rendition of the song and I expect Blake to go after it in the same vein.

The Good - The Beat Boxing in the middle and end was a nice touch to an arrangement that is wide open for that sort of arranging.

The Bad - Spent way too much time focusing on the Beat Boxing and not enough time focusing on the pitch, which was horrendous.

The Jason - Tried to be cute. Showed that he was a One Trick Pony.

The Verdict - I was expecting Erasure to come out and hand out balloons, silly string and disco bubbles. He needs the second song in a major way, because the Beat Boxing backfired, big time. Boom.

Lakisha Jones decides to sing Staying Alive. This is either going to rock or it's going to make Blake Lewis's performance sound angelic.

The Good - Not only sang the song well, but also conveyed a passion that was not felt in the first two performances.

The Bad - Bailed out on the high part in the middle of the song. Wuss. Boooo.

The Jason - Lakisha had to hit a home run to literally stay alive - and she did.

The Verdict - I disagree with Jason. I think that she hit a double, but a double may be good enough with a bunt and a ground out so far.

Jordin Sparks sings 'To Love Somebody'. Will we love her performance?

The Good - Not only did she sing the song out of the park, she sang a adult contemporary song out of the park, which allows her to get even more new fans.

The Bad - Did Jordin come to Idol from Art Class? I could have sworn that she was wearing an art schmock.

The Jason - Not only was she pitch perfect, I heard a lot of Alicia Keyes in her voice. Fantastic.

The Verdict - Perfect Song, Best performance of the evening. Potential to have a clear stranglehold on first with a second solid effort.

For anyone not named Jordin, they should all be happy that we get a second song this evening. We start with Melinda Doolittle, who sings 'How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?'

The Good - Much better performance than the first song. She finishes the song with a very nice flourish.

The Bad - It's still a bad song selection. Melinda is going to have a problem finding a fan base who will vote for her on obscure songs.

The Jason - She sang with fear. All technique, no passion.

The Verdict - She sang like a back-up singer and not someone who wants to win Idol. That would be two mediocre efforts and a major problem this week.

Blake decides to go with 'This is Where I came In'. Blake likes the song and decides to play with the arrangement...again. Can he do better than what he did on the first effort?

The Good - This is a strange song choice, but he executes it better than the first song selection.

The Bad - He needed to sing one of those songs straight without the Beat Boxing. If he sang it this way, then he should have sang the first song straight. He was not much better with the pitch.

The Jason - Taking a risk is one thing. Singing yourself out of the finals is another, and that is what he did tonight.

The Verdict - The only reason why Blake will be here next week is because he's the only person that the Sanjaya/Phil/Chris-ites have to vote for. That being said, he did himself no favors this evening and it wouldn't shock me if there were three women singing next week.

Lakisha decides to sing 'Run To Me'. We're hoping that we will be doing that, because so far, there's been more stuff to run away from.

The Good - Now there's the vocal range that I was waiting for Lakisha to produce on the first song. This was a much better song performance...

The Bad - ...until that last note. Ouch. The beginning stanza was nothing to write home about either.

The Jason - Nice ballad, Good range, but an obscure song choice.

The Verdict - The song isn't that obscure, but it was just ok, and we can place her right next to Blake and Melinda under person in trouble this evening.

Jordin wraps up the show with 'A Woman in Love' from Saturday Night Fever. Will we love her afterwards?

The Good - She nailed the high notes, and she emotionally nails the tune.

The Bad - When she wasn't belting the song, she had pitch issues. Perhaps she needed a better key.

The Jason - Stamp her ticket to the finals.

The Verdict - It was pitchy, but compared to all of the other song choices this evening, it was one of the better performances.

Overall Verdict - For a group that was lights out for the past two weeks, this was a very disappointing show. Anyone not named Jordin Sparks has issues this evening. Blake Lewis, though awful, will be bailed out by his fans. We'll see the power of Melinda's fan base - and I don't think it's going to be better than Jordin or Blake.

Trouble - Melinda, Lakisha

This has all of the earmarks of another upset, as Melinda didn't do much. but in the past we have seen that her fanbase is stronger than Lakisha's, and I think we see it again tonight. That, plus Lakisha's failure to sing better than Melinda this evening equals...

OUT: Lakisha Jones.

We'll see in 24 hours if we do indeed get an upset.

G.