American Idol
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As if American Idol couldn't get more exciting this year: welcome to 1980's week!

Tomorrow night, the top 8 males - David Archuleta, Jason Castro (pictured), David Cook, Chikezie, David Hernandez, Michael Johns, Luke Menard, Danny Noriega - will take the stage once again, singing hits from the ‘80s.

On Wednesday night, it's the top 8 ladies' turn: Kristy Lee Cook, Asia'h Epperson, Kady Malloy, Ramiele Malubay, Syesha Mercado, Amanda Overmyer, Carly Smithson and Brooke White.

Then, the following evening, another two guys and two girls will be eliminated and the Top 12 finalists will be announced.

Moreover, on Thursday's results show, season six finalist Blake Lewis will return to the American Idol stage to debut his new single "How Many Words," a fan-favorite off his debut album "Audio Day Dream."

Does American Idol have another Antonella Barba on its hands?

Not exactly.

Season seven semifinalist Ramiele Malubay isn't naked, isn't on her knees and there isn't anyone's private part in her mouth. Still, the following photo - courtesy of Malubay's Facebook account - is a tad racy for Idol's young audience, isn't it?

Should Ramiele Malubay get in trouble for this photo?

American Idol sent four more semifinalists home last night, with one booted contestant taking the news harder than most.

Robbie Carrico and Jason Yeager were eliminated from the men's side; neither were really a surprise, as Yeager never stood out for any reason and viewers didn't buy into Carrico's attempt to look and sound like a hardcore rocker.

For the women, Alex Lushington was voted off after a considerably lackluster performance on Wednesday night. Joining her in packing up her things was Alaina Whitaker, who broke down in tears upon hearing her name called.

"Sorry, this is so embarrassing," she told host Ryan Seacrest, who consoled her with a hug, as fellow Idols comforted their fallen comrade.

Alaina Whitaker received bad news on American Idol last night. But the news has been nothing but positive so far for Brooke White, Carly Smithson, David Archuleta and others.

Robbie Carrico - also known as an ex-boyfriend of Britney Spears, also known as a contestant on this season of American Idol - used to be a boy band singer with short hair.

Hence, the initial photo below.

Now, however, Carrico is going to such lengths to come across as a hardcore rocker on Idol that he's rumored to be wearing a wig. Take a look at the contrasting pictures now and let us know what you think:

Robbie Carrico, circa 2001 and 2008.

It may not have been as incredible as the performance of David Archuleta from the night before.

But last night Brooke White had judges and viewers in awe of her relaxed, guitar-strumming version of the Carly Simon hit, "You're So Vain." Regarding the rendition, Simon Cowell said:

"I absolutely loved it. The absolute perfect song for you. It was one of the rare occasions where I felt the artist had genuinely chosen the song. It absolutely connected."

Is Brooke White the female front-runner on American Idol?

White wasn't the only female to receive praise from the judges, however. These singers also impressed last night:

• Kristy Lee Cook put on a solid, bounce back performance. Randy Jackson said her audition of "You're No Good" by Betty Everett was a "100% improvement" from the week before.
• Carly Smithson continued to make her (great) voice heard. The Irish sensation belted out "Crazy on You" by Heart and was told by Cowell: "At the point you [choose the right song]... I think you're the girl they've all gotta beat."
• Syesha Mercado went with "Me and Mrs. Jones" by Billy Paul. Paula Abdul said: I like what you did. I like the interpretation you did and the choices you made."

Who do you think was the best of the night? Who do you think goes home tonight?

Despite all the praise you may be hearing right now about David Archuleta's rendition of "Imagine" on last night's American Idol - and despite the shrieks from teenage girls we can still hear - other contestants did sing throughout the evening, as well.

Until Archuleta enthralled viewers, it had been a relatively weak night of auditions. But the following pair did earn praise from the judges:

David Cook: It's official: this wannabe rocker isn't nearly hardcore enough to be the next Chris Daughtry. But he did a solid job on the song "All Right Now." Randy Jackson said about it:

To me you're our real rocker from the boys this year. I actually really, really liked that. I thought it was a smart choice of song. it was cool for you, man. I really kind of believed you right there.

David Hernandez: No longer flying under the radar, Hernandez impressed fans with his take on the song "Papa Was a Rollin' Stone." It earned this reply from Simon Cowell:

This may surprise you, but in my opinion that was the best vocal of the night so far ... I like the fact that when you are given some criticism, rather than sulking you treat it as a challenge ... You've risen to the challenge.

