Here we are! Our Top 8 performing this week, with one going home, revealing the top 7. After Daniel Seavey’s departure last week (thank the Lord), things were lookin up on our favorite singing competition show! However, with the “Idol Fan Save” back again this week, I’m not convinced that unless a contestant has a vocal mishap or wardrobe malfunction that America can be trusted with these important decisions… though I hope so.
The Idol Fan Save (more like the East Coast Fan Save) puts me in a difficult position being in Los Angeles, and watching this “live”, because there is really no live involved, and this live fan vote already happened 3 hours ago! So, I feel completely helpless sitting on my couch behind the screen of my laptop. America: Please represent!
With two co-mentors this week (one country and one hip hop), the contestants were broken up into teams to work on their individual performances. But in addition to the contestant performances, we have a lot of pros guest starring here as well… I’m predicting that as the contestant pool dwindles, the show will become more about over produced guest performances. So let’s get to it:
JAX (Poker Face, Lady Gaga) – She is her own type of Lady Gaga, so I feel 
like it’s an appropriate choice for her. But her biggest critique was that she didn’t inhabit the song emotionally. She undoubtedly did a beautiful job with the vocals, and, as Keith loves to point out each and every week, she really let her “artistry” shine. Jax is still one of my favorites, but if I hear Keith call her a true artist one more time… I swear. I don’t think she’s in any real danger, but it’s about time that the judges step up their judging game around here!
UGH!!!! I guess Nick Fradiani continued to win all the female viewers over with his performance last week… but puh-leeeze. Enough already! This was an aggressive yet monotonous version of an otherwise fun, cute girl power song (Katy Perry’s Teenage Dream). But – surprise, surprise J-Lo loved it. She proves my point about all the girlies that are voting him though week after week. But thank God for Harry’s commentary… “we heard you!” and then he sang the hell out of that song.
I’m a little surprised, but pleased, that Quentin is not in the bottom two. But wait… did you see the length of his nails? My crush on him may just have been crushed. yikes! I do not know this song, so I wasn’t connected to it, but he did a solid job. And (nail length aside), he looks damn good in shlubby clothes or a dapper suit (as he exhibited this evening).
Joey has been put up to the challenge of not relying on her “crab hands” for her performance of Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball. She stood tall on stage (atop her little podium) with her purple “Sia” hair and lavender chiffon dress. She elegantly held the mic and stood in place, and killed it with a beautiful vocal performance on a hugely popular song, but her biggest critique was that it was too monotone not dynamic enough. Joey said this was her “make or break” week. I’m confident she will be here for a while longer, so I hope she can recover from a not-so-perfect performance this week.
Clark is up next – his note from his mentor was to “preach” his song rather than to sing it only to himself. Ed Sheeran’s Make it Rain is his song of choice this evening, and once again he proves that all he needs is his guitar and a mic. His voice can do the rest. But was it “preachy” enough? I think so… this is what we call running away with the competition. Effortless.
Tyanna is the last one to be saved by last week’s votes. She sang Rihanna’s Stay – a seemingly great song choice for her. And from her interviews beforehand, it appears she really connected to this song. She deserves a killer performance because the last couple weeks have been a little rough on her. And by choosing such an emotional performance, she definitely let the best side of her shine. She’s back.
As predicted, Rayvon and Qaasim are in the bottom two this week – singing for live fan votes for the save.
Rayvon sang first – with Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain. While it was a strong performance, when Harry asked him what his gravy is, he gave a boring, gravy-less answer – only to prove he is boring inside and out.
Hopefully Qaasim can win over with Outkast’s Hey Ya???
Nope. Bye bye Qaasim. :(
So for next week:
Who Do I Want To Go Home: Nick Fradiani
Who Do I Think Will Go Home: Rayvon Owen
(in reality, I’d be fine with either of these two leaving. But at the very least these two will make up the bottom 2… oh yeah, but then there is Quentin with his long nails).