WHHOOOAAA, livin’ on a prayer!!
Sorry, this isn’t Bon Jovi night on Idol, though I estimate that will be a theme night on Idol season 28. Instead, we are down to 6 Idol hopefuls from the original 13. That also means the producers will be stretching 18 minutes of actual performances into an hour and a half of television. Word on the blog street is that they will do it through having the customers perform duets, which begs the question – has there ever been a truly good duet on American Idol? Maybe there will be tonight, if not, I’ll be checking out the rerun of The Voice on NBC. Don’t tell my editor…
Jacob Lusk – Jacob dressed with some crazy style tonight… I guess? Style isn’t really my thing, just look at this blog’s banner for reference. Alright, back to what I know! He sang a track called “Oh No, Not My Baby,” it was upbeat, funky, and a bit of a departure for him. He brought it vocally and even did a little bit of actual performing! There were some pitch problems here and there, but he really showed his vocal stuff and had a great time doing it.
Lauren Alaina – Miley Cyrus dropped in on Lauren’s session. Miley Cyrus is annoying (this is ironic if you watched the segment). Lauren decided to sing the theme for Gilmore Girls. Don’t hate – Gilmore Girls was an awesome show full of witty dialog and juicy romantic subplots. Oh, the performance. It came and went, there was a random boy on stage, he was 19 and she is 16. It was weird, and completely not worthy of the Gilmore Girls.
Casey and Haley – The first duet of the night was actually really, really good! They set the bar high by actually harmonizing with each other. Idol duets have rarely reached such heights! They were both all over the stage, slapping high fives, and why not? I’m just impressed that each of them sang like someone else was on stage.
Scotty Mcreery – I guess Scotty couldn’t find a country song by Carole King, so he sang “You’ve Got a Friend.” It was an intimate performance, and was much better than I thought it would be. He sang it well, but he has such a strong country drawl that is awkward to hear him sing something that isn’t country. Even throwing a simple steel guitar into this version would have made it work about twice as well. Still though, it was one of his best performances of the season.
James Durbin – James opted for an intimate moment as well with “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?” He got the song going a capella, which was easily one of the top vocal moments of the whole season. The performance even stayed strong once the band came in, and I would venture to say that this was his best vocal performance of the season. It was on pitch, tasteful, and he did it while playing a guitar. Super work James! We also learned that this was Steven Tyler’s first make out song. I’m just impressed he can remember it! Also post performance Randy Jackson gave him a hug. Hmm, someone watched The Voice didn’t they?
Lauren and Scotty – Lauren shunned that creepy 19 year old guy in favor of Scotty. Maybe that guy is already in the slammer? Anyway, he probably could have hit the harmonies better than Scotty did. Yikes! He made up for it by wearing a Wolfpack football shirt during the interview, if he wore that more often I’d give him my vote. I’m such a sucker.
Casey Abrams – Casey went back to the dirty blues sound which he utilized early in the competition. I was pretty stoked when he rocked some solo piano at the beginning, but that lasted for maybe 12 seconds – awkward. The performance though, was as stellar as the hat Casey was wearing. He brought back a lot of that growl and it really worked with the song. Jacob’s voice transcends genre, and I think the American Idol winner should be able to do that.
Haley Reinhardt – It is really great to see a performer improve throughout the season like Haley has. Honestly, she used to annoy me to no end, but she’s really pulled it together. This performance was strong, but it wasn’t particularly memorable like some of tonight’s other performances. I think I enjoyed her duet with Casey more, so hopefully that will be enough to keep her on.
James and Jacob – They both wore tight white pants and brought the house down with a spirited performance. It looked funny any way you slice it!
Tomorrow’s vote will be interesting. There were definitely some top performances, but no one really stunk it up either. I think that Jacob and Haley could run into some trouble based on their song choices, and while his performance was exceptional Casey may need to look out as well. We’ll all know soon enough, I suppose!
What did you think of tonight’s performances?
Related – American Idol Top 7 Recap!
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