Credit to MJ:

“Voodoo” is the highly anticipated Adam Lambert track appearing as a bonus track on international versions of his debut album For Your Entertainment.

The album was released in Australia and New Zealand today (March 5) giving peeps a first listen to the tune Adam co-wrote with Sam Sparrow.”

Adam has told interviewers that he left the sultry dance track off the album because it didn’t fit in with the album’s overall “vibe”.

First, the artwork on the American Idol site changed…advertising the Top 10 guys tonight and the Top 20 girls tomorrow. Yet, Ryan Seacrest announced on his radio show this morning the girls were on for tonight. Very confusing.

Now, Laura Saltman from Access Hollywood is confirming that the switch is on, and she’s trying to figure out why.

I’m hearing one of the girls is sick. Backup singer, Sy Smith just tweeted: “Lawd, potential drama at Idle today. But the show must go on…”

So it looks like the boys are performing tonight. Rumor has it that one of the girls is sick, which is weird because they’ve never switched the show order when Idols have been sick before. I suspect some fans will be getting the tin foil hats out today.

Update: Slezak is reporting that Crystal Bowersox is the one that’s too sick to perform.  “Due to medical reasons”.

We’ve seen this happen again and again on American Idol. The singers who suck the worst on a given night stay, while contestants who perform okay (but not great) get eliminated. Who could forget the three divas hitting the seal in AI3? What about David Hernadez (instead of Kristy Lee Cook) going out 12th and Michael Johns 8th?  How does one explain  Sanjaya’s unfathomable  staying power on the show?

WhatNotToSing ha been tracking and calculating American Idol elimination patterns for years. They assign each AI performance a rating based on feedback from blogs, fan forums, newspaper articles, major media, etc.

So what percentage of times is the contestant with the lowest rating booted? An astoundingly low 24%.

WNTS sites two effects that cause untimely boots: The Mighty Mouse Effect and the Seasame Street Syndrome. In the first, fans of the singer who gave the perceived worst performance rally the troops and ride to the rescue by voting until their fingers bleed, resulting in the next-worst singer getting booted.

This happened last season when Allison was bashed by the judges in the F5 show. Fans panicked and raced to vote for Allison, landing Kris and Adam in the B3 and Matt getting the boot. The following week she was a victim of  the effect when Danny’s fans saved him after the “scream” incident and Allison was eliminated.

What happened in this season’s Top 24 elimination was more likely the Seasame Street Syndrome. This happens when two or more contestants have terrible performance, resulting in the fans of each contestant thinking they only have to beat “the other guy who sang badly”. This results in the contestant with the 3rd or 4th lowest-rated contestant getting the boot.

In the case of the Top 12 boys there were plenty of bad performances. WNTS rates Joe’s performance 6th and Tyler’s 8th, while Jermaine comes in second-to-last and Tim scored one of the lowest ratings in the history of the show. Chances are good that that the fans of Tim and Jermaine (and I’m guessing John as well) spent the full two hours of voting calling and texting like the wind to save their guys.

The unlimited voting system of American Idol is what causes “shocking” eliminations. Fans of the show have called for revisions of the voting system, but that is unlikely to happen. After all, shock boots are good TV.

I freakin’ love Dave and the evil minions of VFTW. They make American Idol seasons more fun, and jeebus knows we could us that this season. Here’s their evil plan to keep Zac Efron lite on the show:

“VFTW likes to work with delusional fan groups to help advance our causes. We haven’t yet zeroed in on Haeley Vaughn’s fan base, but we know exactly who’s going to help us keep around Tim Urban: tween girls. So if you know any tween or teenage girls, please send them these shirtless pictures of Tim Urban and talk to them about how OMGSOCUTE Tim is and how he needs votes this Wednesday. The more tween girls we convince to join our cause, the better a chance Tim has to survive. If you’re a parent, teacher, babysitter, or even a tween girl yourself, exploit your trust and we’ll thank you for it. Tweens really know how to text.”

