To be held on Saturday, March 24 at Central Broward Regional Park, the event will benefit the Diabetes Research Institute – the best hope for a cure for the 26 million people living with this disease, including Bowersox, who has type 1 diabetes. The festivities, which are being presented by LifeScan and Neutrogena SunCare, begin at 8 a.m.

SOURCE Diabetes Research Institute Foundation
via: www.prnewswire.com

After a brutal first results show that sent 12 singers home, American Idol has determined the Top 13 and the race is on to win. Guys have won in each of the last four seasons, so will history repeat itself, or will a girl finally break through?

I successfully predicted 12 of the Top 13 (picking all of the Top 10 and two of the Wild Card picks), so I’m feeling pretty good about my take on American Idol season 11. Let’s look at the contenders to see who has the best shot of winning.

NO CHANCE OF WINNING

Jeremy Rosado: Being a Wild Card pick is usually a bad sign, because it means no one voted for him the first time, and the judges can’t keep him around forever. The fact that he was pretty bad the first night and great during his second chance shows he’s wildly inconsistent and won’t make it far.

DeAndre Brackensick and Jermaine Jones: I’m lumping these two together because I feel like they’re both novelty voices. DeAndre has a wild range, but he was also a Wild Card and clearly doesn’t have the support the others do. Jermaine, on the other hand, is little more than a deep voice with a devotion to his mama. Jimmy Iovine might want to listen to an entire album of that, but it will get old after a few weeks.

Heejun Han: I love Heejun, but he doesn’t seem to take the show seriously at all, and I’m not sure he can do anything other than croon ballads.

Shannon Magrane: It might seem strange to say she has no shot, but she just seems so uptight and wooden, like a pageant girl.

MAYBE, MAYBE NOT

Joshua Ledet: He gave the best performance for the guys in week 1, but can he keep that up? If so, he has a shot, but he may have peaked too soon.

Jessica Sanchez: Like Joshua, she was great right away, but that;s going to be hard to do every week.

Erika Van Pelt: This girl has Pia Toscano written all over her. She’s amazing and the judges love her because she’s such a pro, but I’m not sure she’ll ever be able to connect with the audience. But if she does, watch out!

Hollie Cavanagh: This girl seems like the biggest “hit or miss” performer to me this season. Her Christina Aguilera performance was 80 percent brilliant and 20 percent boring, and I think her inexperience may catch up with her.

GOOD CHANCE OF WINNING

Colton Dixon: He’s the closest thing this season has to a James Durbin or Adam Lambert. He’s a little glam and not afraid to jump on a piano. Plus he has the advantage of being the most obvious “tween girls will vote for him because he’s hot” singer, which will take him very far.

Phillip Phillips: He totally fits into that Lee Dewyze mold. He’s interesting, makes songs his own, and he seems incredibly charming. Plus, his family owns a pawn shop, and America loves reality shows about pawn shops right now.

Skylar Laine: By invoking Tina Turner and Reba McEntire, the judges definitely have high hopes for her. She’s spunky, fun and very country. If Taylor Swift’s father was Ted Nugent, she’d be Skylar, and that’s a very marketable personality.

Elise Testone: Elise has a soulful, raspy voice that is just brilliant, and she seems to be great at connecting to the audience, despite not having a ton of screen time during the auditions.

MY FINAL PREDICTION

I see this season going one of two ways. First, it might be a redo from two years ago, where Phillip Phillips is Lee Deywze and Elise Testone is Crystal Bowersox in the final two, with Phillips winning it all.

The other possibility is to have a match-up between contestants similar to the runners-up from seasons 10 and 8, with Skylar Laine as Lauren Alaina and Colton Dixon as Adam Lambert. That could go either way.

In the end, to put my reputation on the line, I’ll go with the second option. I think Colton and Skylar will be the final two, with Colton Dixon winning it all. It feels like his season has been all about Colton, starting with the way the judges forced him to be on the show.

Who do you think has the best chance of winning American Idol season 11?

“He’s got a lot going on upstairs,” said Ben Barefoot, a Toledo singer/songwriter who plays with May regularly. “We’re really good friends. He’s been there a lot for me and I’ve been there for him when things haven’t been easy. I call him at 2 o’clock in the morning just to talk and he lets me do that.”

“Frankie’s a freak of nature and I mean that in the best possible way,” Bowersox said. “He’s stoic. You know I’ve known Frankie for a long time and he’s always been kind of a shy guy, a gentleman, always polite.”

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