American Idol 2014 Top 9 Performances [VIDEOS]

According to our American Idol 2014 spoilers for the Top 9 show tonight, we have a terrific line up of songs to look forward to. We only hope the actual American Idol performances this evening will do justice to one of the best song lists we’ve seen all season.

“I’m with the band” is the theme of the American Idol season 13 Top 9 performance show this week. Once again, we this theme allowed for a huge variety of songs the finalists could choose from, as long as they were approved by Idol producers.

This time around, however, there is a twist the finalists will have to deal with. They’ll actually be performing with the American Idol band live on stage with them. For those who don’t have the experience of having played as a front-man (or woman) for a band, this could prove to be a difficult distraction. For others who know what it’s like to have to maintain the spotlight while still working together with a band, this could prove to be a strong night.

Considering what the American Idol judges have been saying this week about the contestants needing to step up their game big time, we hope to see some much-improved performances across the board. We’re still waiting for a few big wow moments to really cement who the true front-runners are on American Idol 13. Hopefully, we’ll get some of those tonight.

The race to the finale is on and it’s go time. This is American Idol!

The stage this week is crowded with the American Idol band as the judges walk through to their seats. Host Ryan Seacrest chats up the judges after they take their seats.

Jennifer Lopez talks about being sad to see MK Nobilette go last week and how she thinks MK could be a great recording artist and reminds her of k.d. lang. Harry Connick Jr. says he really hasn’t thought about who they would use the save on going forward.

We move on to a video of Fall Out Boys Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump talking to the Top 9 about the hard work of performing at the front of a band. Then we have clips of the finalists rehearsing on stage with the band while Pete and Patrick watch.

The first performance of the night is a group medley number from the T0p 9 with some fairly obvious pitch problems. The harmonies are a bit off as well. That’s pretty standard for these Brady Bunch group songs though.

Thankfully that’s over soon and after our first commercial break, it’s time for the performances!

American Idol Top 9 Performances:

Alex Preston – “Don’t Speak” by No Doubt

This is a very interesting, jazzy version of the song. We’re not sure if we like it, but Alex always sounds great. Even so, we think he could have picked a hundred other better songs for his voice and style. We like Alex and he’s consistent as always, but it’s just a weird song choice.

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Majesty York – “Shake It Out” by Florence And The Machine

This is a good song choice for her, although she gets a little pitchy in the loud parts again and loses her breath a bit a few times. She needs more training and control when she belts. We also just feel she needs more life experience to connect with the emotion and lyrics of the songs she performs. This was a decent night for her though even with the pitch issues.

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Dexter Roberts – “Boondocks” by Little Big Town

Dexter is, well… Dexter. He’s solid, he’s good and he’s consistent. He’s also country to the core. He looks comfortable on stage with the band and it’s a strong, if unexciting, performance. We like Dexter, we just feel like he isn’t really giving us any ‘wow’ moments.

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Malaya Watson – “The Long And Winding Road” by The Beatles

Malaya tries to work her own version of this classic Beatles song but we just aren’t feeling it. This just is not a good song choice for her. Why wouldn’t you pick something more rock and roll or powerful to perform with a band? Her vocals are all over the place and we think this performance could put her in the bottom three this week. Pretty much everyone in our live chat room did not love it.

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Sam Woolf – “Hey There Delilah” by Plain White T’s

Tonight Sam has picked the right song for his voice and he’s giving a good performance to go with it. This is the kind of song Sam should be doing more often, except maybe a little more exciting. His vocals are on and he looks strong on stage this evening. We think this performance will hopefully keep him out of the bottom three this week.

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Jessica Meuse – “Rhiannon” by Fleetwood Mac

We’ve heard this song more times than we can even stand, but it’s a pretty good choice for Jessica. We might have been happier to hear her do a different, less obvious Stevie Nicks song considering how much she sounds like her. But it’s a solid performance overall. She does look a bit stiff up there with the band though, which we didn’t expect.

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CJ Harris – “If It Hadn’t Been For Love” by The SteelDrivers

Another good, but not totally great, song choice tonight. CJ sounds really nice on most of the vocals, although he does get a little bit screechy in the loud parts. We’re still waiting for CJ to really pull out a big moment on the show, but we had fun with this performance.

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Caleb Johnson – “Dazed And Confused” by Jake Holmes / Led Zeppelin

We haven’t even heard Jena yet, but we’re already going to call this as the best performance of the night. Caleb is always good, and always consistent, but this song suits him totally and he looks like he and the band have been doing shows for years. Going into this season, we really didn’t think an old school rocker like Caleb could win… but now we’re thinking maybe we were wrong. We’d be right there with doing a standing ovation with Keith and J-Lo tonight.

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Jena Irene – “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence & Paul McCoy

This is one of those songs you have to do right or you just fail miserably, and it’s not an easy song to get right. Jena actually does a reasonably good job at it, although we can’t say she truly holds a candle to Amy Lee. She gets a little rough in places and it kind of starts coming apart a bit near the end, but it’s a solid performance. All in all though, we’d put it as one of the better performances of the evening.

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>> Next: American Idol 2014 Top 8 Elimination Results Live Recap! [VIDEOS]