VFTW

That’s the way it goes, kids. You only get one shot make American love you.

Le sigh. Remember the Top 36 show last season when Adam Lambert stepped on the Idol stage for the first time and amazed, terrified, and confused America? Nothing even remotely like that happened on Wednesday night’s show. With a couple of exceptions, most of the guys were fair to mediocre. I’m going to start with the two performances I thought were the best and do the rest in random order.

Casey James – “Heaven” by Bryan Adams. The song has been done to death on Idol, but Casey gave it new life with his quiet acoustic version. He obviously has a lot of experience on stage and he looked very comfortable. I would get preachy and say that Kara needs to knock off the cougar stuff, but right after that I’d have to admit that Casey cleans up well. He’s hot and he can sang. What’s not to like?

Andrew Garcia – “Sugar We’re Going Down” by Fallout Boy. Andrew got the pimp spot. Shocking! The show is getting hideously predictable. Its like they don’t ever try to hide their agenda anymore. Anyway, Andrew did his acoustic pop song thing and sounded great, but its already getting tiresome. Also, dude, you don’t have to use mellisma on the end of every. single. line.

Just sayin’.

Aaron Kelly – “Here Comes Goodbye” by Rascall Flatts. Aaron’s voice sounded good, but he looked mighty nervous on stage. Its weird. He’s sort of like a charisma-free pageant kid. Does such a thing even exist? I think his performance probably made some country fans happy and Aaron should have that demographic sewn up.

Tyler Grady – “American Woman” by the Guess Who”. I love Tyler’s 70′s vibe and I dug the scarf. The slower, bluesy first part of the song was great, but he got a little too screamy on the rest. He was also a little awkward on stage without a band behind him. That said, the performance was okay. I think if Tyler wanted to do a Guess Who song, an updated version of “Undun” would have worked better.

Todrick Hall - “Since You Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson. I loved his outfit. It was brave of Todrick to completely rearrange Kelly’s song. It was interesting, but it just didn’t show off Todrick’s voice enough. I felt like he was trying to do an Adam Lambert (or David Cook or Kris Allen) and failed.

Lee Dewyze – “Chasing Cars” by Snow Patrol. Lee has a lovely tone to his voice. He got a little pitchy in some places and a little screamy in others, but it was a good performance. I’m not sure if  I loved the song choice since it was played to death on the radio when it first came out, but I’ll give Lee a break on it. I hope he hangs around because I’d like to hear more of him.

Michael Lynche – “This Love” by Maroon Five. Dude was kind of all over the place with the pitch in the beginning of the song. But like Ellen said, it didn’t matter because he has so much personality. Yeah. I don’t even know what to say about that.

John Park – “God Bless the Child”. John wants to marry Shania? Hee! Somehow I don’t think that’s going to happen. I love John’s voice, but the song sounded sleepy and made me want to drink a martini. John is another one I hope sticks around, because I know he can do better.

Alex Lambert – “Wonderful World” by James Morrison. First of all, what’s with the mullet? Alex has a good voice, but he looked scared and awkward on stage. I can’t really criticize his singing other than to say he gets a bit nasally at times. I think he’ll make it through this week and hopefully get over his nerves.

Joe Munoz – “You and I” by Jason Mraz. Not a great song choice for a first performance. Joe sounded good but he got a bit goaty in some parts. Since most of the viewers have never seen this kid before now, and I fear his chances of getting through aren’t too high.

Jermaine Sellers – “Get Here”. Why does Jermaine insist on over-singing everything? He has a bad habit of getting really screechy at times. I can’t understand why they picked him over Jermaine P., unless he’s supposed to be fodder.

Tim Urban – “Apologize” by OneRepublic. Was theme tonight “songs that David Archuleta has sung on Idol”? Yikes. Tim’s performance was inconsistent and not very good. The judges want you to know that he’s very cute. I bet the won’t think that’s such a great thing when he outstays much better singers. Also, he’s the VFTW pick for the guys.

