Colton dixon - Everything (lifehouse)
Skylar Laine - Gunpowder and Lead (Miranda Lambert)
Heejun Han - Song for You (Leon russell)
Hollie Cavanagh - Jesus take the Wheel (Carrie underwood)
Deandre Brackensick - Sometimes i Cry (Eric Benet)
Jessica Sanchez - Sweet Dreams (beyonce)
Phillip Phillips - Still Rainin (Johnny Lang)
Joshua Ledet - Without You (badfinger/Mariah Carey)
Elise Testone - Led Zeppelin Whole Lotta love

One of the better nights on idol and shows what they can do if they are given the freedom to choose their own material

Once again for me Colton, Jessica, Phillip and this week Elise are my top 4; The S.O were ridiculous though, tbh it meant nothing by the end of the night, S.O are supposed to be for stand out performances not just because someone sang a lot better than last week (Deandre/Heejun im looking at you here!)

Colton will obvs be in more danger this week due to positioning and also due to the fact hes so open about his religion which can turn off voters (not so much an issue in the US i guess though) he should ride this week out though even if not high up in the voting

I think the damage has been done with Heejun and i expect him to be B3 again along with Deandre and a surprise girl possibly Hollie as i feel shes gone backwards a little bit since the start! Skylar may drop in there as well

Only ones perfectly safe IMO are Jessica and Phillip, but no doubt now ive said that one of them will be there!

Im almost positive that unless Deandre and Heejun are bottom 2 we will get the save used this week

My thoughts on the performaces

Colton dixon - Great performace but not as good as last week
Skylar Laine - Worst performace by Skylar to date think she will be in the bottom 3 don't want her to be though she is one of my favourites
Heejun Han - Biggest improvement this week but was it enough to keep him out of the bottom 3?
Hollie Cavanagh - My favourite performace of the night most people are saying they think Hollie will be voted off,if she is I will lose allot of interest in this series
Deandre Brackensick - Best performace by Deandre so far don't see why he gets so much hate
Jessica Sanchez - For me this performace just didn't work
Phillip Phillips - Found Phillip really boring this week
Joshua Ledet - My second favourite performace of the night shame about the hideous staging
Elise Testone I like Elise but I am getting bored of the producers doing everything in their power to keep her on the show,back on topic it was a fantastic performace although seen her getting the pimp slot coming a mile away

I completely agree with you. This is precisely the reason I stopped watching at about this stage last year. I continued to follow my fave singers and watch some performances on Youtube but i couldn't stand the way the judges acted as if every performance was amazing. This week just took the biscuit. And how did Heejun get a standing ovation but Colton didn't? Not saying I think Colton deserved one, but his performance was better than most of the performances last night! It's like what you said, the judges stood up just because certain acts were better than last week – which wasn't difficult to be honest. At least when Simon Cowell was there, you knew that he would only stand up for the absolute best performances!

For me it was a normal night and not special. The only difference was there wasn't any poor performance, most of them were just OK though, not many outstanding performances and I agree with S.Os being ridiculous. At least in Heejun's case I thought it was just an encouragement.

My favorite performances from top to bottom in order:

1. Elise: If I already wasn't rooting for her, she would've won me over with doing a Zeppelin. It was with no doubt the best of the night and - I might be biased but help me please - I don't think the producer's giving her any advantage?! It was her turn to do the last performance andI didn't see any special treatment. I knew she had saved the bell-bottoms for later ... she did amazing and well deserved the S.O.
2. Phillip: He did great as he did last week and the week before and so on. I'm kinda getting bored of him though, he always sounds the same to me (well maybe it's just me), but he did a great job IMO.
3. Deandre: I don't like Deandre and I'm not a fan of falsetto dominant songs, but I thought he did a great job and didn't mind the S.O in his case either.
4. Colton: He was OK, but I don't agree that he was as great as some others thought he was. It was an OK performance and that was it for me.
5. Jessica: Another OK performance, I don't think I've heard the original song, but I don't think I'll be interested to listen to either the original or this again.
6. Joshua: He was also OK, nothing special. I think he should've done a different song, and the emotional stuff didn't help to like the performance either for me.
7. Heejun: It was a big step/change for him this week. Another OK performance for the night, probably the best Heejun, but didn't get the S.O. Possibly just to encourage him. He's confused now what to do and hopefully will be gone soon.
8. Hollie: She was uncomfortable and I wish she had done a different thing than another ballad.
9. Skylar: Again the same as all the previous performance we've seen from her. singing, acting, all the same. It wasn't a poor performance, but I didn't like it.

