It’s the ciiiiiirrrrrrrcle of liiiiiiife! Yes, folks, as one player advances in TVLine.com’s American Idol All-Time Greatest Performance Bracket Tournament, another one is left for dead in a ditch (metaphorically speaking). And today, the brutal choices in front of you could make you want to crawl under the couch and turn to dust. Melinda vs. J.Hud? Allison vs. Carrie? It’s not right, and it’s not okay, but it’s the only way we can narrow our single-elimination, 64-player tourney down to eight quarterfinalists. (For the uninitiated, every day around 1:00 p.m. ET over the next few weeks, we’ll launch a new set of duels to the death, so be sure to keep coming back and making sure your favorites advance.)

Kris Allen Vs. Chris Daughtry! Clay Vs. Archie! Vote Now for Idol’s Best Performance!

Before you head to the polls, you may want to peruse these memory-refreshing links to the performances entering the ring this afternoon:

Performance Links!
Melinda Doolittle, “My Funny Valentine“
Jennifer Hudson, “Circle of Life“
Allison Iraheta, “Cry Baby” (Exit Performance)
Carrie Underwood, ”Alone”

It’s gonna be brutal seeing two of those great Idol moments cut down before their time, no? So make sure the right choice is made by heading down to our polls to vote for your favorites (Voting will be open for 48 hours), and hit the comments to justify your picks.

And if you’re interested in the matchups we’ve got planned for the coming weeks and how the early rounds of matchups played out, click here to check out the entire 64-player bracket (then click again for a zoomed in view), and sign up to follow me on Twitter @MichaelSlezakTV.