Who’s going home? Some combination of Jermaine, Todrick, Joe, and possibly John.

What’s up with the judges? They tell the contestants to “make it your own” and then blast Todrick for doing just that. Randy tells Lee he should do “hard rock” because he sounds just like the lead singer for Kings of Leon, but they blast others for being copycats. They put Tyler through because they liked his 70′s moves and now they hate them. Get in your box! Get out of your box! WTF?

The Good

Lilly Scott-”Fixin’ a Hole” by The Beatles. Simon said she lacked star power, but I thought Lilly’s twist on an old song was the best of the night. She had a few pitch problems in the beginning, but the rest of the song pretty flawless. Of all of the quirky indie-style singers, she was the best.

Crystal Bowersox-”Hand in Pocket” by Alanis. As expected, Mamasox delivers and rocks out the song in her own way, including the mouth harp. I do agree with Simon that it was a bit coffee-houseish, but I loved it just the same.

Didi Benami – “The Way I Am” by Ingrid Michaelson. I liked Didi’s take on this song. She’s got a great tone and refreshing style. Simon said she didn’t stand out, but in a night of mediocre performances Didi shone.

Michelle Delamor – “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys. This song has been way overdone on Idol, but Michelle pulled if off.  She’s very poised and polished on stage. Hopefully, next week she’ll chose a better song, because Michelle has a great voice.

Just Aw’Right

Lacey Brown – “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac. I love Lacey’s voice, but this song was kind of boring.  I kind of think that American Idol contestants should stay away from Fleetwood Mac. I hope Lacey makes it through this week because I think she can do much better.

Katelyn Epperly – “Oh Darlin’” by the Beatles. Katelyn did a nice, bluesy version of the song, but it she wasn’t very memorable. She has a good voice and I could be wrong, but she seems to lack charisma onstage. I did like her make up.

Paige Miles – “Alright Now” by Free. Simon says she has the best voice of the girls.  Really? After having no screen time poor Paige had to go first. Paige has a good stage presence and she’s personable.  The song was fun, but she got a little screechy on the chorus.

Siobhan Magnus – “Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak.  Siobhan is intense and she has incredible range. I like her and I applaud the song choice.  I did not like that she got nasally in parts.

Janell Wheeler – “What About Love” by Heart. Another bad song choice.  I love a Janell’s voice, but she seemed nervous tonight and the performance was boring.

Katie Stevens – “Feeling Good” by Michael Buble. Katie got the pimp spot, of course.  Girlfriend obviously didn’t read this, because she picked one of the most cursed song in Idol history. Katie has a powerful voice, but she sounded like she was playing dress up tonight with that old song.

The Bad

Ashley Rodriguez - “Happy” by Leona Lewis. Why did Ashley chose a Leona song?  I knew Simon would hate it.  It was boring and she’s much better than this.

Haeley Vaughn – “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. Oh Lord, Haeley, pick a pitch. Any pitch. It was an interesting take on the song with Haeley giving it her country-pop twist.  She’s also got tons of charisma on stage. Still, it was not that good.

Haeley is the VFTW pick, BTW.

So who goes home? Ashley and Haeley? Katelyn and Paige? Heck, I don’t know. I guess we’ll see on Thursday.

After the jump:

Song Choice Spoilers (in no  particular order)…

“At Last” by Etta James (John Park)
“Happy”  by Leona Lewis (Ashley Rodriguez)
“It’s Raining Men” by The Weather  Girls (Siobhan Magnus)
“Oh Darling” by The Beatles
“Wonderful  World” by James Morrison (Alex Lambert)
song by Ingrid Michaelson  (Didi Benami)
song by Michael Buble (Katy Stevens)
song by The  Beatles
song by The Beatles (Jose Munoz)
song by The Who/The Guess  Who (Tyler Grady)