Source: USA TODAY
Now that American Idol has gotten rid of all those pesky boys, it’s time to see what the five remaining women — Janelle Arthur, Candice Glover, Kree Harrison, Amber Holcomb and Angie Miller — can do. Tonight, they’ll get the “Divas” theme (no surprise) and pick songs from the years of their births (1989 to 1994). Which of the women do you favor? Follow along and let me know! — Brian Mansfield
It’s been six years since a woman won American Idol. But it’s gonna happen this year. Only question is, will the lack of any testosterone on the show mean that viewership continues to fall as the audience that liked guy singers tunes out, or will the remaining talent be enough to rescue a rough season, ratings-wise?
“Before we start tonight, we do want to send our support to everyone affected by this week’s tragic events in Boston,” Ryan Seacrest says, after calming an unusually enthusiastic audience. “With heavy hearts, we’re going to put on the best show we can for you this evening.”
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Amber Holcomb will close the show with Barbra Streisand’s What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life, a nod back to Holcomb’s jazzy side.
She sings it with understatement and elegance. It’s a luxurious performance, but I’m not sure it’s the show-stopper Seacrest promised. Especially in a night when so many women have sung so well.
The judges rave.
Nicki Minaj: “It was simply perfection. I really, really hope America gets to see inside this beautiful human being that stands before me. … You’re always giving me young Whitney Houston.”
“In my estimation, that was the most difficult song for any of you to ever sing,” Randy Jackson. But, like Minaj, he acknowledges that the audience may not connect with it.
“Classic. Beautiful. Elegant,” says Mariah Carey. And even she realizes “America may not get it.”
“It was such a difficult song to do, and it was elegant and beautiful,” Keith Urban tells her.
Grade: A
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Angie Miller has picked Beyonce’s Halo as her Diva song. “Singing Halo is such a huge risk, because Beyonce sings that song with so much passion,” she says. It’s doubly risky, because she’s stepping away from the piano.
Miller doesn’t have Beyonce’s presence, or her staging budget. But she makes the most of what she’s got, and it’s a pretty impressive performance.
At least three judges seem to like it, since they give her a standing ovation.
“Definitely top three,’ Keith Urban says.
“Now my Angie Miller is back!” Nicki Minaj says. “You just did that song justice like a queen could.”
“Angie’s in it to win it, y’all!” says Randy, aware of the time constraints.
“Very difficult to do a Beyonce song, I must say,” says Mariah Carey, who loved the clarity in Miller’s voice. “You are here to stay, as far as I’m concerned.”
Grade: B+
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Celine Dion is one of Kree Harrison’s favorite Divas, and that’s why she chose to sing Have You Ever Been in Love. And she’s almost channeling two Divas, just like Candice Glover did. It’s like Harrison is singing Dion’s song with Trisha Yearwood’s phrasing. And that’s not a bad combination at all.
“You look very diva-esque,” Mariah Carey says. “Diva-licious, in fact.” She thinks the song choice played to Harrison’s strengths while showing her versatility.
“It was the right song,” Keith Urban says. “You stayed in control of the song the whole time. … It was so pleasing to listen to.” He thinks she’ll inspire girls to come into country with poise and elegance.
“Hi, Kreedom, you’re back,” Nicki Minaj says. “You’re not country. You’re worldly. You’re iconic. You’re Adele. You’re Celine Dion. … You are one of those divas that we can watch when they’re 20 and when they’re 50 stand on a stage and just sing. You just elevated, even, your net worth.”
Randy Jackson keeps seeing Harrison’s versatility. “You can do whatever you want to do, really. You are that good.”
Grade: A
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Janelle Arthur’s favorite diva? Dolly Parton. “She’s always been about the way she presents herself,” Arthur says. She’ll be singing one of Parton’s earliest hits, Dumb Blonde, but gives it a contemporary, almost punk-y remake. The vocal’s a little off in spots, but her delivery is spot-on. It totally plays to her strengths. And the producers brought out all the pyrotechnics for her.
“Smells like the Fourth of July up here,” Arthur says.
Randy Jackson thinks it was a fun performance number, though it wasn’t a great vocal number for her.
Mariah Carey hears what Jackson’s saying, but she loved the performances and felt Arthur connected to the song. “We also want to make sure America can hear everything you can do vocally,” she says.
