With the elimination of Hollie Cavanagh last week, the Top 3 contestants remain: Joshua Ledet, Jessica Sanchez, and Phillip Phillips have a three-song night: the judge’s choice, the singer’s choice, and Jimmy Iovine’s choice of song.  All the performances were all uniformly good, which means that they were all average.

But it was Jessica Sanchez who received the one critical feedback, from judge Randy Jackson.  But her partisans in the studio audience made their displeasure with his feedback known, with loud booing.

On a night filled with amazing performances, the American Idol Top 4 had some winners and losers.  Let’s start with the boys:

Phillip Phillips

In round one, Phillips sang “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival, and it was a poor song choice for him, as it stuck him in his cliché style, the Dave Matthews soundalike.  Nothing new or original in this performance.  This has made him vulnerable to elimination.

“Volcano” did redeem him somewhat, with a low-down growl reminiscent of Joe Cocker, but it was too low-key and the ending fell flat.

Joshua Ledet

Perennial front-runner Ledet had one good performance, with “You Raise Me Up,” and an absolutely incredible one with “It’s a Man’s World” that blew the rest of the competition away with its nearly psychotically soulful intensity.

Their duet was better than last week, but still forgettable.  So much so that I forgot it – some Maroon 5 song, I think.

And now the girls:

Jessica Sanchez

Despite her vocal acrobatics that are second to none – even Joshua is edged by her technics – Sanchez continues to find songs that are too mature for her emotional understanding.  In both “Steal Away” and “And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going,” she brings out the intensity, but you can tell that she just has not experienced the kind of loss she sings about to make me believe it.  She’s a child singing adult song.  Still, her performances will probably be enough to get her into the Final Three.

Hollie Cavanagh

Hollie is my favorite.  She started peaking two weeks ago, and I was very hopeful for her tonight, but she completely missed the mark with both songs. In round one, the “California” round, her version of “Faithfully” by Journey was just dreadful.  It was pitched too low for her, so she never got to have that Steve Perry moment, and as I tweeted, sounded instead like a wounded cow, mooooaning her way through the song.  She chose Bonnie Raitt’s “I Can’t Make You Love Me” as her second song choice, and oversang it, revealing none of the vulnerable intimacy of the lyrics.  The judges seemed to disagree with me, at least on her first choice, and scolded her for the wrong song choice for the second.

Prediction

I predict Hollie and Phillip in the bottom two, and Hollie going home.

Skylar Laine Eliminated

Once again, as I predicted, American Idol Top 5 competitor, Skylar Laine, was eliminated tonight on this week’s results show.   She peaked too early in this year’s competition, and remained in the bottom three too often, so when she and other perrenial bottom three’er, Hollie Cavanagh, were the bottom two tonight, well, it only goes to figure that Skylar would be out.

That leaves Joshua Ledet, Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips, and Hollie Cavanagh as the Top Four.

On tonight’s 1960s and Brit-pop themed night on American Idol,  the five remaining contestants had some very difficult songs to sing:

Round One

Hollie Cavanagh opened the show with a stunning rendition of “River Deep, Mountain High” and blew the roof of like a tornado

Phillip Phillips sang “The Letter” and switched the arrangement around to create a uniquely Phillip experience.  Even though I don’t really like him, he did a very credible job with the song.  Judge Jennifer Lopez, incredibly, hadn’t ever heard the song before!  It’s a classic!

Skylar Laine’s version of “Fortunate Son” rocked out, but was just not good enough.  With the other contestants having such amazing performances, this one will keep her in the bottom three.

Jessica Sanchez performed “Proud Mary” in a teensy white dress with a huge chain vest and sky-high heels.  She electrified the audience with her amazing performance of that tired classic.  Judge Randy Jackson didn’t like it, and listening to his comments, there’s a bit of merit.  Her voice is writing checks her inexperience can’t cash.

And finally, Joshua Ledet and his performance of “Aint Too Proud to Beg” was his worst of the series.  Which is to say that he is listening too much to the judges, and he slipped.  They are giving him too much praise and not enough constructive criticism.  Even so, even a bad Joshua performance is still a wondrous thing.

My winner of this round was Hollie, followed by Joshua, Jessica, Phillip and Skylar, but it was a close thing between Hollie and Joshua, who I still insist are boinking back at the house.  Hollie’s resurgence coincided with her onstage flirtation with Joshua.

Round Two

Hollie is singing “Bleeding Love” was tender, intimate, and very convincing.  And the performance stayed on target, she didn’t go over the top, kept it sublime yet intense.  She’s the one to beat this week.

