VIDEO: American Idol Top-8: Latin Letdown

I thought Latin music was supposed to instill sex-appeal and passion for life. And yet we were once again reminded just how lacking this year's "American Idol" talent mix is. There must be something wrong when the best thing about watching an Idol performance show is the kids' mentor.

Aside from J.Lo's cute and adorable, and yet constructive and on-the-mark coaching and criticism, possibly the best we have seen this season so far, the performances felt to me like one letdown after another.

Having said that, I believe Blake Lewis whom I normally don't particularly care too much about delivered the best performance of the night.

Melinda looked gorgeous and sang great as she always does, but that lack of confidence of hers is not particularly appealing on a night like this.

Even Sanjaya's new look seemed to pale in comparison to previous weeks. The boy did however sing better than ever before, or that is what the judges want us to believe.

Who will make it to the bottom 3 this week? Hayley and Phil are the obvious contenders, but will Chris Richardson be 'the better singer of the week' to join them and ultimately get cut as did Stephanie, Chris and Gina in recent weeks?

Here are the clips of some of the Latin night performances:

Melinda Doolittle: "Sway"

Chris Richardson: "Smooth"

Blake Lewis: "I Need To Know"

Sanjaya Malakar: "Besame Mucho"

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