“I don’t know that I’d place Dumb Blonde high on the Dolly Parton song list,” Keith Urban. He’d like to see her play more to her strengths. “You’ve got the voice to do that.”
Nicki Minaj tries to choose her words carefully. Though she thinks Arthur is great, Minaj thinks she’s in jeopardy of going home tomorrow. “There may be more dynamic girls here, but I don’t think that has anything to do with how far you can go in the real world.”
Well, I liked it.
Grade: B+
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Jimmy Iovine agrees with Nicki Minaj that Amber Holcomb’s lower register wasn’t emotive enough. “I still feel she’s the second best for tonight,” he says.
Now it’s time for the Divas theme. Not to be outdone by Amber Holcomb, Candice Glover has chosen to sing Carey and Whitney Houston’s If You Believe. “I just hope that I make her proud,” she says.
Glover doesn’t have any problem emoting in her lower register, that’s for sure. Hers is a stirring performance before she hits the big inspirational chorus. In fact, she sounds like she might be holding back as she sings the chorus the first time through. Really, she’s just saving some fireworks for the end, when the stage opens to reveal a gospel chorus, the audience stands and Mariah Carey cries.
The place goes bananas.
“That. Is. How. You. Do. A. Mariah. Carey. Whitney. Houston. Song,” says Nicki Minaj, who remembers crying listening to that song as a kid. “We all know you can sing. You tore that song up. But there’s a bigger message hear. … Everybody needs to hear that right now.”
“Again — that’s the best vocal of the night,” Randy Jackson. “You are so in the zone.”
“Personally, I think you can sing anything in front of anybody, anywhere,” Mariah Carey says. “You did it justice.”
“I love your voice, because it stops me in my tracks the second you open your voice and start singing,” Keith Urban tells her.
Grade: A
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Angie Miller took a subtle record and turned it into a power ballad, turning one of her weaknesses into a strength, Jimmy Iovine says. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s the performance of the night so far.”
Amber Holcomb’s the baby of the group, born in 1994. She’s singing Mariah Carey’s cover of Harry Nilsson’s Without You. It’s a high-risk choice — not only is she singing the song in front of Carey, as a cover it’s by far the oldest song of the first bunch.
Sure, it’s a great performance. But is it greater than Mariah Carey’s? When she picks a song like this, that’s who she’s competing with, not just Kree Harrison and Candice Glover. And she’s having a hard enough time just keeping up with them.
Carey seems to like it, smiling and standing as she applauds.
“We’ve got an Amber Alert going on!” says Keith Urban, foolishly, then catches himself. “I don’t know why I said that. I wish I hadn’t.” But he loved the performance.
Nicki Minaj only knows Carey’s version of the song. She felt Holcomb sounded stoic, without enough passion in the lower register. “I wasn’t impressed. I felt you were still restricted. … I didn’t like it, babe.”
“It wasn’t perfect,” Randy Jackson acknowledges, but he gives her mad props for having the nerve to sing it in front of Carey. “Aside from a couple of little parts, I think you did a damn good job.”
“Yes, yes, yes — vote for Amber!” Mariah Carey says. She loves to hear Holcomb sing in her upper register, and she likes some of the choices Holcomb made, particularly at the end of the song.
Grade: B+
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“This song just wasn’t strong enough for Kree’s vocal,” Jimmy Iovine says. But he’s glad to see Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj communicating.
When Angie Miller was born in 1994, her parents through she looked like an elf. Still does, kinda. But a really cute elf.
She’s singing The Pretenders’ I’ll Stand by You, which she hopes to make a bigger hit than her first song, My Little Sparkle Dress.
“This is for my home, Boston,” she says as she begins playing the song’s first chords on the piano. It’s a spine-tingling moment, one that sets up the big-song, pure-emotion moment that Jimmy Iovine and the judges have been seeking all night.
Three judges stand, but Nicki Minaj remains seated.
“Perfect,” says Mariah Carey. “Of course, all of our hearts and prayers go out to everybody in Boston.” Carey thinks Chrissie Hynde is the perfect combination of toughness and vulnerability, something she believes Miller can look to for inspiration.
“It was a beautiful dedication, Angie,” Keith Urban says, adding that she made a really good song choice. He looks forward to her hitting the road. “That’s the big I’m looking forward to, where all the edges get softened.”
“I love the way you feel tonight, the way you look,” says Nicki Minaj, who’s happy to see her staying at the piano. She acknowledges that the dedication was a smart move, both as a performer and as a human being.
