Now that we a few strong ladies in the playing field, I thought I would go back in time to see how many ladies have shown up in the top 5 of American Idol over the years. I could remember Seasons 9 and 8 pretty easily since there was only one female in each one of those seasons in the Top 5 (Crystal last year and Allison in Season 8). I had to check Wikipedia to tally up the other seasons. You have to go back to Season 6 (when Jordin won) to where the ladies had a majority in the Top 5, and there were only two other seasons where the ladies were in a majority of the Top 5, Season 1 when Kelly won and Season 3 when Fantasia won. It is surprising that in those three seasons where the females held the majority, a lady also won the title? The only other woman to win was Carrie in Season 4 when it was just her and Vonzell Solomon, representing the ladies in the top 5. Season 3 was definitely the "ladies year" when 4 of the top 5 were female, and the top 4 were all women. The last three years have definitely been male dominated with only Crystal, Allison, Syesha Mercado and Brooke White representing women in the top 5, and with Crystal being the only female to end up in the final two over the past three seasons.
So now the question is, can any of the women in the top 13 win over the guys this year? If you look at the ladies there are really only three that have a shot of winning the whole thing, Lauren, Thia or Pia. I do not think either wildcard choice (Naima or Ashthon) has much of a fan base, or they would have been in the top 5, and I don't think Haley nor Karen have broad enough appeal to win over the guys. Okay, I am not even sure how Haley made it in the top 5 ladies, but she did. We will have to see how the season progresses, but with three strong ladies in the top 13 we have a chance of it happening.