Disaster averted. After watching the American Idol 2011 weekly themes go from 70’s to 60’s to 50’s I was worried we were on track to hear some Prohibition era hits by the time the finale rolled around. Instead the Top 3 will be singing three wide open songs for us and the freedom in selection should be refreshing.
Wednesday night’s performance show will still be 90 minutes long with about 20 minutes of singing from the remaining artists. The big filler will be the hometown tours taken by Haley Reinhart, Scotty McCreery, and Lauren Alaina. Each of them will hit up their old high schools, tour the local AT&T store (who wouldn’t after months away from home?!), and then maybe even a brief performance or two.
Then on Thursday night we’ll get the results which will determine who goes on to the finale and who just goes. It’ll be a pretty busy night with guest performances from the Italian trio Il Volo (who?) performing “O Sole Mio,” and then Nicole Scherzinger with 50 Cent for a performance of “Right There.” Wasn’t that Scherzinger in Steven Tyler’s new video this past week? FOX is doing a good job of promoting her ahead of her stint as co-host on the upcoming X Factor 2011.
Before all that we should get word of what the judges or maybe even Jimmy Iovine has selected for Scotty, Lauren, and Haley to perform on Wednesday. That news is typically part of the hometown tour so American Idol shouldn’t be trying to hide that news. Once we hear we’ll post an update with the news.
Which singer are you most excited to hear perform this week? If you make it out to any of the hometown tours then be sure to send us your photos and we’ll share them with everyone.
Update: James Durbin will also get to head home and still hold a concert for his fans. On Thursday’s results show we were told the 4th place singer would still get to go home just without all the fanfare. Now Idol has agreed with Santa Cruz businesses to allow James to hold a few of the previously scheduled events. The catch is that we’ll never see it broadcast on the show. This is a first for the series which has only allowed the Top 3 to hold events during this part of the season.
Update 2: Here are the alleged song selections for each of the Top 3:
- Scotty McCreery: Kenny Rogers’ “She Believes In Me”
- Haley Reinhart: Alanis Morissette’s “You Oughta Know”
- Lauren Alaina: Leann Womack’s “I Hope You Dance”
What do you think of the picks?