No rest for the wicked.

100 contestants (or 103, as the show claims but I counted. I COUNTED. Did Mathieson lie to me? I can't live in a world where Mathieson LIES.) Three rounds. The Long Walk. All over in two hours? (And still no Holden!) They're not taking any prisoners this season, are they? Also, I stopped off at a 7-11 on the way home from rehearsals because I was a mite peckish and was everyone aware that there was such a thing as a double dipped Cherry Ripe? With TWO lots of dark chocolate? This day just gets awesomer and awesomer! (Except for the part where Lindsay gets totally gypped out of air time on tonight's show. That just sucked. For those interested, both he and other returning semi finalist Ben Worthington made it to The Long Walk where they were both given the heave ho.)

Round One

They start us off with some bullshit Mission Impossible style HD video Dicko-gram on the shore across from the Harbour Bridge as he lets them know they have to chose one of four songs overnight and perform with the houseband. James says they couldn't make it any easier. Oh yeah, learning a song overnight, getting very little sleep and trying desperately to perform it knowing that your potential future rests on it? Piece of fucking cake.

There are numerous performances - Madam Parker, who drove me INSANE with her original auditions, reins it back nicely and gives a surprisingly subtle performance; straight through to the final round. Wrestler David Wallis doesn't fare nearly so well, his voice warbling all over the place; a no from Kyle, a come back from Marcia and Dicko. He confesses to nerves, which also take down Luke West, Christopher Southall and Rebecca Simoni - two of whom we've never seen before or will see again, I suspect. Professional asshole Kyle brilliantly takes it upon himself to pick on AN 18 YEAR OLD GIRL who stayed up all night learning a song so she could dance to the motherfucking tune of the exec producers wishes. You know what? These are KIDS, most of whom have NO real life experience with gigging or audiences or this kind of performance anxiety and if you continue to allow them into the competition, you need to LAY THE FUCK OFF when they screw up and not make them cry. It only serves to make you look like an insensitive freaking bully. Again. Still. Continue. Rebecca slinks off stage in tears. Hope that was worth it, Kyle.

Many more horrid, nerve wrecked performances and big voiced Chrislyn Hamilton gets the smackdown for her outfit and needing more than a big, belty voice. Kyle lies his arse off and says he doesn't care if you're big or not. Somewhere Kate DeAraugo (you may - or may not - remember her as the winner of Season Three) thrusts her tuckshop lady arms in the air and deploys the middle finger of each hand in his general direction. Simon Phillips kicks out Michael Jackson's 'Beat It' and beats it straight through to the solos. A bunch of girls fail miserably at singing Duffy's 'Mercy'.

Funky hipster Casey Freeman - whose original audition was ace - crashes and burns with Carole King's 'Feel The Earth', her voice is a little more damaged sounding than husky at this point. Not enough sleep? Strong jawed Teale Jakubenko brings out his guitar to play with the band to James Morrison's 'You Give Me Something' and sounds okay but not brilliant. Let the guitar go and stand on your own, dude. Kyle and Dicko bitch at each other - Kyle wants him straight through, Dicko thinks it was too ordinary and he needs to come back and sing again. Kyle concedes to the Power Of Dicko. Brooke Schubert also brings her guitar out but uses it more effectively on Bonnie Raitt's countrylicious 'Something To Talk About' and that's more than four songs because someone sang a Beyonce number as well . . . it must have been four different songs for the girls and boys. She's deservedly put through to the solos, which is great but Kyle sings a few lines of the song, which is not.

More failures and Marcia giving a little pep talk to the remaining contestants (aww, remember when it used to be Holden who went out and did that?) Amanda Grafanakis jumps around and rawks more than she sings No Doubt's 'Just A Girl', for which she is BUSTED - second chance'd. Bespectacled redhead Robert Jeffrey does something bizarre to Elton John's 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' and Kyle hilariously says he saw a 'Kenyon poo stance' at some point and it was too theatrical. It comes down to Brown Sugar who tells him he started at eleven, but they second chance him. Scottish lass Angela McComiskie who didn't have the greatest original audition sings the same song as Robert - now hang on. How many fucking songs did they give them? Could they sing each others songs if they wanted to? Oh show, how you confuse me. She's still not wowing me but they give her a second chance as well. They seem to not be getting rid of many. Sigh.

