America Idol Top 11: Elimination Night

Harry Connick Jr. performed a medley of a new song he wrote along with an oldie on the Top 11 elimination. That kid, Munfarid Zaidi, that Harry likes to tote around made an appearance to sing “Every Man Should Know,” while his idol held him. Ugh, but whatever. The contestants did impressions of the judges and we’ve got to say it — that Caleb Johnson is one funny dude. His impression of Harry Connick, Jr., complete with scatting, was awesome. It even impressed HCJ.

Jennifer Lopez gave us a preview of her new song I Lo’ You Papi (did we spell that right, Jen?). She also picked Mali Music for the Taste Maker segment. He gave a good performance with “Beautiful” that the audience enjoyed and joined in with.

So we were saying the voters would probably pick a totally different 3 than we did for the Bottom 3, but the voters only had one different. We had Sam Woolf, Ben Briley and MK Nobilette. Now let us elaborate a little bit more on that.

Sam Woolf has it going on in the looks department, yes, but his talent needs to mature.

We can’t really say how talented MK Nobilette is at this point. Her performances just don’t move us. We still see that disconnect.

Ben Briley has undeniable talent but what he’s got going against him, in general, is being one of 3 country singers in a show that is more pop. Nevertheless, it was his Bennie and the Jets song choice that turned us off this week and obviously, the voters, too.

Ben ended up in the Bottom 3 with Sam Woolf and Majesty Rose. That’s right. We were wrong about MK. We also thought Majesty made a bad song choice but, dang! We never thought girlfriend would get less votes than Sam Woolf!

So Ben and Majesty were the Bottom 2 and there was just a teeny difference between how many more votes Majesty got.

Ben performed “Stars” for his last shot at convincing the judges to use their one and only save. Holy shit! Emily Piriz sang that last week, too. It was a no go then and it was a no go tonight. Still, we felt bad to see Ben go. He can sing rings around several of those who made the Top 10. Perhaps the judges felt that narrowing down the country singers was inevitable.

There’s still that harsh lesson in there and hopefully, the Top 10 will take it to heart. It’s been heard on many a prior season of Idol — NO ONE IS SAFE.

So here are the official Top 10 who will be going on tour: Alex Preston, CJ Harris, Caleb Johnson, Dexter Roberts, Jena Irene, Jessica Meuse, MK Nobilette, Majesty Rose, Malaya Watson and Sam Woolf.

Choose your songs carefully, Top 10, weigh those risks you are taking twice as carefully but make 150% sure you are entertaining those voters.