Source: USA TODAY
American Idol voters might eliminate their first female finalist of the season. Or the judges might like all of them so much they decide to keep everybody around for another week. Whatever happens, two alums return tonight — Season 2′s Clay Aiken and Season 3′s Fantasia. Watch what happens, then comment away! — Brian Mansfield
Janelle Arthur returns to one of her finest moments to try to convince the judges to keep her on the show — her rendition of the Supremes’ You Keep Me Hangin’ On.
And she makes a convincing case. For once, all four judges seem engaged in the conversation. Usually, it’s just Randy Jackson and Keith Urban.
And Jackson has one of the biggest surprises of the season for Arthur: The judges are split. Two want to keep her, and two don’t. So she’s going home.
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Now it’s time to find out where everyone stands.
In no particular order, the first person safe is Candice Glover. Also moving forward: Angie Miller, who practically flits across the stage to join Glover. Third person going to safety: Amber Holcomb, who looks legitimately surprised.
So Kree Harrison and Janelle Arthur are in the Bottom Two. And one will sing for the save.
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Before Fantasia sings, Idol revisits the Three Divas of Season 3, particularly LaToya London, who has returned to the Oakland area. She had a group called Urban Punk that recorded three songs, but now she’s hoping to revive her solo singing career. She’s recording new music and hopes to tour soon. She’s in the audience tonight, too. “I miss you,” she tells Ryan Seacrest.
Fantasia performs her new single, Lose to Win, from her Side Effects of You album, due April 23. And she hasn’t lost a bit of her edge. She makes this year’s R&B singers look restrained by comparison. I can’t imagine Amber Holcomb letting loose like Fantasia does.
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Back to results with Janelle Arthur.
After When I Call Your Name, Arthur needed to knock Dumb Blonde out of the park. “Instead, what we got is a strike-out.” Iovine thought her arrangement was inspired: “Dolly Parton was the right diva but the wrong song.”
Parton, on the other hand, has a different opinion, expressed in a note she sent to the show: “Don’t you feel a bit bad that you didn’t get great reviews on Dumb Blonde. We know you’re not dumb, and you’re not blonde.” And Parton will always love her.
“It was my honor to sing your song,” Arthur tells Parton, assuming she’s watching.
Next, a recap of Amber Holcomb’s performances, Without You and What Are You Doing the Rest of Your Life.
“It seems as though Amber sings brilliant every week and ends up in the bottom two,” Jimmy Iovine, who thinks singing Mariah Carey and Barbra Streisand was the equivalent of jumping out of a plane without a parachute. He thinks she’ll be rewarded for her bravery.
“If there was a place above the top two, that’s where she belongs,” Carey says.
We’ll see.
Finally, Kree Harrison, who did She Talks to Angels and Have You Ever Been in Love.
Iovine thinks Harrison made the wrong song choices. He was more interested in Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey’s disagreement about Harrison’s second song — and the way Keith Urban and Randy Jackson looked like deers in headlights when it happened.
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Paula Abdul’s not the only celeb in the house tonight: Fall Out Boy is here, plugging their new album Save Rock and Roll. Jordin Sparks and Jason DeRulo are here, too.
“When’s the wedding?” Ryan Seacrest asks. No response. Oh, well.
Season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken returns to talk about the opportunities Idol gives him to work with special-needs kids, something he did even before the show. He also sings a gospel-infused rendition of Bridge Over Troubled Water.
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This week’s Ford Fiesta mission sends the Idols on a celebrity scavenger hunt. They get sent to a bridge, a bakery and a barber shop before finding Glee‘s Matthew Morrison.
Tonight, Ryan Seacrest will give the results individually, starting with Angie Miller, who sang I’ll Stand by You and Halo.
Jimmy Iovine thinks she’s a great technician, and “when she sits and plays the piano, she’s completely believable.” She was technically brilliant with Halo, he says, but she came up short for him. He believes it will affect her score tonight.
“Jimmy has no idea what he’s talking about,” Nicki Minaj says.
Seacrest sends Miller back to the couch and calls up Candice Glover, who performed Straight Up and When You Believe.
“She blew my mind,” says Iovine. “She just a great artist, this girl” — a great singer and really smart.
Randy Jackson tells Seacrest he unsuccessfully tried to get hold of Paula Abdul — but Seacrest has a surprise: The former judge is in the house tonight.
“I’ve been watching this remarkable young lady captivate the audience week after week,” Abdul says of Glover. She’s a big fan. Jackson gets up and offers her his chair between Mariah Carey and Minaj.
“Does it still fit?” Seacrest asks.
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The night begins with a group medley of Donna Summer hits. Disco is so not Janelle Arthur and Kree Harrison’s thing, but Candice Glover and Amber Holcomb sound fantastic. And Angie Miller always looks like she just stepped out of the ’70s anyway, so she fits right in with songs like Last Dance, Dim All the Lights and She Works Hard for the Money (which, granted, was a hit during the ’80s).
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