Best

1) Carrie Underwood, "Alone" (Season 4)
2) Kelly Clarkson, "Stuff Like That There" (Season 1)
3) Clay Aiken, "Bridge Over Troubles Water" (Season 2)
4) Fantasia Barrino, "Summertime" (Season 3)
5) Jennifer Hudson, "Weekend in New England" (Season 3)
6) Chris Daughtry, "Hemmorrhage (In My Hands) (Season 5)
7) Melinda Doolittle, "My Funny Valentine" (Season 6)
8) Elliott Yamin, "A Song for Yoy" (Season 5)
9) Ruben Studdard, "Nights on Broadway" (Season 2)
10) Katharine McPhee, "Over the Rainbow" (Season 5)

Worst

1) Gloria Estefan Week (Season 3)
2) Camile Velasco, "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" (Season 3)
3) Josh Gracin, "Jive Talkin'" (Season 2)
4) Anything by Carmen Rasmusen (Season 2)
5) Kevin Covais, "Part-Time Lover" (Season 5)

Not having John Stevens on the worst list is unbelievable. Him singing Crocodile Roc is far and away the worst (funniest) performance in AI history.

Carrie Underwood's "Alone" is awesome (she should do an official cover of that song and release it or something), but the best? Don't know about that.

Some notable exclusions:

Kelly Clarkson, "Without You"
Tamyra Gray, "A House is Not a Home"
Carrie Underwood, "Angels Brought Me Here"

Good call on John Stevens's Crocodile Rock... I can't think of many that were worse than that one.

They definitely should have put Bo Bice's "Whipping Post" on the best list, as well as Taylor Hicks's "Taking it to the Streets". The list seems skewed toward gooey power ballads.

Alone is my #1 as well. Pretty good job on the Best list overall.

Worst... I don't know. John Stevens and Sanjaya needed at least an apperance. I don't remember Gracin having a terrible performance, and Rasmussen wasn't good but she wasn't atrocious enough for a "Anything by" either.

That EW article speficially said they picked the 5 worst non-Sanjaya performances. I'm not sure why they excluded him, but that was why he wasn't there.

Can't argue with their best picks, really (although JHud should've been acknowledged for "Circle of Life"). Carrie Underwood's "Alone" and Kelly Clarkson's "Stuff Like That There" are definitely the two best performances ever.

They snubbed some worthy choices, though, like Kimberley Locke's "New York State of Mind" and Tamyra Gray's "A House Is Not a Home."

They missed some in their "worst" choices. Ryan Starr's "You Really Got Me" might've even been worse than Sanjaya's, and I think that was Sanjaya's worst performance ofthe entire season (at least the most memorable one, since it introduced the world to Crying Girl).

Stuff Like That There would be number one. Actally all of Kellys preformances would b #1 and two of Carries and you got the list right there, though Alone was amazing, that preformance was great.

Just watched Alone and Stuff Like That There. Alone didn't impess me actually. I felt like she was shouting without an apparent reason. Just so that she could show she could shout nicely. I like Kelly much better. I don't watch AI, so I really can't comment on other performances, and while I do now actual songs from AI performers I was never that interested in their AI performances.

Alone was great and I loved the song, but I liked her preformance of Making Love Out Of Nothing At All better, I just watched JHud's preformance on the list and its good, but not that high worthy.

JHud's "Circle of Life" was muh better, you should watch that one instead

Yeah, I always thought CoL was her best performance.

I'm just happy to see a list where Summertime isn't number 1.

I remeber that preformance, it is her best and much better than that. EW always make lists that can always be great but throw something in there thats really not Top 10 material, or put something to low.

"Alone" still ranks as my all-time #1, and I would also put "Angels Brought Me Here" in the top 10.

My Top 5 AI Performances of all time:

1. Taylor Hicks - Taking it to the Streets
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2. Bo Bice - Whipping Post
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3. Amanda Avila - Turn the Beat Around
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/OVbPVW4m8BQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

4. Carrie Underwood - Alone
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ItYee9LNCG8" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

5. Elliot Yamin - Somebody to Love
<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1Z7q2BSjUP4" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed>

Honarable mentions: Kelly Clarkson "Respect", Taylor Hicks "Trouble", Chris Daughtry "Hemmorrhage (In My Hands)"

Damn, Taylor is even more lame than I remembered.

I don't recall liking Whipping Post as much as I did listening to it there. I kind of was a Bo hater that season though, so yeah.

You disliked the two best Idol contestants ever?

Hated Taylor, wasnt a fan of Bo either.

Now you people are just fucking with me. Nobody hates Taylor or Bo, let alone both of them at the same time.

I loved Bo and thought Taylor was annoying

And I think Taylor is still annoying, I muted the TV when he performed on the finale.

I doz!! Taylor was annoying as all heck. And I heard a Bo Bice song today on the radio and immediately changed stations.

Hated Taylor, loved Bo. I had hoped he would win his season, although I knew Carrie would.

This was my favorite Yamin performance:

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I do not think Alone is that great. The backup singer carried her through most of it.

The list is pretty good though. I'll put my top ten up later.

My top 30 favorite AI performances from Seasons 2 through 6:


1) Bo Bice, "In a Dream" (Season 4)
2) Paris Bennett, "The Show Must Go On" (Season 5)
3) Clay Aiken, "Bridge Over Troubled Water" (Season 2)
4) Anthony Fedorov, "Incomplete" (Season 4) - And I'm not a fan of the Backstreet Boys.
5) Amy Adams, "Sin Wagon" (Season 3)
6) Chris Daughtry, "Renegade" (Season 5)
7) Bo Bice, "I Don't Wanna Be" (Season 4)
8) Jennifer Hudson, "Circle of Life" (Season 3)
9) LaToya London, "All The Time" (Season 3)
10) Bo Bice, "Time In A Bottle" (Season 4)
11) Bo Bice, "Vehicle" (Season 4)
12) Fantasia Barrino, "Summertime" (Season 3) - The only performance of hers that I liked.
13) Carrie Underwood, "Trouble" (Season 4) - The only performance of hers that I liked.
14) Melinda Doolittle, "Have a Nice Day" (Season 6)
15) Kimberley Locke, "It's Raining Men" (Season 2)
16) Nadia Turner, "Power of Love" (Season 4)
17) LaToya London, "Somewhere" (Season 3)
18) Anthony Fedorov, "I Surrender" (Season 4)
19) Jennifer Hudson, "Weekend in New England" (Season 3)
20) Julia Demato, "Son of a Preacher Man" (Season 2)
21) Constantine Maroulis, "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Season 4)
22) Nadia Turner, "When I Dream" (Season 4)
23) Elliott Yamin, "A Song for You" (Season5)
24) Bo Bice, "Free Bird" (Season 4)
25) Constantine Maroulis, "My Funny Valentine" (Season 4)
26) Taylor Hicks, "Taking it to the Streets" (Season 5)
27) Diana DeGarmo, "Think" (Season 3)
28) Bo Bice, "I'll Be" (Season 4)
29) Bo Bice, "Whipping Post" (Season 4)
30) LaToya London, "Don't Rain on My Parade (Season 3)




Favorite non-competitive AI performance:

1) Clay Aiken, "Fantasy" (Season 3)


Seasons 3 and 4 had a lot of "showstopper" performances. Season 5 had a great top 5. Season 6 was a disappointment. Two of my favorites, Sundance Head and Chris Sligh were eliminated early on.