Idol 82 - Lacey Brown

This is a girl who should be very proud of where she finished. Seriously.

Lacey managed to make the final round of the competition after delivering only one good performance in the semi-finals. Her first week was a disaster. Lacey's voice is often very controlled, but her rendition of Landslide went nowhere. It was a weird song to start off the competition with and she, for whatever reason, had a serious problem of bursting away from the pack of Season 9's indie divas.

Good thing her second performance, Kiss Me, was a mild improvement although still pretty average. Her third week, thank God, made America realize she was talented. Really. The Story was a perfect song choice and that I believe saved her a spot in the Top 12. Did I think it was enough to give her a spot over Katelyn Epperly or Lilly Scott? Maybe not. But, America voted and they went with her. So, there's that. Haha.

Now, I was kind of unsure what to make out of her Top 12 performance. Was she awful during Top 12 night to merit a 12th place finish? No, of course not, and if you read my review of her performance you would see that I didn’t even put her in my bottom three. I thought her performance of Ruby Tuesday had an absolutely beautiful beginning, but then halfway through, she seemed to lose all of its character. Oh, and she was forgettable and that's a sin worse than murder on this program.

Frankly, I wasn't so torn up about her early ouster because I couldn’t envision Lacey winning 'Idol' and the sooner she was eliminated the sooner some of the vote splitting could quit. Heck, I even wagered a guess that Didi’s stock would surged in light of Lacey's elimination - although, of course, that didn't happen. Haha. 

And while I still contend Lacey's ouster came a week too late - at the expense of Katelyn and Lilly - and while I can't say I was really sad to see her go, she was able to hold her head up and she handled her exit with grace and poise - not to mention a song that suited her tissue-papery instrument.

Favorite Performance(s): Hands down, it's her rendition of The Story. Although I would say that her What A Wonderful World version during the Hollywood week was equally gorgeous. I mean, you know your Hollywood Week solo is a good one when the show's producers use it as the soundtrack for a montage of additional contestants - in this case Joe Muñoz, Ashley Rodriguez, and Alex Lambert - getting good news from the judges.

The Story

What A Wonderful World

#81 - Had a universally panned movie