American Idol 9: Finals Week 4 Performances, Tuesday April 6, 2010

High expectations and lots of pressure for the top 9 as the theme for this week is the Lennon/McCartney songbook.  Presumably, this means that the contestants are free to sing any Beatles song as well as the solo hits by either Lennon or McCartney.  This gives the finalists lots of material to choose from, but it also will make the audience and the judges more picky than usual.

(1) Aaron Kelly sang "The Long and Winding Road" from the album Let it Be (1970).  On this, the final number one of the Beatles' career, Aaron's voice seemed weak and hoarse tonight; he's seemingly still affected by the laryngitis that started with Paige a few weeks ago.  Nevertheless, it lacked power throughout, and this song should have stirred emotions and been epic.  It was not.  Grade: B-

(2) Katie Stevens sang "Let it Be" from the album Let it Be (1970).  Katie gave a nice, stripped down rendition of this popular Beatles classic, which was probably a smart thing as it was sufficiently different from the original to avoid unfavorable comparison, and yet it was still recognizable.  This was undoubtedly Katie's best performance of the season.  Grade: A-

(3) Andrew Garcia sang "Can't Buy Me Love" from the album A Hard Day's Night (1964).  Andrew has often bent and twisted songs to his liking with mixed results.  The judges went collectively gaga over his Hollywood Week rendition of Paula Abdul's "Straight Up," and that's been hanging over him ever since.  Tonight, he changed it to our liking in spite of what most of the judges said.  However, we agree with Kara in that the breakdown toward the end was hot.  In our eyes, Andrew gave one of his better performances.  Grade: B+

(4) Michael Lynche sang "Eleanor Rigby" from the album Revolver (1966).  We liked Michael's vocals on this, but weren't crazy about the herky-jerky arrangement that seemed to throw the timing of the melody off-kilter.  Michael's voice saved the performance, and he killed the chorus, ending the song on a high note.  Grade: B+

(5) Crystal Bowersox sang "Come Together" from the album Abbey Road (1969).  If Janis Joplin or Carole King did a cover of this Beatles classic, it would probably sound a lot like this.  Crystal put her usual folk rock singer-songwriter spin on it, and made this extremely familiar song relevant, fresh, and interesting.  Crystal has been on a trajectory to land in the top 2 from the very beginning, and this week only solidifies her place.  Grade: A

(6) Tim Urban sang "All My Loving" from the album With the Beatles (1963).  We've been hard on Tim pretty much since the beginning, and deservedly so.  However, he gave a solid performance tonight.  Nothing monumental, as usual, but he sang well and did not mangle the song or embarrass himself.  His changes to the melody were interesting, and we liked the stripped down performance which allowed Tim to shine and not be overshadowed by the band or background singers.  Grade: B

(7) Casey James sang "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon from the album Imagine (1971).  Relatively boring song sung well by Casey.  Not a whole lot to complain about regarding the vocals, and he picked the energy level up nicely toward the end, but overall, in spite of the vulnerability he showed that the judges commended him on, this was the least memorable performance of the night for us.  Grade: B

(8) Siobhan Magnus sang "Across the Universe" from the album Let it Be (1970).  Siobhan has technically the best voice among the contestants, and she proved it in a big way tonight.  We felt this was heartfelt, controlled, vulnerable, and affecting in a way that Casey's performance simply was not for us.  Siobhan hit a wide variety of notes of varying pitches and intensity levels and stayed in tune and never let the song get away from her.  This is the way vulnerable is done.  Siobhan needed to prove that she was more than the power note gimmick girl, and she successfully did so.  Grade: A

(9) Lee DeWyze sang "Hey Jude" (1968).  Lee gave a joyous performance of this Beatles standard that got the crowd going and closed off the night on a soaring high.  We're not quite sure what to make of the bagpipes player, but it surely made the performance memorable.  Another good performance from Lee, who got back into top form last week.  We're glad to see him back on track for a second week in a row.  Grade: B+

We're pleased to say that there were really no obvious misfires this week, but that makes choosing the bottom 3 all the harder.  Someone does have to go, unfortunately.

If pressed, we'd choose Tim Urban to be in the bottom 3.  He's been there every week, so why break up a good thing?  To join Tim, we'd also select Aaron Kelly and Casey James.  However, even though we liked Katie Stevens tonight, we do acknowledge that because she's been in the bottom 3 for the last two weeks, she probably does not have the same fanbase as some of the other contestants.  Therefore, if Katie were to be in the bottom 3 instead of Casey James, we won't be shocked.  However, we don't think she'll be going home tomorrow.  Teflon Tim may also be safe for another week because he actually gave a credible performance tonight.

Therefore, our pick as to who will be going home when the results are announced tomorrow is Aaron Kelly.

American Idol 9: Finals Week 4 Results, Wednesday April 7, 2010

With only 3 ladies left in the competition out of the nine contestants, it was nice to see that all three were safe.  We're still predicting a Crystal-Siobhan finale, and now we're one week closer to getting to that.

At the halfway mark in the show, we learned the ladies were safe, and we we got a great performance by Jason Derülo who sang his hit single "In My Head."  Coming back from the break, Season 7 runner up, David Archuleta did a reprise of his Beatles night song, "Imagine" by John Lennon.

From among the six guys left in the competition, half of them made up tonight's bottom 3.  Ryan broke them up into 2 groups of three.  Lee DeWyze was sent over to the far side of the stage, and Michael Lynche was sent to the near side of the stage, beginning the two groups.

Casey James was told to stand with Lee, and Aaron was sent to join Michael.  Then, Tim was put with Lee and Casey, and Andrew finished out the group with Michael and Aaron.

After Ryan put Ellen on the spot to guess the bottom 3, Ellen picked the group containing Michael Lynche, Aaron Kelly, and Andrew Garcia.  Ryan confirmed that she was correct, and sent Casey James, Lee DeWyze, and Tim Urban back to safety.  Moments later, Ryan told Aaron Kelly that he, too, was safe, leaving Michael Lynche and Andrew Garcia as the bottom 2.

These results surprised us as only Aaron Kelly ended up in the bottom 3 from among our picks.  Further, we picked Aaron as the one to go home based on the traces of laryngitis still in his voice.  We were left to ponder the fates of the bottom 2 as Rihanna took the stage to debut her new single, "Rock Star 101,"  a rather tuneless and uninteresting song that couldn't be saved by the obviously overdone smoke and pyrotechnics or even Rihanna's no-room-to-breathe black PVC outfit.

After the last commercial break, Ryan announced that the person with the lowest number of votes and who had to sing for the Judges' Save was Michael Lynche.  Michael chose to sing "This Woman's Work," which he sang in week 3 of the semi-finals.  Following his performance, which brought the studio audience to its feet for a standing ovation, Simon announced that they would be using the single Judges' Save on Michael.

This means that the viewers' vote has been vetoed and Michael will be back next week.  However, in order to keep the airdate schedule on track for the finale, two contestants must be eliminated next week.  Did Michael win a single week reprieve or will he now go further in the competition.  We've actually been predicting a top 5 finish for Michael, so we'll see if he can get back in the game with next week's round, which will be mentored by American Idol Season 8 runner up, Adam Lambert.