It was Elvis Week on the hit FOX reality show American Idol Tuesday night. On hand to mentor the nine remaining contestants was last season’s runner-up Adam Lambert.
Last week the judges were in sync and very high on all of the contestants but this week we saw a divided group once again. Randy and Ellen tended to be at odds with Kara and Simon – and the singing hopefuls got more mixed messages as a result.
The best performance of the night was delivered by Crystal Bowersox, who appears to have the contest all wrapped up at this point. Strumming a bejeweled guitar, she nailed “Saved”.
Katie Stevens had some fun with “Baby What You Want Me to Do”. She decided to use the song as a vehicle for channeling her frustration with the judges. It was perky and upbeat and Ellen and Randy loved it. Their counterparts at the other end of the panel apparently took offense to the notion that the 17-year-old was having some fun at their expense. Kara sniped, “I guess you told the judges.” We loved her performance – her second week in a row of bringing her A game.
The judges also liked Lee DeWyze, who performed “A Little Less Conversation”, and they praised Michael Lynche for his rendition of “In The Ghetto”. Lambert coached Big Mike to be a little more theatrical with the number but he didn’t take the bait after getting rebuked by the judges in past weeks for being “over the top”.
Tim Urban impressed the judges with “Can’t Help Falling in Love”, though for the life of me — I don’t see what they are seeing. Casey James, who has been strong in the past few weeks, didn’t find favor with Cowell for “Laudy Miss Claudy”. The prickly judge called it a “missed opportunity” and Kara said he “fell short of brilliance”.
Struggling were Andrew Garcia with “Hound Dog”, Aaron Kelly with “Blue Suede Shoes” and Siobhan Magnus for “Suspicious Minds”. Of the three, Siobhan has the strongest vocals and shows the most potential but hasn’t settled into a style — a fact that is irritating DioGuardi.
Magnus had a good comeback with, “Even I can’t pinpoint who I am and I don’t think it’s necessary to be one thing. I’ve always prided myself for being different.” The audience broke into spontaneous applause.
Two contestants will be eliminated on Wednesday night. As we see it, Garcia and Kelly should start packing their bags because it looks like they have reached the end of the line.
Check out the top performance videos below: