Paige Miles Passes from the Program on “American Idol”

For once, the axe has fallen on the neck of the right chicken on “American Idol.” On Wednesday, March 24, Paige Miles was eliminated from the group and the Top Ten now sails on into the unspectacular sunset of “American Idol’s” least successful season.

It was interesting that Tim Urban and Katie Stevens were also in the bottom three, and deservedly so (see previous AC articles). While Miley Cyrus did defend Tim’s corny slide across the stage, she can’t give Tim a voice he doesn’t have…nor, for that matter, stop singing through her nose and tossing her hair around a lot.

After Paige received the news, she did NOT sing “Against All Odds” again…the song that sealed her fate, and which one of the judges pronounced, “the worst I’ve ever heard.” (Not exactly words to jump-start your career).

Miley Cyrus sang “Everybody Needs Inspiration” (with a very nasal quality while playing the piano, at first) and then she got up and tossed her hair around as though there were head lice in her tresses that she was trying to cast off or a bird had flown into her long coif and she needed to swing her head violently from side-to-side to rid herself of it.

MILEY CYRUS SPEAKS:

She did have some words of wisdom that were worth noting, such as when Ryan Seacrest asked her if she could stand up to the “judges” on “American Idol” and she said, “It’s tough love. No, I would be this (happy face)… and then I’d be crying. I could never do that (sing) and then face criticism right there, face-to-face.” Hear! Hear! I agree with Miley on that, if nothing else. Also, she said, of Simon, “He scares me.”

One funny moment came when Didi Benami, onstage, said, “I can’t hear you” to the judging table (most particularly Simon). I thought she was being cheeky, but, as it turns out, they really couldn’t hear the judges (some sound glitch).

Demi Lovato (boy/girl singing team) came out and sang. Unremarkable.

When asked about whether the judges would use their “Save” power (which can be exercised only once and only by unanimous vote, as I understand it), the answer was a resounding “NO! It’s unanimous.” Simon said to Paige, “It’s not working. No false hope. It’s the end. You really genuinely had a great voice.” It’s always nice to hear Simon give hope and inspiration to young people. He reminds me of my golfing partners who always point out that the entire game rides on this upcoming putt. (You gotta’ love that.) His comment about the only female African American contestant’s vocal prowess was, at least, positive. Unfortunately, we heard little of Paige’s “great voice” during her execrable performance of “Against All Odds” on Tuesday night. It is difficult to say what happened to the pretty young girl who made it this far, but the cut was deserved, after Tuesday night’s performance.

For her final song, (thankfully) Paige did not reprise the woefully out-of-tune Phil Collins number (“Against All Odds”) that felled her, but sang the much better “All Night Long,” which suited her and which was up-tempo. She looked good, and she didn’t cry in public. If only she had sung more of this sort of song and less of old Phil, we might be seeing her “on tour” with the Top Ten, but Paige has pooped out, alas.

This night, America got it right. Paige, Tim and Katie: the Terrible Trio were the bottom three vote-getters, and now we know our Top Ten, which, in no particular order, are:   Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus, Lee DeWyze, Michael Lynche, Didi Benami, Tim Urban, Casey James, Aaron Kelly, Katie Stevens and Andrew Garcia.

I’m still voting for the Sudden Death Cage Match Elimination where we dump the 4 with no chance (Tim, Katie, Andrew and Didi) and let the Spectacular Six duke it out, but obviously it is, instead, going to be a long, slow slog until we get to  the rightful talent at the top, i.e., Crystal, Lee, Siobhan and a fourth to be named later.

Stay tuned, if you can take it.