American Idol Top 8 Performance Show

The Top 8 American Idol sang their audition songs on 4/2/2014 to show how much they’ve grown since the auditions, though none of them really sang the whole song at the auditions, did they? Well, they did tonight and here’s what happened:

Jessica Meuse – Blue Eyed Lie (Original)
Keith Urban thought it was great to start the show but she needs to learn to move her legs some. Jennifer Lopez (J-Lo) loved the experience of an artist singing their own material and can hear her album already. Harry Connick Jr. (HCJ) didn’t agree with Keith’s thinking. If you deliver, no need to move at all. “It reminded me of like Cher in the 70’s,” he said, “where you stand just on that cylinder singing.”

CJ Harris – Soul Shine (the Allman Brothers Band)
J-Lo liked it better the second time around. Soulful and full of heart. You touch people, you really do.” HCJ said he could tell CJ has been working on the things he’s been panned for, like his pitch. “You’re getting smart…” Keith said that song got CJ in the door but this time, he “reigned it.”

Sam Woolf – Lego House (Ed Sheeran)
HCJ thinks Sam should work on connecting to his screaming fans. “It’s not confidence, it’s about connection.” He promised that if Sam could learn to connect, it will change his world. Keith was pleased with where Sam is headed and thinks he gets better every week. J-Lo saw the magic that they glimpsed at the audition.

Malaya Watson – Ain’t No Way (Aretha Franklin)
Keith praised her control. “Fantastic.” J-Lo thinks she is blossoming into a beautiful girl and will run away with this competition. HCJ thinks she is doing everything right but still felt the need to repeat last week’s advice: take advantage of the music coaches, incredible band and Ricky Miner. “Get them to teach you notes, there’s 12 notes, learn them all.”

Dexter Roberts – One Mississippi (Brett Eldredge)
Jennifer heard “so many little nuances” in his voice she never heard before. HCJ said he did a good job and he has good ears. Keith advised him to focus on the lyrics and communicating them and pay less attention to the sound of his voice.

Jena Irene – Rolling In The Deep (Adele)
Harry said he originally thought she might have a speech impediment but it’s actually “a really cool idiosyncrasy.” Keith thought she made the song her own. He thought it was bold and loved every second of it.” Jennifer told Jena to come out each week, blow every one away and win this whole thing. She knows Jena can do it.

Caleb Johnson – Chain Of Fools (Aretha Franklin)
Keith called Caleb “a blues warrior, a soul conqueror, and a rock and roll Viking.” Jennifer can see that he has been waiting his whole life for this moment (to be on Idol, we guess). She said he kills it and conquers it every time. Harry said he’d love it if Caleb would do something less loud.

Alex Preston – Fairytales (Original)
Jennifer noticed a new move and complimented him on being true to himself. HCJ enjoyed it and liked that he did an original. Keith noticed people singing along even though it was an original and thought that was a good sign.

Now it starts getting a bit harder to predict the Bottom 3, not that we ever got all 3 right anyhow. We’ve been getting 2 out of 3 all along. Pretty soon, there will only be a Bottom 2 and maybe we can nail it then. More than half of the Top 8 have been in the Bottom 3 – CJ, Dexter, Jena, Malaya and Sam. We don’t think the Bottom 3 tomorrow night will come entirely from that group. Jena and Malaya, we think, are safe. Sam really had them howling in this show, but he did last week, too, and still ended up in the Bottom 3. Maybe 2 will return to the Bottom 3 tomorrow night, maybe one. We think the chances of one or two new faces showing up on the stools is just as good.