Tonight the American Idol 2013 competition gets real. The Season 12 Top 10 finalists are singing for America’s votes and for a chance to go all the way to the finale.
The theme this week is Songs of Past Idols. So we’ll be hearing songs by past winner that were either performed on American Idol or recorded following their winning seasons. And as always, I’ll review each performance and assign the letter grade I think each deserves.
The American Idol 2013 Top 10 Performances
Curtis Finch Jr., I Believe, (performed by Fantasia, Season 3). First of all, let me take a bow for picking this song for Curits in my song suggestions earlier this week. Haha! As for the performance, it was as good as I imagined it would be if he covered it (mostly). He took it to church, of course, and did a little too many runs/tricks or whatever, but it was a solid performance. Aside from that note that was supposed to be big and wasn’t. Eh. Grade: B
Janelle Arthur, Montgomery Gentry’s Gone (performed by Scotty McCreery, Season 10). Song choice was great. But for her, I’m not sure. It seemed like she wasn’t able to really keep up with it. She looks great and has great stage presence. But I wasn’t feeling the vocal all the way through. Grade: B-
Devin Velez, Temporary Home by Carrie Underwood. I’m pretty surprised by this song choice, but it was a great performance. Devin’s version was sweet and tender. He did all the right things technically. The song was a bit sleepy, for a singing show, but that’s the only criticism I can dig up. Grade: B+
Angie Miller, Celine Dion’s I Surrender (performed by Kelly Clarkson, Season 1). I had a feeling she’d cover something Kelly had performed or recorded (since that’s who Idol thinks they’ve found with Angie). I didn’t expect to be this semi-obscure song, though. It’s always a risk to do a song that the target audience don’t know. But Angie has done an original song and it never hurt her. All that being said, the performance was perfectly fine. I was bored, but I couldn’t find anything wrong with the performance. Grade: B+
Random Stupid Nicki Comment: “I like the way you walk in heels,” to Angie.
Paul Jolley, Lonestar’s Amazed (performed by Scotty McCreery, Season 10). I think with this song I finally figured out what kind of artists Paul is. I was so confused by him before tonight that I couldn’t even make a song suggestion for him. I liked this. I could tell he was holding back though because of the criticism he’s been getting. Which is really just arbitrary B.S. He doesn’t sing like he’s on Broadway, he’s just an … animated person. I thought it was very solid. I liked it. Grade: B+
Candice Glover, Ben E. King/Shirley Bassey’s I, Who Have Nothing (performed by Jordin Sparks, Season 6). Oh, yes, that’s two points for me! I picked this song for Candice also! There’s was one slight difference between her version and Jordin’s version. And that’s that it was 100 percent better! And Jordin’s was good. So Candice’s was FANTASTIC. It was more emotional, connected and POWERFUL. Amazing. Loved it. Grade: A+
Lazaro Arbos, Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson. Something was off with this performance. Maybe he was nervous. But I couldn’t really hear him at times and he was flat. And on top of that, it was boring. He took it no where that it hasn’t already been. And coming after Candice? Yeah, not a good place to be. Oh, Idol, could you be any more calculated. Grade: C-
Kree Harrison, Roy Orbison’s Crying (Performed by Carrie Underwood, Season 4). I’ll say it again, Kree is the superior country singer this season. I really hope Janelle doesn’t get all the votes, because Kree is amazingly talented. This performance was very Carrie sound-alike, but I didn’t care. Kree nailed it vocally. Grade: A-
Random Stupid Nicki Comment #2: She goes on and on and on and on about waffles.
Burnell Taylor, Westlife’s Flying Without Wings (preformed by Ruben Studdard, season 2). Ugh. WHY? WHY sing this cheesy song? Ugh. And I really like Burnell, too. What a bad song choice. Luckily, his voice, tone and singing style are still remarkable. He can do no wrong, really. Grade: B+ (And A if he had picked another song)
Amber Holcomb, A Moment Like This by Kelly Clarkson. This is a bold choice. The first-ever American Idol coronation song. I thought the performance was good. Not amazing, but good. I certainly don’t get why this was in the pimp spot and Candice wasn’t. The more I listen, the more I think it’s kind of boring. She did nothing new with the song and it can’t compare to Kelly. But vocally, it was good. Grade: B+
Who were your favorites tonight?
Nikki late again…..what an unprofessional bimbo.
now that she finally arrived, she should have just stayed home.
I like Devin but that was boring.
Curtis, yikes. sing on key please. Janelle, very nice. sweet girl. Devin, well done young man.
Curtis and Angie are my favorites
Angie; nicely done. enjoyed it. Too bad Nikki has some kind of girl crush on you and just wanted to comment on your dress and legs.
Nikki has to be the worst judge ever!! She just acts like a horney bitch!! This is a singing competition!!!
She has to stop “waffling around” so much!
