Tuesday on the hit FOX reality show American Idol was dubbed Idol Gives Back night. The seven remaining contestants worked with mentor Alicia Keys and were tasked with choosing inspirational songs.
The judges were a tough bunch last night, expressing their displeasure at nearly every song choice. The only two contestants to receive any love from Randy, Ellen, Kara and Simon turned out to be Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox.
Casey James sang “Don’t Stop” and got some lukewarm feedback: “not great”, “lazy song choice”, “not particularly inspiring”, and the often confused judge DioGuardi was once again “frustrated” — a common theme for her.
Tim Urban, who has been riding high in the judges eyes in recent weeks, slipped out of their good graces with his rendition of “Better Days”. All four judges were hard-pressed to give it a thumbs up : Randy called it “Just Ok”, Ellen “didn’t like it”, Kara offered,”you’ve got something but not tonight”, and Simon pronounced it “a little bit of a let down.”
Aaron Kelly seemed excited to sing “I Believe I Can Fly”, a song he has reportedly been singing since he was 5-years-old. The judges thought the first part of the song wasn’t Idol worthy but did like the end, though Simon quipped, “If I had heard you singing that song on the radio, I’d have turned it off.”
Poor Siobhan Magnus can no longer do anything right in the eyes of Kara and Simon. Even Randy has turned a corner and decided that it is easier to dismiss her than offer her encouragement. Ellen was the only judge who gave Siobhan’s rendition of “When You Believe” any love, telling the AI hopeful “good job”. We must admit — we liked it too.
Michael Lynche sang “Hero”. The judges were noncommittal on his performance but provided enough neutral sound bites to potentially keep him in the competition for another week. They used words like “you held your own”, “sang it pretty well but it felt artificial”, and “not a great job”.
Lee DeWyze, a former paint salesman, chose “The Boxer”. Randy said he is “ready to make records”. Simon said this season is about artists and he called the performance “sincere, emotional, brilliant.”
Crystal Bowersox sang “People Get Ready”. The most promising performer of the season had her father in the audience for the first time and broke down at the end of her song – unable to finish the last notes. We learned last week that she came close to quitting the competition and was persuaded to stay by show host Ryan Seacrest.
UPDATE: Wednesday April 21, 2010: The ‘comeback kid’ Tim Urban was eliminated. The other two in the bottom three were Casey James and Aaron Kelly. Both will appear next week as part of the remaining Top 6.
Check out some of the performance videos below: