Source: USA TODAY
You say you want a revolution? The American Idol Top 9 — Lazaro Arbos, Janelle Arthur, Candice Glover, Kree Harrison, Amber Holcomb, Paul Jolley, Angie Milller, Burnell Taylor and Devin Velez — hope you’ll see it their way as they get back to the songs of The Beatles. Which ones get all your loving and which should get a ticket to ride home? Share your thoughts in tonight’s live blog. — Brian Mansfield
Beatles Week is a double-edged sword, says record executive Jimmy Iovine. “There’s no gimmicks needed,” he says. “If you sing these songs well, they’ll deliver for you. On the other hand, if you don’t sing them well, the whole world is going to know.”
But, first, some results. Who gets the 11th spot on the summer tour, Charlie Askew or Aubrey Cleland? (Had you forgotten?)
It’s Cleland. Askew gets booted from the show a second time.
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We’ve got one more Beatles ballad to go tonight, and it’ll be coming from Janelle Arthur.
Jimmy Iovine says Arthur has chosen a very, very subtle song in I Will. Subtlety, of course, not being a common trait among American Idol singers. And if she breathes correctly, she just might pull it off, Iovine thinks.
Arthur manages to do something none of the other ballad singers tonight have done – take the Beatles song out of the realm of Beatle-dom. It’s a lesser-known song from the catalog, which makes it easier. But she turns it into this lovely, lilting almost countrypolitan confection and never succumbs to the temptation to over-sing.
If this isn’t Keith Urban’s favorite Beatles song, it ought to be now. “You know who you are. You’re pure, you’re true, and I thought that was really beautiful.”
“Can we renew our vows tonight?” Nicki Minaj asks.
“I’m ready,” Arthur replies. “I’m your marshmallow, remember?”
‘You are great, little girl! You are great! You are everything, because you don’t have to yell and scream.”
“I think that’s one of the best performances of the night,” says Randy Jackson, who believes the subtlety spoke louder than the big voices.
“I feel like you really have been listening to what we’ve been saying,” Mariah Carey says, calling Arthur’s performance beautiful and elegant.
Grade: A+
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Jimmy Iovine wonders who Devin Velez has in his head when he sings The Long and Winding Road. Brian McKnight, Velez replies. “Great, then put yourself in that situation,” Iovine tells him. The closer he gets to that place, Iovine believes, the better he is.
Excellent performance of another ballad. He sings it beautifully, in that R&B style he has. But, c’mon, enough already.
“You never cease to amaze me,” Mariah Carey. She doesn’t have words to describe how good she thinks it was.
Keith Urban reminds Velez that he has championed the young singer all along. And he’d like to see Velez be less laid back and connect more emotionally.
Nicki Minaj thinks he is connecting emotionally.
Randy Jackson loves that he brought swagger back but shouldn’t feel like he has to use it all the time.
Mariah gives a shout-out to all her lambs.
Grade: A
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In her high-school class, Angie Miller was voted “Next American Idol.” Guess this has been in the works for a while, then.
Jimmy Iovine says Angie Miller has a tendency to over-sing Yesterday, her choice for tonight. But she can show more emotion with her restraint.
She doesn’t quite dial it back enough in performance — she just can’t resist going for the glory notes when they’re just within reach, like low-hanging fruit. Mostly, though, it’s simple and lovely.
“You’re one of my favorite in this whole competition,” Randy Jackson says. He thinks she did hold back, though she showed a little firepower at the end. He compares Miller to Evanescence’s Amy Lee or Paramore’s Hayley Williams.
Mariah Carey thinks Miller did a very respectful version of Yesterday, “yet you really showed your voice.”
“I felt like there were moments when you were trying desperately to stop thinking about all the things people were telling you to sing like,” Keith Urban says, and sometimes she would stop thinking and just sing. But, either way, Miller always shines through for him.
“Amazing, first and foremost,” Nicki Minaj. She likes the high key in which Miller started the song, because it showed just what she could do up there. “You could do anything with your voice. You are amazing.”
Grade: B+
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Jimmy Iovine is enjoying watching Paul Jolley develop and learn the difference between screaming and singing subtly but intensely. “There’s a fine line you walk when you’re a singer like Paul, and he’s starting to understand it.”
Eleanor Rigby is as risky a song for Jolley as In My LIfe was for Lazaro Arbos. The verses are some of the nicest things Jolley has done on the show. But this song will be won or lost on the “all the lonely people” refrain. And that’s pretty intense, too. It may not be the best performance of the night, but it’s the most improved.
Nicki Minaj likes everything about Jolley but the performance. “Very, very safe, very bland and very forgettable.”
Randy Jackson thought he was disconnected from the song and never got into it.
Mariah Carey thought Jolley made a great song choice. However, “you have to be able to give as much emotion when you’re singing softly as when you’re at the top of your range. … Pretend like you wrote it and it’s coming from you and give that to us.” She’d like to see him do an uptempo, dance-oriented pop song. She doesn’t get him as a country singer.
Eleanor Rigby is Keith Urban’s second-favorite Beatles song behind She’s Leaving Home. He also likes the pop-rock side of Jolley’s voice and hopes he gets to hear more of it.
Grade: B
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I figured Candice Glover might do Come Together. What I didn’t expect was for her arrangement to be more Aerosmith than Tina Turner. After a couple weeks of vocal master classes, tonight she just lets it belt. Then she throws in a couple of ad libs that take it into her own territory.
“Now we’re cooking!” exclaims Keith Urban. “I love seeing you in this whole other vibe tonight. … I thought that was absolutely killer.”
Nicki Minaj loves her crazy, insane, out-of-this-world vocal, but she wants her to always have the same attitude in her face.
“I don’t know what’s going on in your face, but the voice is crazy,” says Randy Jackson. He’s glad to hear her go uptempo, because sometimes people think singers with big voices can’t do uptempo material. Dang right.
“It was like a prize fighter, darling,” Mariah Carey says. “The only thing that’s ever missing for me from you is when you decide to get even more creative and jazzy and go places that nobody else can go.” She asks Glover to please not stop doing that.
Grade: A+
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Lazaro Arbos has chosen a song from Rubber Soul, Ryan Seacrest teases. Guess it won’t be If I Needed Someone. What a shame.
Rehearsing In My Life in the studio, he appears to be having trouble staying in time on pitch. By the time he takes the stage, the tempo problems seem to have been solved. But not the pitch troubles. He’s flatter than the bike tires in my garage. And following three excellent performances makes it sound even worse.
Mariah Carey’s up first: “It’s so difficult to perform a song written by Lennon and McCartney,” she says. “I really have to commend you on your bravery.” Translation: Boy, did that suck.
“Choosing the key of a song is really important,” says Keith Urban, knowing that Arbos could have picked from many. He wishes Arbos had started in the key he modulated to, because it sounded better there.
“I still feel like you are not back to the Lazaro that I remember,” Nicki Minaj. “You’re confidence is different now.” He wishes she could get Iovine out of the room. “Something is bothering you, babe. I need you back.”
Randy Jackson: “Honestly, for me, that was your worst performance ever. … I’m just starting to wonder: Where did the vocals go?”
By the time the judges have had their say, Arbos is in tears.
Grade: D
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Amber Holcomb has made a provocative choice – She’s Leaving Home.
“She’s not going to be leaving this show — she murders this song,” Iovine says. “Amber? Her voice? This song? A winner.”
Holcomb doesn’t sound quite as natural in her song as Harrison and Taylor did in theirs, but she gets of style points – for the harp-and-strings arrangement, for the way she takes the melody up at the end of the verses, for just having the good sense to choose this song in the first place. It showcases a different part of her singing style than her last two choices did, and its melody keeps her from going to melismatic.
“It started a little slow and unsure for me,” Randy Jackson, but he knows she had it by the time she got to the middle. Also, it turns out that Holcomb didn’t know this song any better than Taylor knew Let It Be.
But that’s okay – Mariah Carey didn’t know it, either. She felt Holcomb recovered from any problems she might have had.
Keith Urban knows the song – it’s his favorite Beatles song. “You came out and made it sound as fresh as if it was just written this week,” he says.
“Your vocal is unmatched,” Nicki Minaj says. “But I definitely saw that you was in your brain, like, ‘Why did he give me that song?’ … I don’t want to see that.”
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Burnell Taylor has chosen Let It Be, but he’s at a disadvantage – he doesn’t know the song. (Not even Aretha Franklin’s version? Really?) Still, you know he can sing it great – if he’s learned it well.
Though it’s yet another gospel-infused ballad, Burnell brings a beautiful, raspy delivery to the song, playfully reinterpreting the melody. And we’ve got a gospel choir walking out for the second time in two songs – a gimmick that’s going to get old tonight real fast if it keeps up. Still, excellent take on the song, though I’m ready for him to mix it up stylistically.
“You didn’t even sing the song, you caressed it,” Nicki Minaj says. “You treated it like it was a newborn baby. … I felt like I was in church.”
“Do you know the Beatles?” Randy Jackson says.
“I know of them,” Burnell admits.
“This is the mark of a great singer and a great artist,” Randy says. “You made it your own.”
Mariah Carey was concerned when Iovine said Taylor didn’t know the song. However, after hearing him sing, “I was so proud of you. I was so happy for you.”
“You are the most instantly recognizable tone, vocally, out of everybody in this competition,” Keith Urban. He’s glad America is responding to Taylor, as well.
Grade: A
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Up first tonight, it’s Kree Harrison, who lost her father when she was 12 and her mother seven years later. “I’m very lucky to have had amazing parents for as long as I did,” she says, “and now I have guardian angels.”
Harrison has never performed a Beatles song before, but her dad loved the group. Iovine doesn’t think she’s going to have much trouble with With a Little Help From My Friends.
Harrison uses the Joe Cocker arrangement as her template. And, true to Iovine’s prediction, she just lays back and sings in that smoky, bluesy voice of hers, and everything’s just fine. It’s hardly an original take on the song, but she sings the fire out of it.
Keith Urban loves that no matter what song she does, she’s Kree. “All the cool things about country is what you are,” he says. He doesn’t think she’ll have any trouble getting by tonight.
Nicki Minaj likes the “Kreedom” she puts on it. And she’s impressed that Harrison could sing it in five-inch heels. “You have just started to become this superstar in front of our eyes,” she says.
Randy Jackson wants to make sure he heard them right: “You think it was the bomb performance?” he asks. “I think it was the bomb performance, too.”
“I didn’t think it was good,” says Mariah Carey. “I thought it was fan-freakin’-tastic.”
Grade: A
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