For the trios I don't think any of them were good but
Philip+Colton+Elise > Joshua+Heejun+Deandre > Skylar+Jessica+Hollie
Loved Joshua's moonwalk

I think bottom 3 will be Heejun, Hollie and Skylar. Won't be surprised to see Deandre (or maybe Joshua) there instead of one of the girls. Elise will definitely be safe

I think it's safe to say that Hollie is this years Haley Reinhart, in which she'll continue to get sh** on by the judges week in and week out despite doing incredible performances. Clear as day they don't want her to win, becoming annoying now.

She was incredible this week, that was a finale type show winning performance and it's times like these that I miss Simon, who I think was always fair and would of stuck up for people like her. It's amazing that they're hating on that performance yet giving Heejun a standing ovation for an unbelievably average performance of a great song, utter madness.

Taped it, won't be expecting too much but I wasn't anyway, as an Erika fan

Wish she'd been the lucky one to edge Elise out last week and get the SO this week. I did think Elise was the chosen one at the Top 25 stage, but I don't think she has been (or has deserved to be) since. She's better than Heejun and Skylar though - not looking forward to Skylar at all if this was her weakest effort, but at least Heejun can't be any worse than last week.

I agree about Phillip being very samey - when he first auditioned I hoped we had another David Cook on our hands, but Phil's more of an Andrew Garcia. His "Thriller" is the equivalent of Andrew's "Straight Up" and is the main reason he's progressed this far IMO. At least Colton changes it up a bit. He's my mum's favourite, and should outlast Phil, though I don't think his voice is win-worthy and he's too similar to other WGWGs. I knew I wanted a girl favourite this year, and I still want a girl winner - shame it won't be the same person now though.

I like Jessica and Hollie's voices but they don't vary their performance much, especially Hollie. Joshua has a great voice too, not sure how current he is though. Deandre's a bit middle-of-the-pack. Hope he outlasts Skylar and Heejun, he and Elise are about equal for me.

xxxx

Disagree there. Haley was always rubbish, it was just so poor last year that she scraped to the top 3 unjustly.

Hollie is actually the best female in the competition this year, definitely better than Jessica (who is only still there because she got the biggest song in the first week and it was the song and not her voice that got her through that week playing on the death of a celebrity and sympathy voters).

What i don't get is the amount of crap comments the judges give Holie despite giving brilliant performances each week. Yet they tell Skylar she is fantastic and all she does is the same thing and how many times is she being allowed to "sing" the same song? Oh it isn't the same song each week.. ? Well i hadn't noticed..

And all the stading ovations were completely misplaced and undeserved. What a joke American idol is with those three as "judges". It'd be better if the judges were scrapped. Just get some Paulabots to sit there with some recorded phrases on a loop, The first two would be the same comment to everyone. One of those two would have an irritating laugh at the end of each comment. Finally the third one would have a few different comments set on random for each contestant. And by having those Paulabots, American idol need not pay out for judges.

I wasn't a big fan of Haley, I wouldn't say rubbish either. My favorite was James and I think Casey and Pia deserved to be at that spot more than someone like Haley.