The fabulous Wes Carr is nervous as all fuck as he busts out 'Come Together' by The Beatles. He's awesome, I LOVE him so very much. I'm even starting to love his silly hats. Roshani Priddis kicks the hell out of 'Mercy' and Sophie Paterson also chose wisely with 'Come Together'; they are both straight through to the solos.

Round Two

Line of ten perfs - Jonny Taylor grunges up Michael Jackson's 'Dirty Diana'. Nicole Banks hits all the right notes singing Amy Winehouse number 'Valerie'. They go through to the solos along with Robert Jeffrey, Brooke Addamo, Matt Parsons, Amanda Grafanakis and 16 year old Tom Williams whose pitch was all over the shop. Casey Freeman still didn't get enough sleep and sounds funky still. They send her back to Nowhere Creek. Teale Jakubenko needs to stop trying the falsetto. Are you listening to me, young man?? Quit it. He's through and we're done and that was quick . . .

Round Three

Solos. For which they've packed the Sydney Theatre with punters who thought they were just there to see a taped presentation of Idol 08 - what exactly would that have entailed anyway? Video of Ricki Lee as she TAKES OVER THE SHOW? The 54 remaining contestants are very very happy to see them but for some, this must be a new and scary prospect . . .

First up is Current Fav Wes Carr, who continues his impeccable song choice by doing The Killers "Mr Brightside". He's slightly wobbly around the vocals and is still wearing a silly hat but I love him nonetheless (and with Lindsay gone, my haircut needs turn to Wes and his Jesus hair . . . ) Boyband escapee Thanh Bui screeches a lot, Natalie Colavito busts out some big notes, James Spargo - not so much, he sounds quite weak doing Robbie Williams' 'Angels' but Chrislyn Hamilton throws her mike to the ground and sings the HELL out of Janis Joplin's 'Piece Of My Heart'.

The Long Walk

And all of a sudden we're done and on to the entirely unstaged segment showing the judges arguing over the Top 24. For the third year in a row, let's say goodbye to those who didn't make it (bye guys) and lets just get to the Top 24.

Natalie Colavito, who has made it this far before and has just a great freaking attitude about the crap she's going to catch about being a 'big' lady, sang Aretha's 'Natural Woman' for her solo and sounds great - you can see she's not just singing this, she understands the lyric (although I stand by my call that Shaneequa sings this song the best - outside of Aretha herself - she made me cry the first time I heard it. In a good way.) Natalie is through. Excellent. She bursts into happy tears. I may tear up a little too. I can't help it, it's late, I'm tired, it's emotional and she's kind of awesome.

Meh. James Spargo is a lovely guy with a decent voice but really? He's through? His 'Angels' did not sound great guys, it sounded very Christmas Carols. Very 'proper' and not that interesting. They see something I'm not, obviously. (I will give him this, his delight is delightful.)

I'm also kind of surprised that youngster Tom Williams is through, he's not had the greatest run up to this point and really REALLY comes across as so young. His pitch problems are concerning, but the other sixteen year olds went APE for him during his solo of Ronan Keating's 'When You Say Nothing At All'. They even bring up his pitch problems - and look he's adorable but haven't we been through this before? With Matt Corby and Dean Geyer? The young ones don't win. Otherwise Moppet would have won. If I'd have any say in the matter, anyway.

Madam Parker warbles a song I'm not familiar with - she sings it well and do we even need to bother with this? She's so very through, she's this years Single Mum RnB Singer and I really hope she throws off that cliche and becomes more because she's already shown she has more musical depth than that. Don't be Emily, don't be Emily. Dicko freaking LOVES her and thinks she has one of the best soul voices they've ever had.