... after last night's performance, it isn't hard to do.

David Archuleta caused girls to scream and Paula Abdul to cry with his rendition of the classic John Lennon song "Imagine" during the night that showcased this season's top 10 American Idol men.

Check out the comments it elicited from all three judges:

Randy Jackson said: "That's one of the best vocals I've ever heard on this show... That was brilliant."
Paula Abdul said: "That was . . . one of the most moving performances I've ever heard.. You're destined for super stardom."
Simon Cowell said: "Very, very risky to do a John Lennon song, particularly that one, but it worked. You're the one to beat."

Do you agree? How do you rate Archuleta's performance?

The top 10 American Idol men perform tonight. Here's a look at the final 20 contestants overall. Let us know: who is your favorite?

Row 1: Michael Johns, Danny Noriega, David Archuleta, Jason Castro, Luke Menard.
Row 2: Robbie Carrico, David Hernandez, Jason Yeager, Chikezie Eze, David Cook.

As far as the men go, many viewers believe Johns to be the favorite. And it's hard to argue with the awesomeness of this Aussie.

But keep an eye on Noriega (pictured below). American Idol fans love goofy contestants, remember. Or need we bring up the name Sanjaya Malakar again?

Entertainment Weekly caught up with the quartet of American Idol contestants eliminated from the semifinals last week. Here are excerpts of what they had to say:

EW: How are you feeling after being the first of the Top 24 to go?
Garrett Haley: I'm actually feeling really good. I told myself that morning that either way, even if I get sent home, I'm going to be happy and smiling and stuff. I'm still happy and I'm still smiling.

EW: Going into the evening, how did you feel about your chances?
Amy Davis (pictured): Well, I definitely was not happy with my performance. It's really because I have a disadvantage: I'm trained to use an in-ear monitor. My brain is trained to use an in-ear monitor. I'm telling you, it's a bad skill on my part. Without an in-ear, I can't stay on pitch. I tried to do as well as I could without having that in-ear monitor, but it was obviously a very pitchy performance.

EW: You say you don't have to be the winner to win on American Idol, but what does that mean? How do you get a record deal?
Joanne Borgella: Honestly, I feel like the winner. Basically, I'm going to work on my music. Hopefully later on within this year or early next year, I'll have some music out. You're still part of the Top 24, you're in the American Idol home. You're still signed with great people, you're working with great people. I'm probably in the best position I could ever pray for.

EW: What's your response to Simon's suggestion that you get a good job and don't pursue music?
Colton Berry: You know, Simon chose us to be the Top 24, and we're the Top 24 out of hundreds of thousands of people who auditioned. Obviously, we're all going to have careers in music no matter when we get kicked off. I mean, American Idol is the top of the top â€" you don't go any further than American Idol. Simon's job is to sit there and be mean. I expected him to say something like that, and of course, I didn't take it personally.

Jason Yeager has a long way to go until he reaches the status of Michael Johns and David Archuleta on American Idol.

As far as the men go, those two semifinalists have received the bulk of the air time and publicity thus far on season seven. But a new interview in The Fort Worth Star-Telegram may help shed some light on Yeager. Here are excerpts from it:

What do you carry back from your audition in Dallas?
I had a really good audition. Randy was just impressed that I picked a really hard song to do. I did a Take 6 song; they're a Christian a capella group and it's a song called Mary. I wanted to do something that was kinda random that they had never heard before so that they wouldn't try to compare me [to the original] and so they wouldn't be saying, from the get-go, "Oh, another guy doing Justin Timberlake" or regular Top 40 stuff.

So what's more terrifying, performing in front of 1,000 people or in front of three American Idol judges?
The crazy thing is that being in front of a bunch of strangers that I don't know is totally comfortable for me, but when you've got three obviously very interesting faces that you see on television, you don't know exactly what you're getting into there. They're looking at you, they're judging you, they're trying to pick [at] every little thing about you. That was very intimidating.

What does your stomach feel like when you walk into the judges' room -- is it like visiting the principal's office?
It's pure nausea. Definitely the nerves part of it is a lot tougher than I'm used to having to deal with. A show of this magnitude, and being a part of it, and getting more into it, every audition just becomes more and more intense.

I just really have to put myself mentally somewhere else and just try to picture me being on a stage in Branson, or I used to work at Six Flags and be in front of hundreds of people every day. ... I'll just try to think about that instead of these 35 million people at home watching.