“Time of the Season” as sung by Phillip Phillips.  He looked so uncomfortable singing about loving.  I wonder if he’s a virgin?  And it was a half-step too high for him, so he strained to hit the highest notes, but still, he’s so charismatic tonight.  So it’s a mixed bag – not sung so well, but he’s full of charisma.  Oh, Steven Tyler, he did not sing it well – it was too high.

Skylar was way too loud and angry sounding in the Dusty Springfield hit “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me.”  She was harsh and not very well connected to the song.  I didn’t believe it at all.

Jessica singing “You Are So Beautiful” was from its opening notes spectacular.  And her high note at the end? Perfection.  She really improved from her first round.

Joshua Ledet with “Without Love” peaked a few episodes ago.   Yes, he’s amazing, blah blah blah, but he’s not growing.  I feel like he’s stuck where he has been, and it’s because the judges are too fawning and full of praise.

Predictions

In the bottom three will be Phillip, Skylar, and Jessica with Skylar going home.  But Phillip is a close second for going home.  Or it could be the surprise pick of Joshua.  But I think Hollie and Jessica are safe this week.

As I predicted, 28 year old vocal coach, Elise Testone, was eliminated from the competition tonight after two disappointing performances on Queen Night.  Her lackluster performance Queen and in round two, Jimi Hendrix, were just not as good as any of the rest of the singers.  The Hendrix song was especially bad, and obscure to boot.

But as far as results show goes, opening with a sad Queen tribute band singing “Somebody” was a new low for the show, even when Queen actually came out on the stage and jammed with them at the end of the number.  So embarrassing.

Ryan Seacrest continued to display his sadistic streak in teasing the contestants about who was safe and not, a trait I suspect will continue moving forward as we have our Top 5 next week.

In another two-song night, the first half of the show was devoted to supergroup, Queen, and here we saw some unusual performance.  Jessica Sanchez singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” was less than her normal stellar self.  Skylar Laine kept her momentum up although she made a mistake by singing “The Show Must Go On,” a relatively obscure Queen song.  Joshua Ledet still seems to be the one to beat, with his powerful rendition of “Crazy Little Thing” stunned the audience.    Elise Testone had a good showing of her song, but not her best performance, and in a competition that is this unusually strong this year, her song choice could be a deciding factor.  Phillip Phillips’ sung “Fat Bottom Girls,” and did a terrible job of it.  He’s in real danger.  And then Hollie Cavanagh, the dark horse, gave us a strong version of “Save Me,” which very likely will save her from elimination.  Ms. Cavanagh is peaking just at the right time in this competition, while Phillips and Testone are waning.  Even tiny Jessica Sanchez is bobbling a bit.

But then the second round of the evening, and Jessica Sanchez performed “Dance with my Father” to a standing ovation, followed by Skylar Laine, who looked and sang like a tarted-up trollop tonight.  Just wasn’t that impressed.  Joshua Ledet, though, just kept plowing along, with another incredible performance.  I can see him in the finale.  Phillip Phillips sang some Dave Matthews’ song, in a jazzy version that while I thought was very interesting, didn’t really connect with the audience.  J-Lo scolded him for being too risky at this stage of the competition.   I agree with her.  Finally, though, Hollie Cavanagh got the standing ovation she deserves, with a mighty version of “The Climb” – I really hate that song, but her performance was strong.

So, my predictions:

Jessica – bottom three, but safe

Skylar – safe

Joshua – safe

Elise – bottom three, voted off the island

Phillip – bottom three, but safe

Hollie – safe

With the Judges’ Save used up last week for the young phenom, Jessica Sanchez, this week’s Top 7 were completely at the public’s mercy.  And the public had ditched the silly peroxide alternaboy, Colton Dixon.  I personally think he went too far with the 40 power lift to his brunette locks.  Well, and his singing was lackluster.

Hollie Cavanagh, with her perky pertness, is coming alive, and has been improving with each week.  I think the flirtation she is having with Joshua Ledet is getting her more in touch with her natural woman is helping a bit, too.  Whatever.  Go, Hollie, my sweet guilty pleasure is turning guilt-free!

But is she surging in time, or is Skylar and Jessica and Joshua leading trio too far ahead in maturity and poise?  Jessica was criticized by Jimmy Iovine for being too young for the material she’s been choosing, but he also blamed himself.

With all the amazing voices remaining, even fellow bottom-three-er Elise Testone, just about any of them could have a great night next week and catapult themselves back into contention.

Tonight on the Top 7 results show on American Idol, we saw two of the strongest singers in the bottom three, Joshua Ledet and Jessica Sanchez, along with Elise Testone.

In an amazing turn of events, all three judges leaped from their seats during the “Sing for your Life” final song, and Jennifer Lopez snatched the mic from Sanchez’s hand exclaiming “This is crazy!”

So, two contestants will have to be removed next week, though.  So, who knows what’ll happen next week!