+1
God, what was that CandicE!!!! Respect!!!
man that I, Who Have Nothing of Candice is up there with Haley Reinhart’s A++
Paul, one of my favorite songs performed perfectly. Nice job.
Candice, Reminds me of a young Queen Latifah. Loved it baby!
Wooooooo! Candice! What a performance!! A++++++++++
Lazaro–hmmm. misfire. too bad cause he seems like such a nice dude.
Kree, very nice. Again…..Nikki babbling about waffles. She gets paid for this commentary? What a dunce.
KREEE NAILED IT!
Kree is way better than Janelle! PERIOD.
NOPE>
Well you’re deaf
kree’s annoyiing. oh my gosh i muted my channel.
Well, You’re much deaf
Angie was very good love everything about her
Burnell. Don’t know why, but didn’t care for this one. Need Simon back for some honest judging. The judge’s nonverbals said they didn’t like it, but they didn’t have to stones to say so.
Amber got the pimp spot. Really nice. Good job.
Final comment: Please fire Nikki. Before it’s too late and we stop watching. FIRE HER!
Angie
Angie!!!
Niki was late tonight
Arghhhh Nicki no one likes you….
Take a hint >:c
Kudos to Branden for predicting candice and curtis’ song choices. Impressed.
Pretty much agree with your grades. Think it was Curtis’s worst performance so far, Devin’s I did like and for the first time Paul was pretty good. I think Jimmie’s comments were spot on for him. Candice was easily the performance of the night, but Amber surprised me, and Kree and Angie were solid as always. On performance Lazaro was the weakest, but I have never been that impressed, but I’m sure he has a solid enough fan base to keep him in for a while longer.
Horrible song choices all around except Candice. Wow really bad! It’s a shame too cuz this theme had a ton of potential
Actually I kind of disagree. It seems like those performers who picked songs originally performed by previous AI performs did bad … as those songs typically are corn ball to begin with. But those who sang songs originated by famous performers, did quite well.
That being said, Angie took a stale song and made it really awesome. I hope she sings an evanessance song before this is over…
I totally think she sounds like Evanescence, I was trying to put my finger on who she sounded like throughout the performance
Burnell is the only unique guy I like this year, otherwise the girls should blow the guys away, completely different levels of talent this year. Maybe you gave them B’s compared to the other guys, compared to the top girls those performances were C or D
I predict a bottom 3 consisting of Curtis, Janelle and Devin with Curtis going home.
Angie Miller WILL pull a Jessica Sanchez and get saved, but not for a few more weeks. You heard it here first.
No.Candice will.heard it here first.
If I would be Paul Jolley, I would be getting totally confused by now with all the talk about singing like he’s on Broadway. Clay Aiken used to get that from Simon all the time. Some people just have stronger voices than others. I hope Paul can reach the happy medium for the judges before he gets voted off. I thought he did not sing as loud as Candice did tonight, and she got standing O’s. When Paul gets into the song, he puts everything into it. Tonight I felt that he was holding back, and it showed in his delivery.
Why are the judges always commenting about what the contestants are wearing. To quote them, “This is a singing contest.” Other years when the comments were about wardrobe that usually indicated that the performance was lacking and the judges needed something not totally negative to say. Wish they would stick to comments about the singing performance.
Candice is beyond an ‘idol’. She’s a true musician, artist and performer. Her star quality is going up steadily, which is good, because to be successful in this forum she’ll need it. Others may at this point have more appeal to the mainstream, but Candice will record regardless of the outcome of the show, and for the first time I will be a buyer.
looks like it could be the end of the road for Lazaros but he did well to make the Top 10!
Kree is awesome and so is Candice..the best of two very different music types…how do you compare a country singer and a soul singer?…both great ..just a matter of what your in the mood to hear.
Be prepared to see many girls go off 1st.
i predict a girl to go home, cause american idol wants 1 girl to get all the votes….. if theres 5 girls then its seperated out, if theres one girl, then she gets all of it.
best of the night: Candice. And I must say, the girls nailed it.
best was janelle.
best country is kree
kree’s not country??
were you actually listening last night? no way was she the best. she was the worst of the five girls. period.
No the best was angie hands down,.
I find Nikki’s comments cute. What’s wrong about it? She makes the show so entertaining along with Randy’s hilarious side comments about her. I remember Ellen Degeneres when she would just focus more on humor than the serious vocals.
AND ELLEN WAS FUNNY… THIS GIRL AINT. ALSO THERES A REASON WHY ELLEN WAS FIRED BEFORE…..
Burnell taylor has a attitude problem…
anyone notice he just walked off after the song was done….
this guy looks like the world owes him something…
please everyone vote off this guy.
200% AGREE
i think curtis needs to go home,
ill settle for a burnell or a paul
It’s going to be Candice, or Amber.
I didn’t really get to watch this week’s songs..
Curtis made me tired, but Janelle made me fall asleep on the couch… ಠ_ಠ
Never got the chance to re-watch it this week, either..
Damnit Janelle.