Wes Carr and his Jesus hair are ready for this, man. And they're both totally through. Of course, we knew that with his first perf of 'All Along The Watchtower', guys. As is Jonny Taylor after his rather good solo perf of The Screaming Jets 'Shiver'.

James Sidebottom gave a great rendition of 'Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes' by Paul Simon and gives a really honest answer when asked if he wants to win when he confesses that he's not sure. The judges lose their MINDS that someone might dare to have changed their minds - Dicko's dummy spit is kind of hilarious - especially when they WERE going to put him through. Is it because James didn't give them the right answer that they put shearer Luke Dickens through? His solo of Billy Joel's 'The Pianoman' sounds like Billy Joel, just like his Joe Cocker sounded like Joe Cocker. He needs to try and sing something soft, let us see if he can sing something different. He's crazy laconic still and his face twitches slightly in surprise when Dicko tells him he's in, which I think might be the equivalent of a shrieking girly fit for him. I kinda like him, but I don't know why yet.

In quick succession - Brooke Addamo, Matt Parsons, Amanda Grafanakis, Sophie Paterson are all shunted through. Jaden Dowd also makes it through (and Lindsay whispered in my ear that one of the British chicks had to use her MP3 player to get pitch during the line of ten and my money is on Jaden, as Sophie went didn't do the LoT and went straight to solos . . . )

One of my favourite girls from the original auditions is theatre chick Nicole Banks whose solo was Jewel's 'Who Will Save Your Soul' and one of her friends outed her on the theatrepeople website as being through to the Top 24 so I haven't been worried about her tonight at all. She's lovely and I look forward to seeing her do a full number.

Teale Jakubenko's lovely jawline is through (making Fosse happy - only making me so, if he leaves The Falsetto ALONE.) Thanh Bui boyband oversang the John Farnham version of 'Help Me If You Can' and he's another one who needs to rein it in when he gets to the semi's.

Pop cowboy Mitchell Steele sang something that sounded a little like Bette Midler's 'Wind Beneath My Wings'. I'm almost positive it wasn't that though . . . but as every season must a rock chick have (that would be Amanda this season) we also need to have someone who hits the country demographic and Mitchell is it.

Adorable munchkin Roshani Priddis sang Joe Cocker's 'Unchain My Heart' and they show the back up singers for the first time and holy crap, one of them is Australian Idol Vocal Coach Erana Clark! I can't see who the guy is. Roshani kind of oversings but is good enough to still get through. And cute as a freaking button. She also confesses her vocals weren't great when she sang her solo so I love her to pieces for that. Modesty rocks!

The last two girls standing are the incredibly awesome Chrislyn Hamilton (the aforementioned rocking rendition of Joplin's 'Piece Of My Heart') and the incredibly not as awesome Angela McComiskie (Abba's 'Dancing Queen' - a bit wobbly, frankly). This is a no brainer right? I know Angela is older and has more experienced, but Chrislyn has shown a performance maturity that blows most of the other contestants out of the water. They are both crying and show, this is just so cruel, don't drag this out. Chrislyn has a far superior voice. Dicko bollocks about to build dramatic tension and Angela's hopes horribly. They make the right decision and put through the better voice but poor Angela, that's horrid. You bastards.

'Dream Catch Me' starts playing over a montage of the succesful and I feel like we're going to hear this song a whole heap this season. This year we're not going boy/girl in the semi's - we're bck to mixed votes - thanks god. First up they've put my two faves Wes and Nicole on the same night, along with cowboy Mitchell, LondonAussie Jaden, Frenchie Olly Corpe (who was nowhere to be seen in tonight's show) and our last girl through, Chrislyn. You can find the Idol Semi Finalists in total here - happily, most of them are familiar faces who were highlighted during the audition shows, if not this one.

TallulahBelle out.