“This Top Five girls is some of the best Top Five we’ve ever had in a long, long time,” Randy Jackson says.
Grade: A
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Jimmy Iovine agrees with Keith Urban about Janelle Arthur’s performance — not enough emotion. “The choruses had a little more emotion, but it just wasn’t enough,” he says. “She’s in the middle of the pack, and she’s going to stay there unless she does something really emotional.”
Emotion shouldn’t be a problem for Kree Harrison, though, who’s a little younger than the first two singers, having been born in 1990. And, again, she’s made an unusual choice — the Black Crowes’ She Talks to Angels.
Like Arthur, she pulls the song way back musically, singing with just one guitar. The full band comes in after the first verse. And Harrison doesn’t need all the runs: She sings the melody straight, playing with the emotional timbre rather than the melody. She seems pretty happy to be singing a song about addiction, but she sounds fine, fine, fine.
Keith Urban’s smiling big, but Randy Jackson offers the first comment. “What I love about you is all the naturalness in your spirit and your voice,” he says. “You got a natural blues, kind of soulful thing in your voice.”
“Honestly, Kree? You can sing anything, and I love to hear you sing,” says Mariah Carey. “My favorite thing is when you lose yourself in song.” But she felt like Harrison felt like she had to “perform” a little more tonight than she has in the past.
“I agree with you, Mariah,” Keith Urban says. He imagines that he wouldn’t have those issues if he was watching her in concert rather than on a TV show.
Nicki Minaj disagrees with Urban and Carey. “That was the best performance of the night, absolutely, by far,” she says in her best Simon Cowell voice. She gets what Urban was saying, but “those are the heels, and he’s a boy, so he doesn’t get it.”
“You don’t really disagree with me,” Carey says.
“Yes, I do,” Minaj replies.
“Just another episode of that family getting along,” Seacrest tells Harrison.
Grade: A-
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Jimmy Iovine disagrees with the judges about Candice Glover’s performance. “She needs a big song at this point in the contest,” he says, making a good point. “She’s going to have to kill the next song for her to have the impact she had last week.”
Like Glover, Janelle Arthur is a 1989 baby. And when she was a baby, the only thing that could make her stop crying was a Vince Gill song. Like When I Call Your Name, which she’s singing tonight.
Arthur’s got her acoustic guitar out, and she’s giving Gill’s ultra-traditional song an even more traditional makeover. She gives that lonesome song all sorts of twang, accented by some serious fiddle. But there’s something a little off to my ears, and I can’t quite identify it — maybe that she puts in so many runs that she doesn’t take full advantage of a really gorgeous melody?
Nicki Minaj thinks Arthur’s more comfortable with her guitar. “It’s like you’re allowing us into your world.” She’d like to see more performances with the guitar, which let her sound more authentic.
Randy Jackson feels like the song brought her back. “The comfort you were sitting in there, dude, that’s your world.”
“I believe you,” Mariah Carey says. “You were singing with your whole heart for us tonight. … It was so raw and real. Please keep that confidence.”
Keith Urban, however, heard a different song. “That song for me is not so much about melody. It’s all emotion. When Vince sings it, you feel it. … It’s pure emotion.” She hit all the notes tonight, but Urban didn’t feel it. He doesn’t think she needed the runs, and he thinks she could have done without the guitar.
I’m with Keith.
Grade: B
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Candice Glover begins tonight, and she was born in 1989. She’ll do an Idol throwback — Paula Abdul’s Straight Up. She gives the song an even more unusual twist than Andrew Garcia did a while back, transforming into a jazzy samba. She also uses it as the platform from which to launch a dazzling array of vocal fireworks — something neither Abdul or Garcia could do.
“Baby, that was soooo good,” Keith Urban says. “I never realized that song is such a great song. … You have such a beautiful control of the runs, and you feel them. You don’t choose them, you just feel them.” He compares her runs to the slow wink one gets across a bar.
Nicki Minaj congratulates Glover on making the Top 5. And she tells Urban Straight Up has always been a great song.
“Can’t nothing go wrong for you right now, because you’re feeling where you should be,” Randy Jackson says before giving a shout-out to Abdul. “Props, great vocals.”
“Unpredictable, smart, as always — song choice, genius,” Mariah Carey says.
Grade: A
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