It’s Inspiration Week and the Idol contestants are singing inspirational songs in line with the Idol Gives Back event tomorrow night. First up on the stage was Michael Johns, who sang “Dream On“, then Syesha Mercado, who sang Fantasia’s “I Believe“.

Jason Castro sat down and played a ukelele with “Somewhere Over the Rainbow“. I love the song and the way he sang it just made me melt. Hehe. Sue me, like a lot of girls out there don’t like him.

Kristy Lee Cook, who looked absolutely adorable tonight sang Martina McBride’s “Anyway“. I can still remember Martina McBride sing this song last season. How would I forget? That was the night Chris Richardson wore the green “Respect Your Mother” shirt. Everybody on The Richness is still fussing over it, and a number of fans bought themselves an identical shirt.

David Cook was up next. I loved this man’s performance. I had goosebumps. So the performance was a little all over the place and needed some cleaning up, but I can totally imagine his performances on the same line. Oh and he did “Innocent“.

Last year, American Idol organized an event called Idol Gives Back. This event became the biggest hit on television overnight, garnering over $75M in a very short period of time. Tomorrow, April 9, 2008, Wednesday at 7:30-10:00 in the evening, ET/PT, Idol Gives Back airs once again, raising awareness and more funds to the six charities that they will be benefiting. The following charities are as follows: U.S. Programs and the Children’s Health Fund, Save the Children, Malaria No More, Children’s Defense Fund, Make It Right, and The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria.

This year, the event will be more star-studded than that of last year’s, among those that will be making new appearances are Robin Williams, Forest Whitaker, Dane Cook, Vanessa Hudgens, Jennifer Connolly, Fantasia, Celine Dion, Billy Crystal, Kiefer Sutherland, Ashley Tisdale, Elliott Yamin and Amy Adams. Bono, Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Mariah Carey, Eli Manning, Miley Cyrus, Peyton Manning, Chris Daughtry, Fergie, Annie Lennox, Carrie Underwood, John Legend, Maroon 5, Snoop Dogg, Gloria Estefan and Heart will also make the show.

During the event, donations will be accepted via toll-free lines as well as the Internet.

I am not such a fan of Yahoo! for it spoiling everything about tonight’s show on American Idol. Don’t they know how many people have them as their homepage? Never mind me, I’m just a nobody. Looks like Yahoo! would like some traffic too. As if being homepage of millions and millions of people online isn’t enough.

Some radio stations have been wondering why none of the Idol contestants covered Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5“. It was supposedly Chikezie Eze’s song choice, but seeing that he is off the show now, and that everyone was pretty much contented with their song choices, nobody took the song. And now we see why. “9 to 5” was tonight’s group song.

Michael Johns, David Archuleta, and Carly Smithson were then called safe.

On tonight’s American Idol, Dolly Parton mentors the Top 9, and they are also doing covers from the Dolly Parton songbook.

Brooke White opens the show with “Jolene“. I love her, but really, it’s becoming the same over and over again. I need something new from her, but then again, who knows, she might win.

David Cook, after dominating the past weeks with his performances and controversies, did a cover of “Little Sparrow“. Tonight, he acknowledged the songwriters that he borrowed his arrangements from, including Doxology’s rendition of “Eleanor Rigby“. Something different about him tonight… Shocks! He got rid of the “over-comb”. I like the new hair.

Ramiele Malubay, who totally sucked the past couple of weeks, did “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind“. She actually sounded a lot better this week, but I wasn’t too sure about the performance, if you listened carefully, you would hear her being unsure of some of the lyrics. I’m worried about tomorrow for her.

On my last American Idol entry, I suggested that it’s either Chikezie or Ramiele Malubay going. I was only half right. Only Chikezie made the Bottom 3.

Next to get called on is Brooke White. She can’t go in the Bottom 3, so she’s safe. Carly Smithson is up, she’s also safe. David Archuleta is also safe, but I’m starting to think that he’s getting less and less versatile. Seems that ballads suit him more than anything, but you can’t just do ballads all the time.

Looking at this year’s contestants, I’d say that they are pretty young, even Michael Johns, who’s almost 30 (or is he 30 yet?) looks young. So tonight was 80’s night and the Idol finalists are all competing to be the next American Idol and don’t have to worry about getting to go to the Tour anymore.

First was Filipino-American Ramiele Malubay with “Alone“. Such a tiny little girl with a big voice. To be honest, She’s starting to bore me. But if I were in the U.S., I’d probably be voting for her. Filipinos are like that.

Jason Castro sang with his guitar again tonight with “Fragile“. Ok, so I haven’t been watching AI as much as I used to last season, but I finally noticed the John Travolta likeness. I do not even know what to say about him right now.

This week’s elimination round will determine who will get to join the American Idols Tour. That must suck big time for this week’s “loser”. Let’s start the recap.

In the future shows, the Idol contestants will have mentors to help them with the competition and they will be Dolly Parton, Mariah Carrey, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Neil Diamond. The songwriting contest has also been announced. So whoever’s got skills in songwriting better step up, because your song might be the next American Idol single.

It’s American Idol day again. Performance nights are Tuesdays in the US and Wednesdays in the Philippines, but well, I got friends in the US that like to update me and also like to spoil stuff for me, so I might as well blog about it and tell everyone. The Idols sang Lennon-McCartney songs again, and some did well, and some didn’t do too well.

Rocker nurse Amanda Overmyer went first and sang “Back in the U.S.S.R.”. It’s either I was too young or wasn’t born yet when this song was written. Umm, a little scared for the nurse. Too much talent on this show.