Canadian Idol: Finalists Show Their Stones

In the past 600 years, The Rolling Stones have appeared in a Rice Krispies commercial, charged crack cocaine prices for concert tickets and hawked everything from band diapers to self-administered Rolling Stone enema kits at their merch tables.

But after licensing their catalogue to Canadian Idol on Monday night, the group are kind of looking like sellouts. Of course, we forgive the "greatest rock 'n' roll band in the world," if only because we'd rather hear Stones covers than Celine Dion ones.

Chad Doucette kicked off the evening with an adenoidal rendition of "You Can't Always Get What You Want." He sounded fine, but, like many of the competitors, he didn't carry himself well on stage. As judge Farley Flex finally pointed out, "You need to learn to dance."

Dressed kind of like a horse jockey, Eva Avila offered a more graceful take on "Wild Horses." Unlike Doucette, the pretty singer looks and carries herself like a pop star, which might be a disadvantage in this populous competition — which often favours accessible over-emoter-next-door types. Judge Zack Werner didn't quite buy Avila's polished voice and theatric eyelash fluttering, hinting that the performance seemed a little contrived.

But the judges had nothing but compliments to heap on Tyler Lewis following his performance of "Paint It Black."

"I had to look up to see if we still had a roof," Jake Gold said, "because you blew the roof off of this building."

Yep, he blew all right. While Flex was right in commenting that Lewis has improved substantially, his big Creed country voice can be a little irritating to those who don't enjoy songs about Jesus or Broncos.

Sarah Loverock took the stage next, dressed in a leopard skin couch print, to deliver "I Got The Blues." While it wasn't her most moving performance, the talented singer showed how powerful her voice could be. Still, judge Sass Jordan said that she wished Loverock would enter a higher register from time to time.

Next came Brandon Jones singing "Jumping Jack Flash" amidst hysterical cheers and supportive posters reading "Brandon Is My Kind Of Muffin." Like Doucette, Jones has no rhythm. What's more, he just isn't a good enough singer to be competing at this level, a fact that Flex thankfully pointed out: "You've done a great job with what you have, but [the competition] is getting really intense."

Ashley Coulter, on the other hand, deserves to be standing until the very end. Rocking a new Joe Dirt hairdo and a sexy spandex suit, Coulter prowled around the stage, using her entire body to sing "Gimme Shelter." Werner summed it up best, saying, "I honestly think you could be a world-class rock star."

In contrast, Rob James' buttery voice and smooth moves didn't seem gritty enough to pull off "Start Me Up." But the judges appreciated James' decision to leave his comfort zone. "The obvious thing would have been to do 'Beast Of Burden' or something where you could have played with your R&B flavour," Werner said, "but you decided to compete, and that's what I'm seeing from you more and more."

Steffi D has also decided to compete. Dressed like Peg Bundy — and yes, that's sexy — D delivered an animated and flirtatious take on "Miss You" while seductively winking and kissing the mic.

"I would rather that Canadian Idol was about the kind of unique flavour that you bring than all the eight-octave contralto nonsense that these shows turn out to be," noted Werner.

"You actually pay attention to the lyrics," added Gold. "You seem to actually live out every lyric on the stage every night. Nobody else in this show does that."

Finally, Craig Sharpe opened "Time Is On My Side" with a batch of roses in his hand, which was kind of distracting. He's going "Tiii-iiii-iiime" and all the audience can think is, "Would someone get this kid a freaking vase." But predictably, the gifted singer dug his nails into the tune, inspiring Flex to call it a "flawless performance."

While that may have been pushing it a bit, it certainly was a good way to end the show.