American Idol: Season 12 Top 4 Perform

Hello American Idol fans and welcome back for another round of the all girls show!  Tonight was a pretty rough night all around.  It was pretty apparent what the judges were either doing on their own or were forced by the producers to do.  They clearly put their support behind 2 particular contestants and Jimmy called them out on it.  That said, one of those contestants probably deserved the praise more than  the other.  It's going to be an interesting results night.  Let's preface with this though.  Not sure if you noticed but we're still in April and the finale is slated for May 16th.  If you do the math, we're going to run out of contestants a week too early, due to the save not being used.  Have no fear, the producers have said they always had a contingency plan if the save was not used.  The popular guess is that one of these weeks there will be no elimination and the votes will carry over and be tallied up with the next week's performances.   Ryan did mention a twist, so we'll see if that's what is going to happen.

That could be why the judges decided to be so harsh to the former top 2 contestants.  To encourage them to pick better songs next week because they'll all be here next week.  We'll see what happens.  But, let's treat this week as if someone is going home and then we'll deal with the results after they happen!

The themes?  Contestant's choice was the first one.  The 2nd theme was decided on by fans and it was One Hit Wonders.  Sounded like an awesome category until the contestants cheated!  There is no way that some of those songs should have been eligible to be picked.  And they shouldn't have been picked anyway!  But we'll get there.  Let's dive in.

The Voted on Performances:

1. Amber Holcomb
   
   Song 1: Celine Dion's "The Power of Love"
   Song 2: Richard Harris' "MacArthur Park"
   
   Did everyone notice that this was Amber's coming out party?  I will admit that I was impressed with her vocal range on "The Power of Love".  But, both performances showed very little emotion as always.  "Power of Love" she just stood on the steps and belted out the melody note for note as our old compact discs used to play it.  (Well, I didn't own a Celine Dion CD, let's make that clear.  Maybe my radio was sometimes tuned to a station that had it on!)  MacArthur Park (or as Amber called it "MacArthur's Park") should NEVER be performed on this show again.  Carrie Underwood proved that back in season 4.  I still have fond memories of the judges talking about that cake and how it wasn't baked and she lost the recipe and even CARRIE couldn't emotionally identify with the lyrics.  (Granted, Carrie always had issues with being compared to a robot on the show, even when her talent clearly was indicating her victory early on)  Anyway, Amber couldn't even string together any of the lyrics.  It sounded like one big mumble to the melody.  It was not good and should never have gotten a standing O from the judges.  I'm not sure what Nicki was smoking when she thought Amber was the most relatable contestant left.  That's completely the opposite of being true.  And, I think that may hurt her if America is smart enough to not listen to the judges.  But, we'll see.
   
2. Candice Glover
   
   Song 1: Drake's "Find Your Love"
   Song 2: Samantha Sang's "Emotion"
   
   Candice did tonight what I always feared she was going to do in this competition.  Pick a song that the masses weren't going to really be on board with.  The judges did call her out on this by calling it "Churchy" music.  I guess.  I know Drake is a big star in the R&B world, but the masses don't listen to it and aren't going to love it.  I thought Candice was amazing on the song regardless.  Her voice is ridiculous, the song wasn't even that bad.  But, it was an unknown for the majority of the audience and that might hurt her.  "Emotion" should not have been alowed as a 1 Hit Wonder.  It's known best by the Bee Gees and even Destiny's Child covered it.  Those groups obviously had more than one hit!  When I think of One Hit Wonders, I think of "Mmm Mmm Mmmm Mmmm" by the Crash Test Dummies or "Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Deep Blue Something.  What the hell were these kids thinking!?!?  Could've been a really fun category.  Granted, Candice sang "Emotion" well, but I did think she got too "power vocalist" on it.  She didn't even try to sing the chorus and left that to the almost muted background singers to take care of while she ran up and down the scales on us.  Not very effective.  Not the best night by far for Candice.  She's been doing so well on song selection, so tonight was a surprise.  This is the kind of night I expected from her every week.  So, I've been pleasantly surprised all season.  
   
3. Kree Harrison
   
   Song 1: Susan Tedeschi's "It Hurt So Bad"
   Song 2: Procol Harum's "Whiter Shade of Pale"
   
   Poor Kree.  She really is amazing, but she got beat up tonight by the judges.  I agree that "It Hurt So Bad" was not the best song choice for the night.  (In a night full of bad song choices)  But she still sang the hell out of it and bluesed the hell out of it.  I think it was a lot better than the judges gave her credit for, but they had their agenda.  The song wasn't going to get her the votes though.   I don't think "Whiter Shade of Pale" will help her any more with votes either.  She sang it beautifully as well.  But, these songs are just so old.  It's one thing if they're classic songs that everyone knew, but this was a really random one.  I mean, I think I've heard it before.  It sounded vaguely familiar.  But, I don't know.  Like I said, sang amazingly well, but I don't know how well it will resonate with viewers.
   
4. Angie Miller
   
   Song 1: Jessie J's "Who You Are"
   Song 2: Julie London's "Cry Me a River" 
   
   If we want to talk relevance to the present day, Angie did the best tonight.  In fact, I even said before the judges did that she won the night.  And you'd think we would have been saying this for weeks based on her pre live show hype.  This is the first time where I actually feel like she still has a shot at winning this thing.  Jessie J's lyrics in "Who You Are" are questionably laughable at times, but Angie was really rocking that piano and bringing her A game vocals to the performance.  It was weird to her Mariah keep advising Angie to sing an original song.  There is NO WAY that can happen during a "competition" performance because it's unfair to the other contestants I would think.   I think I predicted awhile ago that they'll definitely have her sing her song during the finale regardless of if she's in the final 2 or not.  That seems to be a given.  The "Cry Me a River" song, while Old fashioned as well, obviously stood out being the final performance of the night.  But, the fact that she was off the piano and singing some really really good vocals surprised me.  I agree with Mariah or whoever said that she surprised with her range tonight.  I didn't really think she had all that in her, and I'm wondering why she never had it on display before.  She was really good tonight.  

The Duets:

1. Amber and Kree: Adele's "Rumour Has It" - It was okay.  A little disjointed.  Amber was singing her runs in the wrong parts.  Neither of them can do the justice that Adele does to the song.  I mean, she just flat out rocks it with that unique raspy voice of hers.  But, they still serviced the song. 
2. Candice and Angie: Rihanna's "Stay" - This performance was pretty darn outstanding.  One of the best performances of the night.  And even if it's not technically "votable" America will have it in their minds when voting.  It's also a reason why Angie had the best night of the 4.  Great harmonies, great emotion.  They rocked it out. 

The Elimination Pick:
This is really painful for me to do these picks, but it's just a gut feeling.  I'm still thinking no one goes home tomorrow and we carry over to next week.  So, I don't even know if they'll announce a bottom 2 or not.  But, this is what I think it should be based on tonight.

Safe based on tonight and early hype: Angie
Safe based her consistency: Candice

Bottom 2: Amber, Kree

Elimination Pick: Kree - Ugh, I really don't want this to be true.  But in a competition this tight, any misstep may be the last step.  But, here's hoping she'll have a chance to redeem herself next week and blow Amber out of this competition!

So, that's it for tonight!  I know I'm earlier than usual with my recap this time.  Just happened to have time tonight and not tomorrow morning!  Don't get used to it!  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and I'll see you next week.