In a season full of amazing, huge voices, tonight’s performance show of songs from 2010 – 2012 was a good episode to see how these singers would be out in the contemporary marketplace of song.

Here we go:

Skylar Laine opened the show with a big performance that set a high bar for her fellow contestants.  Which Colton Dixon promptly jumped over, and used his falsetto to great effect.   Jessica Sanchez came next with a powerful and subtle performance of “Stuttering” which wowed the audience.

Joshua Ledet followed Sanchez and again had a stellar performance.  Even the weakest singer remaining in the contest, Hollie Cavanagh, stepped up her game and except for one tiny pitchy note near the end, had a terrific night.

Phillip Phillips, even though his performance was strong, seemed to be running in place, and the judges nailed him for it.  And show closer, Elise Testone, rocked out a Lady Gaga number; nevertheless, she had a vocal crack as she went into the first chorus.  That one small mistake could cost her.

So my predictions for the bottom three:  Hollie, Phillip, and Elise.  Hollie and Elise have both been in the bottom three before, so we’re going to see  one of them go home – probably my guilty pleasure Hollie.

DeAndre Brackensick - Fox 5 News

After a night of exceptional performances, Curly-headed falsettist, DeAndre Brackensick was eliminated tonight on the American Idol Top 8 Results Show.

Also in the bottom three were Elise Testone and Hollie Cavanagh, who’s performances were plagued by judges’ criticisms.  The judges said Elise had pitch problems, that it was the wrong song choice for her.  And Hollie was criticized for underperforming until the end of the song, overthinking the song.  These criticisms were valid, and surprisingly, the judges had nothing but praise for DeAndre’s performance.

Cavanagh was the first voted back to the couch, and you could see that the judges thought that Elise would be the one voted off, so they were surprised when Elise was safe, too.  Which left DeAndre to sing for his life.

Judge Jennifer Lopez announced that she was outvoted and that the judges would not use their save to keep him on the show, and the gasp from the audience was sharp.  But they let him go, and the top seven move forward.

With the elimination of Jermaine Jones for not disclosing outstanding arrest warrants, we are down to 11 singers.  Tonight’s performances were flawed, with poor song choices, pitch problems, and a couple of stand outs. The theme of the night was songs from the singers’ birth years.  1983 to 1995 is the age range of the contestants on American Idol? Goodness, I could be any of their fathers (if just barely)!

The Girls:

• Jessica Sanchez, who had the best performance last week, wasn’t so hot with “Turn the Beat Around,” with the song not placed in her voice’s sweet spot.  Still, the performance was good.
• Elise Testone, singing “Let’s Stay Together” – so beautifully sung, she’s making me question my sexuality.
• Shannon Magrane, who was the worst singer last week, did a credible job of “One Sweet Day,” the Mariah Carey show-stopper.  But where’s her sassy gay friend to help her out with her horrible clothing?  Egads.
• Erika Van Pelt, who’s rendition of Bryan Adams’ “Heaven” was the best performance of the night, until Joshua and Hollie.
• Skylar Laine’s performance of the Bonnie Raitt tune “Love Sneaking Up On You” rocked out, but it was a bad song choice, bad song choice, bad song choice.
• And finally, Hollie Cavanagh sang “The Power of Love” – she nailed the landing! 10s across the board.

The Boys:

• Phil Phillips had a kidney stone removed earlier in the week, and sang a surprisingly decent version of “Hard to Handle.”
• Heejun Han singing “Right Here Waiting” by Richard Marx  – he’s good at the ballad form, but this song wasn’t working for him.
• DeAndre Brackensick’s rendition of  “Endless Love” was like honey butter – so delicious.
• Colton Dixon doing the one-hit wonder White Lion’s “Broken Heart?” He made it his own – not hard to do because no one knows it!
• Joshua Ledet on #idol singing “When a Man Loves a Woman” – a genuinely wonderful performance – best of the night!

So who’s safe and who’s gonna go?

If I had to predict who’s going to go, I’ll say my personal favorite, Heejun Han.  Either him or Shannon Magrane among the ladies.

After the loss of bear-favorite, Casey Abrams, a few weeks ago, I hadn’t had the heart to write more about season 10 of American Idol, but after watching last night’s Top Three performance episode, I figured a few words would be appropriate.

Scotty’s performances were mediocre at best, as his arrogance is causing him to not pay attention as much to his singing, resulting in noticeable pitch issues.

Lauren is still a bag of vocal vomit, but she’s better than Scotty, and I predict she’ll make the Finals.

Which leaves Haley – she seems to have become electrified in the past two weeks, and her performances are getting better and better! Initially one of my least favorite, Haley now seems to be the one to beat. I predict she will take it all!