I like Hollie, she has a very beautiful voice and she used to be one of my favorites, but IMO in the last few weeks her performances have been week pitch-wise. I agree with Randy about her not being in complete control of her voice in her lower range voice. I liked her to do a Celine Dion, but at the end I was very disappointed, although she got all the praise and said to have the best performance of the night along with Joshua. What I don't get is all the hype around her and how people still think she's the best after every single show. Liking her and rooting for her I understand, but best performance and best female? I completely disagree.

As for Skylar, I don't like her and I think also that she's singing the same song over and over, but beside that she's singing that same song well, and she's performing it well. I've got bored for a long time now though.

I agree with the OP about the likely bottom 3. Deandre has been one of my favourites, but he sang the song 95% falsetto, and it wasn't uptempo, at which he's the best in the competition. The falsetto will turn enough viewers off to make a difference, with few if any falsetto boys surviving long in these competitions, and since he has a decent reggae-toned lower range it'd be safer to stick to that and just use the falsetto for a few vocal fireworks.

Jessica was by far the best. It's really hard to believe that someone with that voice and that confidence, giving such an adult/pro performance, is only 16. It was a Beyonce song, but her composure, attitude and stagecraft reminded me of the drama Rihanna achieves, except Jessica is much more the singer.

Joshua took on a big song and did his own dramatic take of a Mariah version, which was good, but he was overcome with emotion at the end so didn't have a big finish. Still, that somehow worked, he couldn't sing....if singing was without you. He has been my favourite throughout, but I get the impression he has lost his mojo this past 2 weeks, no idea why as he's easily been the strongest contestant vocally, followed by Jessica. Maybe it's because the producers are starting to clip his gospel wings, telling him to 'sing' more in his lower range and cut back on the high-pitched wailing? He was by far the strongest and most vocally innnovative in the Michael Jackson group song, but the less said about the moonshuffle the better!

Elise was good and got a big song and pimp slot to help her recover her fortunes, but it spotlighted for me what I have come to regard her as - a pretty good jazz singer who's blagging her way as a rocker, and this is why when she lets go her voice falls apart/wails because there's no real power or natural rasp there. It all sounded a little contrived and stylised because she pays so much attention to those small, tidy runs down a couple of notes at the end of every lyric, and that was highlighted by the repeated 'Whole Lotta Love' which saw her use the same mini-run three times in quick succession. When you're singing a gutsy rock song that isn't appropriate.

Phillip gave a solid but uninspiring low-key vocal, probably down to the song. He can catch whatever groove there is to be had but tends to finish by shouting more than singing. With all those pained expressions and 'anger' when he sings I think he only really gets into his stride if he's been out the night before and killed at least 5 people with a well-oiled chainsaw, the one he keeps hidden in his guitar case. Handsome boy in repose, but there's something of the crazed serial killer when he performs? I'm starting to wonder how much am I looking at him with this morbid fascination, or actually listening.

Hollie's image was vastly improved, almost a Princess Kylie makeover, and she seemed to connect with the emotion of the song after some excellent mentoring by Stevie Nicks, but the song itself is IMO pure cheese and did nothing to rescue this girl's dated image. Maybe it was chosen to rope in voters from the Bible Belt, but it may have the opposite effect and alienate others. Next week she could do Lena Martell's One Day At A Time. In the group Madonna song, when she followed Jessica's opener, her voice sounded pinched and nasally in tone compared to the clarity of Jessica's (but tonally more agreeable than Skylar's, who followed on).

I didn't think it was one of Colton 'Beckham's' best weeks, he did okay, but apart from the white jacket he was wearing it was lacklustre compared to his previous stints. I didn't know about his religion, maybe the white jacket was intended to communicate his punkified purity.

Skylar - okay but like Phillip, couldn't do much with such a boring song, and one hardly anyone will know.

Heejun murdered a favourite song of mine, and one where many singers can have a moment because it communicates directly, singer to audience. Tonally his voice was okay. That the vocal was imperfect didn't matter too much because the reflective lyrics allow for the odd bit of breaking voice, but his diction, the pronunication of those lyrics, was in places terrible. It's like listening to one of those non-English speaking Youtubers doing a Whitney.