Source: USA TODAY
Jessica Sanchez returns. Somebody goes home. Who will it be? And will Candice Glover, Kree Harrison and Angie Miller stay in the Top Three for a second week? Tune into American Idol tonight (8 p.m. ET/PT, FOX) to find out, and then share your relief or your outrage here. — Brian Mansfield
“One person’s dream is in jeopardy,” Ryan Seacrest tells us as tonight’s show opens (after a Godfather-like sequence in which Jimmy Iovine threatens an engineer’s job when he can’t hear Janelle Arthur in the studio), “and we may be in for a surprise.”
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Jimmy Iovine says Amber Holcomb was in his Top Three. But America put her in its Bottom Three. Who’s right, Seacrest wonders?
“I definitely think Amber should not be in the bottom three,” Nicki Minaj says. “That’s common sense. You have to shine through that screen every time you perform.”
She’ll get a chance to do that next week, though, because Paul Jolley’s the one with the fewest votes. He reprises Heart’s Alone for his sing-for-your-life number, and all his bad habits come back. He has trouble with the pitch in the verses, and he sounds like the guy from Queensryche in the chorus. No way do the judges keep him.
And so we enter the post-white-guy era of American Idol.
“Unfortunately, Ryan, it’s not unanimous, no,” Randy Jackson says when asked if the judges will use their save. “Thank you, Paul, good luck.”
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Back to the results: The next person safe is Kree Harrison.
Glad for her, but I sure was hoping they’d give some rankings, like they did last week. Guess that was a one-time thing.
Candice Glover’s also safe. And Angie Miller. No surprises yet.
Now, however, things could get interesting.
Janelle Arthur, who would have been maybe the biggest surprise if she’d been in the Bottom Three, is safe. That leaves Burnell Taylor and Amber Holcomb, who got a lot of negative attention in the social-media world after her performance last week.
The Bottom Three, then, consists of Paul Jolley, Devin Velez and Amber Holcomb.
“I’m really shocked that Amber’s in the Bottom Three,” Randy Jackson says. “I can’t believe that.”
I can’t believe she’s in danger of going home, though. But we’ll see.
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Jessica Sanchez has done a lot since leaving Idol, including quite a bit of modeling, especially internationally, and she’s also going to be on Glee. She got a great reception in the Philippines.
She recently finished her album Me, You & the Music, which will be out April 30, and she recently filmed a video for her single, Tonight, with Ne-Yo.
The two perform the dance-pop number tonight. Sanchez has become a much better dancer since her time on Idol, and her voice seems to have gotten deeper, huskier — or maybe this song just plays to that part of her voice. It suits her.
By the end, everybody in the crowd is waving green glo-sticks.
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The five finalist women get a group-sing tonight, with Here, There and Everywhere (one of my favorite Beatles songs). It’s full of modulations so each singer can get a solo in her key. And maybe it’s a good thing Seacrest hasn’t given them any of their results yet: How galling would it be to have to sing and then return to one of the Bottom Three chairs?
The women return to the couches, and Seacrest asks Devin Velez to stand up. Seacrest brings up Keith Urban’s feeling that Velez didn’t connect with last night’s song. What does he need to do? “I just need to have that connection with the song,” he says. Maybe he’ll get to do it next week, but, this week, he’s in the Bottom Three.
Were the judges too hard on Lazaro Arbos? “No, they were right for the most part,” Arbos says. His takeaway for the week? “I have to do songs that I love and that I want to sing and not change songs.”
America, however, appears not to have agreed with the judges: Arbos is safe.
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Casey Abrams tackles the week’s Beatles theme with a jazzy version of I Saw Her Standing There. Abrams, who looks more like Bert Lahr than ever, may not have the vocal chops of some of this year’s singers, but he takes a more creative approach to his music than any of them. Too bad this track’s not available on iTunes (at least not to my knowledge), so Abrams won’t get the sales bump from his appearance on the show that other returning Idols do.
No results, though there’s a promise of Jessica Sanchez singing with Ne-Yo coming up.
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For the group number, the Idols sing Got to Get You Into My Life, Earth, Wind & Fire style — giving the results show more groove than all of last night.
Afterwards, Seacrest sends everyone back to their seats, except for Paul Jolley, who gets a copy of last Saturday’s proclamation of Paul Jolley Day in Dresden, Tenn. The news isn’t all good — Jolley’s in the Bottom Three, too.
Casey Abrams returns to the show in just a bit.
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Iovine continues by attacking the judges’ inconsistency. “Critique is good, as long as it’s consistent,” he says. “But you can’t coddle people.”
Kree Harrison, however, is great. “And it’s clear that she’s great.” She tends to oversing at times, Iovine says, and she’d be better if she used that power more consistently.
Iovine enjoys Burnell Taylor’s tone, though he’s a bit put off by his not knowing Beatles tunes. He thinks Taylor’s talented enough to overcome his lack of knowledge.
That’s not the case with Lazaro Arbos, who had “easily the worst performance of the night. … No matter how America votes tonight, this was the bottom of the pile.”
Iovine thinks Amber Holcomb did an excellent job with She’s Leaving Home. And he insists that Holcomb chose the song, not him. “Amber belongs in the Top Three, absolutely.”
“If there ever was a natural on American Idol, Candice is The Natural,” he says regarding Candice Glover. He’s very bullish on Candice.
Iovine thinks Paul Jolley’s not ready for prime time. “He did make some very simple mistakes,” Iovine says, adding that he believes Jolley will be in the Bottom Three.
As for Angie Miller, she’s too dramatic. “She’s not going anywhere for the next few weeks,” he says, so they’ve got time to fix what’s wrong with her. If they do, she could be the next American Idol.
Devin Velez has a great ear that he needs to consistently apply. It wasn’t amazing, but it was very, very promising.
Finally, Janelle Arthur: “What a great song choice … especially considering it’s not one of the better-known Beatles songs,” he says. She’s Iovine’s dark horse.
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Now, to the results. Amber Holcomb’s up first, but not before we get to see a rehearsals blooper reel of her trying to make her way down the stairs through smoke that’s way too heavy.
Getting Holcomb to stand was just an excuse to play the footage. Seacrest tells her there’s nothing to report yet. She sits down, and the show goes to commercial.
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