American Idol Group Night

They moved along pretty quickly on American Idol Group Night (Feb 6, 2014) and kicked a helluva lot of folks off the show. One lady saved them the trouble. Tiquila Wilson left voluntarily telling the judges her heart is in gospel music and she’s just not in the right competition. That led to Harry Connick Jr. pretending to quit because he doesn’t like the other judges, flipping them the bird. Har har. Keith Urban got the last laugh, saying his seat had been take by Randy Jackson.

The first three performers were David Oliver Willis, Sarina Joi Crowe, and Tony Foster, Jr., singing “Too Close” and calling themselves “Three Mo’ Days.” David and Sarina impressed the judges enough to get through but Tony got the boot. He took it well. Later, Mathew Hamel, C.J. Harris, Caleb Johnson, and Tyler Ahlgren, as the “Freedom Breathers” chose the same song. Caleb got the best compliment of the night from Connick, who said the best group is usually the one that is “next to closing” and Caleb was that in this performance. Caleb and C.J. made it out alive.

Country boys Dexter Roberts, Casey Thrasher, and Ben Briley chose to sing “I Want It That Way,” calling themselves the “Backstreet Cowboys.” Clever, huh? It worked for the judges. No cuts here.

Spencer Lloyd teamed up with Megan Miller and Alyssa Siebken even though the two girls didn’t know the song lyrics and he wasn’t about to help them out. That was fatal for Alyssa but Megan got thumbs up.

After suffering mightly from flu-like symptoms, Sikenya Thompson returned to perform with Munfarid Zaidi, Jena Asciutto and Allie Odom as “Clarity.” Munfarid took it upon himself to explain her predicament to the judges so she could save what voice she had for the number. Despite looking pitiful, Sikenya got to stay and went over to hug the judges, flu germs notwithstanding. Allie Odom got sent home and Sikenya found her speaking voice long enough to promise her a front row ticket to her next show.

Jessica Meuse, Nica Nishae, Stephanie Hanvey and Cara Watson did “Single Ladies.” Jessica Meuse gave the judges a heads up about her hardships with her first group and how she is struggling to fit in here and had a shaky handle on the lyrics. She wasn’t the only one. Stephanie’s overbearing stage mom cheered them on from the audience, only to see her daughter get the boot. She gave Jessica Meuse a really hard time over it and Meuse said that drama follows her. She doesn’t look for it, it just shows up.

Emmanuel Zidor, Terrica Curry, and Carmen Delgina sang “Say My Name” as “Love’s Angels.” We thought they were all good but the judges disagreed and gave Carmen and Terrica the axe. That sucked because we liked Terrica and Carmen.

The final group of the day, Loud and Fierce, is Malaya Watson, Christina Collins, Olivia Diamond and Queen Bulls. Calling themselves “Loud and Fierce,” they chose to do the Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back.” Too bad they didn’t know the words. Connick was impressed with Malaya. As for the rest, either they were happy with their quota for the night or they have some secret standard that viewers cannot begin to imagine. Except for Malaya, this was way worse than Love’s Angels.

Here are some more who were sent home tonight:

Remember Madisen Walker, the 15 year old Keith Urban didn’t want to do a disservice by sending her to Hollywood, because he felt she wouldn’t make it far. She didn’t. Blame that one of J-Lo and Connick. That one more chance Adam Roth got last night ended up being his swan song. It was sayonara to Keith London, Austin Precario and Stephanie Petronelli. The saddest one of the night was when John Fox got cut. He sang in the group with Savion Wright, who got through, but was brought to tears by the loss of his homeboy.

We’re now down to a cast off 77. That is gonna be cut in half next week, right?