Last night, Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez were named the Top Three AMERICAN IDOL finalists. One of them will be crowned the next AMERICAN IDOL, but not before all three travel back to their hometowns, to see family, friends and fans. After America cast a season-high 70 million votes for their favorite finalists, it also was revealed that Hollie Cavanagh had received the fewest number of votes and was eliminated from the competition. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the four remaining contestants once again sang two songs apiece. First, each sang a choice from California Dreamin, songs from, or about, the great Golden State. Then, in the second half of the show they each sang songs that they wish they had written, or as Ryan Seacrest put it (which made a lot more sense), songs that inspired them.

For a nice change of pace, there was very little pre-amble to this show, and our first contestant was on stage performing by 8:06.

Phillip Phillips: Phil-Phil sang Credence Clearwater Revival’s Have You Ever Seen the Rain? I thought it was way too mellow, flat, and “Unplugged”. The judges loved it. I wasn’t crazy about it, but I will say that on a second listen the back half of the song didn’t suck. Last week, Skylar Laine sang CCR’s Fortunate Son, and she really did a much better job capturing the essence of what John Fogerty was about. Phil-Phil missed it entirely and left me feeling empty. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, the Top Four Finalists were revealed – Hollie Cavanagh, Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips and Jessica Sanchez. One of them will be crowned the next American Idol! After America cast a season-high of nearly 60 million votes for their favorite finalists, it also was revealed tonight that Skylar Laine had received the fewest number of votes and was eliminated from the competition.

With only three performance shows left in the season, tune in next week, Wednesday, May 9 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), when the Top Four return to the IDOL stage to sing for America’s votes on a “California Dreamin’”– themed performance show. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night, America cast a season-high 58 million votes for their favorite finalists on AMERICAN IDOL. Last Night, host Ryan Seacrest revealed that Elise Testone received the fewest number of votes and was eliminated from the competition. Also on tonight’s results show, Katy Perry performed her hit, “Part of Me,” and AMERICAN IDOL Season 10 finalist Stefano Langone performed his new single, “I’m On A Roll,” featuring Ben J of New Boyz. In addition, the official touring Queen tribute, The Queen Extravaganza, performed Queen’s classic smash hit “Somebody To Love,” along with original Queen members Brian May and Roger Taylor. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the six remaining finalists had the rare privilege of not only being allowed to sing songs from the Queen catalog, but they also kicked off the show with a pretty impressive Queen medley with Queen drummer Roger Taylor and lead guitarist Brian May. Yeah, if you can’t tell, I’m a huge Queen fan (I guess we can get that out of the way now. I’ll even go one step further and tell you, in full disclosure, that Freddie Mercury is my all-time favorite vocalist. Just so you know where we’re all coming from).

Normally, I don’t comment on the group songs because quite frankly, they suck. This week’s was a rare exception. And not only because they were singing Queen. It was actually very good. It should be no surprise that resident rocker Elise Testone rocked it, and Philip Phillips sounded great during his lines. Joshua Ledet gave the appropriate rasp and soul to his parts, and even Skylar Laine managed to put her spurs up long enough to rock it out. Read the rest of this entry »

Colton Dixon was eliminated last night on AMERICAN IDOL after he received the fewest of the 53 million votes cast for the finalists. Also on tonight’s results show, LMFAO performed their smash hit, “Sorry For Party Rocking,” and AMERICAN IDOL Season Eight winner Kris Allen performed his new single, “The Vision Of Love.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the show opened up with a slow motion recap of the last two minutes of last week’s debacle. We got a very quick reminder of the bottom three, the ridiculous voting off of Jessica Sanchez, and the subsequent use of the Judge’s Save to keep her on.

This was immediately followed by Ryan giving a very quick salute to the passing of legend Dick Clark. Then, it was on with the show.

Last night’s theme was the always popular Now and Then: The remaining contestants each had to sing one song since the year 2000 and one song from the soul era, ironically honoring Soul Train and the late Don Cornelius. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, in a surprising and dramatic turn of events, judges Randy Jackson, Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler saved Jessica Sanchez from elimination, after she received the fewest votes among the finalists. Sanchez will continue in the competition and take the stage along with the other six finalists next week. On tonight’s results show, AMERICAN IDOL Season Three finalist and Academy Award and Grammy Award winner Jennifer Hudson along with Ne-Yo performed their new single, “Think Like a Man,” and AMERICAN IDOL Season 10 finalist James Durbin performed his new song, “Higher Than Heaven.” Read the rest of this entry »

DeAndre Brackensick was eliminated tonight on AMERICAN IDOL after he received the fewest votes among the finalists. On tonight’s results show, The Wanted sang their latest hit “Glad You Came,” and Kellie Pickler returned to the IDOL stage to perform her newest single, “Where’s Tammy Wynette.” In addition, superstar and AMERICAN IDOL judge Jennifer Lopez premiered her new music video for “Dance Again.”

