The hit FOX reality show American Idol featured Beatles songs from the John Lennon and Paul McCartney songbook on Tuesday night. The nine remaining contestants made good choices and most received positive praise from the judges — who have been decidedly ultra-critical in recent weeks.
The judges were ‘high’ on 17-year-old Katie Stevens who sang “Let It Be”. Ellen said, “You never looked better and you never sounded better.” Simon said, “Tonight you got it right.”
Crystal Bowersox gave another solid performance with her rendition of “Come Together”, with the accompaniment of a didgeridoo player. This added touch seemed to thrill Simon.
Michael Lynche took some heat from Simon for “Eleanor Rigby”. The head judge felt Big Mike took a slide backwards with the performance that he called “over the top”.
Tim Urban sang “All My Lovin”. The judges all agreed that the song suited him. Simon, who has been very rough on Tim over the past few weeks, was impressed with the fact that Urban “takes criticism like a man, handles himself very well, had no gimmicks and didn’t over sing the song.”
Casey James sang “Jealous Guy”. Simon pronounced his performance the best of the night.
Andrew Garcia sang “Can’t Buy Me Love” and probably fielded the harshest criticism of the night. Simon, who is not a fan, called the performance “corny, old fashioned and irrelevant.”
Aaron Kelly sang “The Long and Winding Road”. The judges weren’t impressed, calling it “long and winding”, “boring”, and “sleepy”.
Siobhan Magnus performed “Across the Universe”. The song was a vast departure from her last few performances and that seemed to confuse Kara, who couldn’t fault the vocals but called it “very restrained and very polite”. Simon, who has not been a fan of her rocker vibe, thought her effort was better than last week.
Rounding out the evening with “Hey Jude” was Lee DeWyze. A man dressed in a Scottish kilt and playing the bag pipes came up behind Lee toward the end of his song. Randy and Ellen were amused and Simon was truly perplexed by it. All of the judges thought DeWyze was starting to believe in himself.
The weakest competitors seemed to be Andrew Garcia and Aaron Kelly. Who will go home?
Our very own Danni Starr critiqued the evening on FOX 9 Idol Buzz in the Twin Cities again this morning – check out who she thinks will be sent packing on the lead video below. We are excited to report that she will be on hand at the AI finale in Hollywood with exclusive reporting…so stay tuned.
View some of Tuesday night’s top performance videos below – then check out the SHOCKING elimination result.