This was the first week of live shows with audience voting as the Final 12 acts battled it out for your votes.  It was definitely another amazing show with some great performances.  The scope and grandeur of the show is incredible (much bigger than the UK version) bringing us performances like we've never seen on TV before.  Let's just hope they can keep it up in the weeks to come.

The Stereo Hoggz

The Stereo Hoggz started off the show with a military-esque extravaganza.  Covering one of Janet Jackson's most famous songs, 'Rhythm Nation' really highlighted the potential they have as a great performance group.  I did think that the lead singer's vocals were too shaky in the beginning, but that pales in comparison to the overall performance.  

Rachel Crow

I definitely preferred this week's performance to last week's.  While this was still very "childish", I enjoyed the overall performance aspect of it.  She has a great voice, and it really showed in this performance.  I hope that next week Simon lets her sing something more difficult and powerful because I want people to see how good of a voice she really has.

Lakoda Rayne

I genuinely enjoy these girls, contrary to most of the American public.  Like I said last week, I think they bring a new flavor to the girl group scene, and I like their pop/country vibe.  Simon said he wants them to pick one genre and stick to it; if they did that they would no longer be fresh and current.  Keep it up girls!

Melanie Amaro

Again, another strong performance, vocally that is.  I found her to be a bit dull this week, but she definitely has the pipes.  I think she needs to be a little bit more fun in her performances.  

Astro

Another amazingly good performance from Astro!  A lot of people really seem to be turned off by him because of his "ego", but I think he has the goods to back that ego.  He writes his own lyrics and gives a fun and energetic performance each week.  I'd definitely listen to his music any day over Kanye's.

Drew

This was an interesting curve ball that Drew threw us this week!  She took Nelly's popular 'Like a Dream' and turned it on its head.  These are the performances that I love on these shows because it shows how creative the artists really are.  If Drew keeps up this momentum then I could see her winning the show.

Marcus Canty

I was disappointed by Marcus this week.  The performance wasn't original and just plain boring.  His performance blew me away last week and made me like him, but this week I'm rethinking my decision.  I hope he brings some originality next week because this was just bland.

Stacy Francis

I really do think Stacy is an incredible singer and I really like her, but I felt the performance this week was a little contrived.  It just didn't sit well with me.  She sang her heart out like no other, but I just didn't believe it.  Hopefully next week she'll do a better job.

Based on the performances, I thought that the Bottom Two would be Marcus Canty and Chris Rene with Chris going home.  That was just wishful thinking because the actual Bottom Two, surprisingly, consisted of two groups.  I was glad to see inTENsity go home, but they completely out sung The Stereo Hoggz during their "Survival Song."  For the first time I actually liked one of their performances.  The Results Show was a complete snooze fest.  I thought it would be just as good as the UK version which I think is, by far, the best results show of any talent show.  Simon let me down: the classic American Idol "after the break" and only one guest performance.  Let's hope they make it better because I was BORED.  And sorry that I didn't live tweet during the show; I was feeling really bad.  Not fun.  I will definitely try it next week!