Wednesday night the eight American Idol male contestants performed for a spot in the final 12. On Thursday night, there were four eliminations, two girls and two guys, and the final 12 contestants were announced.
For the second week in a row, Michael Lynche had the best performance of the American Idol male contestants. His performance of Maxwell’s “This Woman’s Work” on Wednesday night was as good as the original.
Casey James sang an unplugged version of Keith Urban’s “You’ll Think of Me.” Randy Jackson liked it but thought it was a safe choice. Kara DioGuardi thought it lacked a spark. I liked it and thought it may have been the second best performance of the night, though it was a bit of a safe choice. James’ voice, to me, is sounding reminiscent of Bob Seger.
Lee Dewyze started off the show with “Fireflies” by Owl City. He made the song his own, but there were a couple instances of a missed pitch. Simon Cowell said he had a great chance of making it to the top 12, but he is a better performer than that particular performance.
Tim Urban and Alex Lambert produced decent, improved performances. Urban performed Jeff Buckley’s “Hallelujah.” DioGuardi thinks he is moving up to the top of the male contestants and DeGeneres hugged him. Cowell called it Urban’s best performance yet and I agree. Lambert performed Ray LaMontagne’s “Trouble.” Jackson thinks he should have made it slower, though I think he should have done a harder, slightly faster song. DioGuardi told him he is too stiff. He still isn’t as comfortable as he should be.
Aaron Kelly and Andrew Garcia truly disappointed me and the judges as well with their performances. Kelly chose Lonestar’s “I’m Already There.” What should have been a good song choice for him started off on the wrong key and only got worse. Jackson told him to work on the lower notes. Cowell told him it had emotion but the vocals were not great. Garcia decided to go in a very brave direction with Christina Aguilera’s “Genie in a Bottle.” He wanted to bring back the wow factor from his Paula Abdul audition performance. It was off key and had no great moments whatsoever. Jackson told him “It was a little pitchy all over the place…you made us feel like the whole song was three notes.” Cowell called it desperate and thought he was over-thinking it. Whatever the problem was, it was his worst performance yet in my opinion.
Todrick Hall also had a not so good performance with Queen’s “Somebody to Love.” At first I thought this could be a great song choice for him, but it didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. It was better than the previous two weeks, but he needed to open up his vocal cords more at the end. The judges, except for Cowell, seemed to like it though. DioGuardi did call it dramatic, but thought the singing was good. As Cowell remarked though, some parts were not good. I really think he has put on too much of a Broadway performance every week.
When the eliminations came Thursday night, Hall was eliminated, which did not surprise me at all as I’ve been putting him at the bottom of the barrel for weeks. I thought Garcia had blown his chance as well, but he was voted into the top 12 and young Alex Lambert was the one who did not score enough votes to continue.
Thursday was a very emotional night for the contestants as the four eliminations started off with Katelyn Epperly. I’ve been saying her voice was the weakest of the girls so I was relieved and not at all surprised to see her go. However, as the emotions ran high at the end of the show, the most shocking elimination yet occurred. Lilly Scott, who had consistently performed as one of the top three females was eliminated while Katie Stevens, who has yet figured out who she is as an artist, was told she was in. Stevens is arguably not ready for the competition and at 17 years-old still has to figure out who she wants to be as an artist, so we’ll see if she can get it together in time for the next performance.
The contestants performed a group version of Micheal Buble’s “I Just Haven’t Met You Yet” at the beginning of the show and I thought the beginning vocal pairings were quite good. It was a good kickoff to an emotional night that ended with our final 12 season 9 contestants: Michael Lynche, Lee Dewyze, Casey James, Aaron Kelly, Tim Urban, Andrew Garcia, Crystal Bowersox, Siobhan Magnus, Didi Benami, Paige Miles, Katie Stevens, and Lacey Brown.
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