Welcome back, group sings

All I could think of while watching tonight's entertaining episode of American Idol was "I still can't believe they got rid of the group sings last season." Maybe that's why last season was so boring.

I believe they said last year that the reason they got rid of it was because it wasn't really relevant to the rest of the competition (no other group sings) and being a pop star. While it may be true that if you win American Idol, you never have to sing with three other people, I would think you'd still have to collaborate with others on songs and performances at some point, so that didn't really make much sense. But more importantly, it gives you a sense of both the personalities of the contestants, but also how they hold up under pressure. We saw that Bikini Girl, whatever her singing talent or looks, is completely nuts. (You couldn't have taken off those heels while you were practicing the group sing?) We saw that Tatiana is close. We saw that some people really work well together. And we got some really creative performances--like the first group that went with the guy whose wife died. Most importantly, it was fun to watch.

So I won't spend too much time complaining about how certain people who were featured in the audition shows have virtually disappeared. I think blind guy made it, but have we even seen him perform in Hollywood? I think arm tattoo girl did too, but why did she disappear? Did Amy Winehouse Jr. make it? Hopefully we'll find out on Tuesday