Throughout the "American Idol" season, the contestants who have truly come across as frontrunners have been male. There have been some showstopping female performances, but no female singer has been consistent enough to claim rights to a dominant tag.

This week's show, which asked the contestants to sing Mariah Carey songs, only increased the distance between the remaining males and females.

Frontrunner David Archuleta opened things up with "When You Believe." Archuleta, as always, was on vocally and showed a very strong connection to the song. His performance lacked a "wow" moment and suffered from a poor arrangement that neutered the beautiful crescendo of the original Mariah Carey/Whitney Houston version, but it still demonstrated why so many people assume he is going to win. His vocal talent is phenomenal, and he has a way of standing out no matter how cliched and obvious the song choice. (B+)

Carly Smithson continued to serve as the competition's "biggest disappointment." Her "Without You" was oversung in typical Smithson fashion, but unlike many of her past performances, it did not even have any real moments of beauty. It was just unappealing, with an unacceptable amount of shouting and a complete absence of legitimate emotional bonding with the lyrics. Smithson should be cruising through an "American Idol" competition that lacks singers with her vocal power, but she's just not performing well. (C-/C)

The routinely underrated Syesha Mercado was good, but not great, on "Vanishing." Syesha continued demonstrating new levels of vocal power, and her poise on stage continues to be her strong point, but she still suffered from shaky vocal spots and a bit of a disconnect with the audience. She performs very well and with great professionalism, but this particular performance revealed why she tends to be so underrated and underappreciated—she doesn't routinely do a great job of sucking the audience into the moment. That failure kept this from becoming a great performance. (B-/B)

Never have Simon and Paula been so correct in their assessment of a performance than when addressing Brooke White's "Hero." The performance was a perfect example of how poor song choice can ruin things for a contestant. Brooke White's decision to go low-key with the piano was a great way to account for her inability to match Mariah Carey's vocal power, but "Hero" was not the right song for the task. An "Idol" contestant should feel free to develop his own arrangements, but they should never take away the elements that make a song so special. It is Mariah's gorgeous belting and injection of emotion that makes the song such a classic ballad, and Brooke simply glossed over the more intense parts of the song, struggling with the few big notes she did attempt to hit. She also went way off tempo towards the end, as Paula correctly pointed out, which only killed the emotion of the moment. Making a song one's own is great, but neutering a song to make it easier—and not even nailing the easier version—is just unacceptable. (C-)

Kristy Lee Cook did a decent job with "Forever." She added nothing of significance and her vocal tone and accent did clash with the song at times, but she still showed comfort and power on stage. Kristy Lee Cook will never be the best singer, she will never be the most charismatic and she will never be the most emotional performer. But, she has escaped the horror of performances like "Eight Days a Week" and become a reliable producer of solid performances. She unfortunately has nowhere significant to go, so an elimination, whether this week or next week, appears unavoidable, but she at least has proven critics who want to lump her with past "horrible" contestants like Sanjaya Malakar and Jon Peter Lewis incorrect. (C+)

David Cook's "Always Be My Baby" has the potential to be the most important performance of the season. The unique and very contemporary arrangement, impossible-to-ignore passion and overall authenticity of the performance separated Cook from the pack and pretty much solidified him a shot at recording industry success. The performance also once again proved that Cook has the power to deliver the magic he will need to beat a force like David Archuleta head-to-head. If Cook ends up winning, this performance will be remembered with "Billie Jean" as instrumental in getting him to the top. It was simply a great performance that more than made up for Cook's debacle last week. The brilliance of the arrangement and Cook's control on stage resulted in overpraise for the vocals, which were generally great but a bit slurred and robotic early on, but no one will ever look back on this performance and say the judges dropped the ball. It wasn't about nailing every note—it was about telling a story. David Cook did that. (A/A+)

Tuesday made it two in a row for Jason Castro, who owned "I Don't Want to Cry." After his goofy presence and series of mediocre performances made his run seem to be at its end, Castro has brought himself back into connection. He is not good enough to win, but he definitely made a case to last for several more weeks. He showed poise, passion and vocal strength on the number and really brought the show to a great end. The fact that Castro could follow Cook's performance and still do something memorable speaks volumes about how good this was. (A-)

Performance Rankings:
1) David Cook
2) Jason Castro
3) David Archuleta
4) Syesha Mercado
5) Kristy Lee Cook
6) Carly Smithson
7) Brooke White

Elimination Thoughts:
Based on fanbase and memorability of performance, the intuitive bottom three is Carly, Kristy and Syesha. But, because Syesha and Carly were both in the bottom group last week, there is a chance one might slip through to the top four and be replaced by Brooke. In any event, it should most likely be an all girls bottom three and should definitely be a girl's turn to exit the competition.

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