| Melinda Doolittle - Final 8 Show - Latin Night with Jennifer Lopez |
| Melinda's song choice for tonight is 'Sway', the English version of the 1953 Latin pop number "Quién Será". Dean Martin had a hit with it and more recently so did those sultry, sexy Pussycat Dolls. |
| We say 'sultry' and 'sexy' because that's how Latina mentor Jennifer Lopez would like Melinda to act when she sings this song, "Come in with that intention... 'You know what, I'm the sultriest, sexiest singer you ever saw and here I go.'" |
| "Oh shoot" replies Melinda, who despite being as cute as a button, thinks of herself as "so not sexy!" |
| Tonight on stage she is styled to look classy, high heeled, elegantly coiffed and draped in a black evening dress. Somehow though, the overall image doesn't work for Melinda. Normally she looks really young, tonight she looks older than her years. More like a favorite auntie than the sultry sex siren that Jennifer was hoping to see! |
| Perhaps she's over-conscious of those 'sultry' and 'sexy' expectations because she looks unusually uncomfortable on the stage. Not in a massive way, it's just that she's lost a bit of spontaneity tonight. |
| The vocal performance is solid, but doesn't get us as excited as in previous outings. She at least ends on a big note to remind us what she's really made of. |
| In our opinion Melinda doesn't need the styling or the sultry, sexiness, she just needs to get out on stage and feel the music and show off, as Randy Jackson puts it, that 'big old voice' of hers. |
- Randy Jackson doesn't know if it was Melinda's "best performance" but he rates it as a "Another solid performance. At the end you kind of echoed a little Celia Cruz."
- Paula Abdul calls the performance "very sultry, very smooth" and tells Melinda "it wasn't one of the performances where you had to wow us, it was kind of subtle and sexy and beautiful."
- Last week Simon Cowell was worried that he might never get to critcize Melinda, but tonight he tells her "It had to happen, Melinda. I didn't like it." Simon also thinks that Melinda appeared "much older" than she is. Finally he throws in a stock insult of "very lounge cabaret."
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Ryan joins Melinda to ask if she was worried about what Simon would say.
She answers "You know, I'm happy, because I think he really wanted to say something bad and I'm glad he got the chance."
Even Simon can't stop himself from laughing at that. Nice one Melinda! |  |
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