Lopez Blogs

Love week on Idol - however a nice twist as each of the contestants dedicated a song to a loved one.

Andreas Weise took another step down the cabaret route with his (soul-less) version of the old Jackie Wilson soul classic 'Higher and Higher'. Again, as in previous weeks, he sang well but that was about all. As the competition gets harder, it was inevitable that he took his rightful place in the bottom two.

Geir Rönning was next with "I Heard It Through The Grapevine". At least he gave a gutsy, decent version of the song. But then he should, being the experienced performer that he is. The Norwegian forty-something finally had to face the fact that Idol is a young person's game, and that the novelty would wear off as the competition went on. So Geir became the latest person to leave this year's "Idol".



In many of these TV contests, there are contestants who maybe don't start off as favourites but you can see them developing into star performers as the weeks go on. The famous "journey" in other words. Minnah Karlsson is one of those contestants - she's had an amazing comeback which continued with her version of "Whataya Want From Me". I'm beginning to rethink my prediction here - that it may be her, and not Linnea, who will be in the final two?

Of course Jay Smith remains a certainty for that final spot, and his version of "Here Without You" didn't change that. He dedicated the song to his wife, who has supported him throughout his recovery from drug addiction.


Linnea Henriksson dedicated "My Baby Just Cares For Me" to her big-haired boyfriend (nice!) and as usual she didn't disappoint.

I think they're trying to "soften up" Elin Blom, as she took another step away from her original rock-chick persona this week. Sat at the piano, she performed a very nice version of "Forever Young" and I think she's safe for at least another week.

Finally...Olle Hedberg. Leaving the best till last! Olle did a great version of "Free Fallin'" which was closer to the John Mayer version of the song than Tom Petty's original. Olle has the same warm vocal style and this song suited him perfectly. His popularity is growing by the week, so fingers crossed that he goes all the way to the final. Although he probably won't.

This week's show also saw the launch of the Idol finalists' charity single "All I Need Is You" written by Andreas Carlsson who also joined the boys and girls on stage and got his own moment in the spotlight!

In Melodifestivalen-style, Idol will now go on a 'tour' and the Friday finals will now take place in a different city every week. First stop: Luleå. We don't need any excuse to post a nice picture of Olle of course, but here is one of him in Luleå, today, in the snow :)

All of the above pictures are courtesy of www.tv4.se/idol