Next week, on Wednesday, April 11 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), the Top Seven – Hollie Cavanagh, Colton Dixon, Skylar Laine, Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez and Elise Testone – return to the IDOL stage to perform for America’s votes. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the Top eight remaining finalists performed songs from the 80’s. Yeah, it was a time that brought us shoulder boards and polyester track suits, things we could have easily done without. But it also brought us some pretty decent music.

Some of the contestants even managed to tap into that musical gold mine and performed some of them, and some didn’t.

Working with mentor Jimmy Iovine this week, but barely contributing anything of significant note, was singer Gwen Stefani and her No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal. Also, I will mention that like last week, this week’s show was two hours long when it could have easily been 90 minutes. This week, they used the extra time to intersperse the contestants in various duets. It was far better than the God-awful group numbers (some of them were much better), but I’m still not going to discuss them any further in this column. Read the rest of this entry »

Heejun Han was eliminated tonight on AMERICAN IDOL after he received the fewest votes among the finalists. On tonight’s results show, Nicki Minaj took the stage and performed her megahit “Starships” and Season 10 IDOL winner and platinum-selling country artist Scotty McCreery returned to perform his newest single, “Water Tower Town.” After McCreery’s performance, Jimmy Iovine presented him with a platinum record signifying sales of more than one million units for his debut album “Clear As Day.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the Top Nine sang songs from their own personal idols.  Once again, they were helped by Tommy Hilfinger and mentored by Jimmy Iovine.  This week he was assisted by rock legend Stevie Nicks.

Overall, it was probably the best night of the season.  All nine of the contestants brought their “A” Game and it was tough to pick a Bottom Three.  On the bad side, the producers are steadfast in sticking to a 2-hour format where it’s not needed.  So they have to find filler.  A lot of filler.  So last night they went with three group numbers: One Fleetwood Mac Compilation, Michael Jackson Compilation, and one Madonna Compilation.  For the sake of this article, and because I despise American Idol group numbers, I have chosen to ignore them.  In fact, I didn’t even watch them. Read the rest of this entry »

Erika Van Pelt was eliminated tonight on AMERICAN IDOL after she received the fewest votes among the finalists. On tonight’s results show, Lana Del Rey performed her smash hit “Video Games” and Season 10 alum Haley Reinhart returned to the IDOL stage to debut her new single, “Free.”

Next week, on Wednesday, March 28 (8:00-10:00 PM ET live/PT tape-delayed), the Top Nine – DeAndre Brackensick, Hollie Cavanagh, Colton Dixon, Heejun Han, Skylar Laine, Joshua Ledet, Phillip Phillips, Jessica Sanchez and Elise Testone – return to the IDOL stage to sings songs from their own Idols. Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the Top Ten remaining contestants regaled us with songs from the Billy Joel songbook.

At the start of the show, judge Steven Tyler informed us that in his opinion, if you can’t sing Billy Joel, than you can’t sing at all.

DeAndre Brackenridge: DeAndre was the first contestant to give Billy Joel a shot, singing the classic, Only the Good Die Young. Mentor Jimmy Iovine reminded him that he has to smile. He also instructed him to be thinking about teenagers singing to good Catholic girls doing things that their parents don’t want them to do. Hmm. Actually, that was pretty good advice even though I’m not sure young DeAndre really got it. The front part of the song was pretty flat and weak. In fact, the whole song lacked the strength and verve that DeAndre usually gives to his songs. I don’t think he was totally invested in this one and it showed. Read the rest of this entry »

Shannon Magrane was eliminated tonight on AMERICAN IDOL after she received the fewest votes among the finalists. On Wednesday’s dramatic performance show, in which contestants sang songs from the year they were born, it was revealed that Jermaine Jones was disqualified. On tonight’s results show, Demi Lovato sang her latest hit “Give Your Heart A Break” and Daughtry returned to the IDOL stage and performed their megahit “Outta My Head.” Read the rest of this entry »

Last night on American Idol, the remaining twelve contestants (minus Jermaine Jones) sang songs from the years they were born. Although I’m thinking it could have just as easily have been called American Idol Sings Remakes. Also, Ryan informed us “that with the help of law enforcement, we discovered information that left us no choice but to eliminate one of our own”.

My first question with this is, isn’t it part of producers’ job to check this stuff out before they get this far in the competition to save everyone all of this embarrassment? They had several months to figure this out. Someone on that staff dropped the ball on this one.

Anyway, helping mentor Jimmy Iovine this week was none other than legendary producer and Black Eyed Peas singer, will.i.am. Read the rest of this entry »