Crystal Bowersox outclasses the competition on inspiration night :'American Idol' top 7

What happened to Crystal Bowersox's hair? It appears to still be standing on end from her recent parking lot exchange with Ryan Seacrest (long story short, she reportedly almost quit the show before the "American Idol" host stopped her).

Alicia Keys was the guest mentor for Tuesday's inspiration night on "Idol," because not only does she sing but she cares about people with HIV AIDS. Luckily, she's a better singer than she is a mentor.
Pretty brutal “American Idol” tonight (as I always assume it will be with this theme and its inherent Mariah-ness), with one exception (hint: look up at the picture). If I hadn’t skipped the last two weeks because of my time off, I’d be tempted to just do a “Crystal rules, others drool” post, but may as well review contestant by contestant, just as soon as I tell you that I like Spider-Man.

But who needs a mentor when your name is Mamasox? Crystal Bowersox was, as per usual, effortlessly brilliant during her soulful rendition of "People Get Ready." Surprisingly, she choked up at the end of her performance while singing, "you don't need a ticket, you just need to thank the lord." She probably cried because she dodged a bullet by not being kicked off the show for the whole quitting debacle.

Kara said she thought "they" called her Mamasox because she schooled all the other contestants. Simon was happy to see her emotional and says she was in a completely different class to the other contestants.

Soxy said she cried because her dad's in the audience - a likely story.

A distant second to Mamasox was Lee DeWyze, who was virtually swallowed up by the Coke advertisements behind him as Ryan conducted his interview. Coca Cola must have given the "Idol" folks a huge donation.

DeWyze injected some contemporary rasp into Simon & Garfunkel's folsky "The Boxer." Randy proceeded to explain the low standard of contestants by saying the show's "about artists this year." Simon said, "Even though we're only two in, that's the best of the night." He was kind of right.

Casey James did a repeat performance of every other night. He sang Fleetwood Mac's "Don't Stop" but lost points from the start by tying his hair back. His voice was solid, as usual, but, as Randy said, he does the same thing every week, dawg.

Tim Urban sang a version of the Goo Goo Dolls' "Better Days" that came out as flat as his hair. In the winning non sequitur of the night, Ellen said she didn't like "the soup of the day." But one audience member - "Tim you rock!" - suggested he may be back next week.

Aaron Kelly appeared to have some engine trouble as he performed R. Kelly's "I Believe I Can Fly," which he said had always been his go-to song. Simon said he would have turned off the radio if he had heard that rendition, but that Aaron's personality made it bearable. That's debatable.

Siobhan Magnus started her performance of "When You Believe" by staring the audience down. She appeared to be crazy-eyeing the viewers into voting for her. Unfortunately, she lost control of her voice in the process, just about as much as she lost control of the fact that the butterflies snaking around her right arm look like dead leaves. Her rendition of Mariah Carey was all over the place and overly loud. She's a great candidate for "Glee."

Michael Lynche sang Chad Kroeger Michael's "Hero" with some impressive vocal timber. Along with the rest of the contestants, he seemed to think that yelling at the end of his performance gave him more creedence. It didn't. Kara DioGuardi didn't think he sang well and Simon Cowell didn't like the song because it was from "Superman."

Oh, and in case anyone didn't get the hint, "Idol Gives Back" is on Wednesday.