American Idol Top 10: Top 10 Hits Week

Tonight the Top 10 Idols picked Top 10 hits and each one had a pre-song interview with Ryan Seacrest, then got to perform their choices and listen to the helpful, if not always welcome, opinions of Harry Connick, Jr., Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban.

MK Nobilette – Perfect (Pink)
Channeling some Jessica Meuse with pink streaks in her hair, MK still remained stiff with no stage presence. She stumbled a bit at one point which did not get by the judges. Keith thought she recovered well but J-Lo disagreed. HCJ said it sounded like the Pink version with her singing on top. MK disagreed with the judges. She thought it was good “for what it was.”

Dexter Roberts – Cruise (Florida Georgia Line
Dexter has been steadily complimented on his song choices and said he wants to keep that going. J-Lo said he needed to rally the crowd more. HCJ didn’t think it was that hot. He said they could have switched him out for MK and the crowd wouldn’t have known the difference. Ouch! At least Keith had a good song choice compliment. He liked the beginning.

Jena Irene – Clarity (Zed feat. Foxes)
Jena has stage presence to spare. Lookin’ good, girl! HCJ said it might be her wheelhouse. Keith gave her Best of the Night so far marks. What’s that worth at No. 3? J-Lo loved it but advised her to hold the middle of the stage better.

Alex Preston – Story of My Life (One Direction)
This guy looks like he’s in pain when he smiles. Keith thought it was great and he made it his own. J-Lo thought his vocal was beautiful. He reminds her of Buddy Holly. HCJ thought he hit the bullseye on the artistry target. Before resuming, J-Lo said that this was the one to beat. What’s that comment worth when everybody has already picked their songs?

Malaya Watson – When I Was Your Man (Bruno Mars)
We were skeptical of the song choice – she’s only 16 and said no one has ever sent her flowers or held her hand, except for crossing the street. J-Lo said she was ready to hate on her but she had her by-now famous goosies because Malaya sang it so beautifully. HCJ liked her sincerity in interpreting the lyrics. He also gave her some advice on matching runs to chords. Keith said she knocked it out of the park vocally. Ryan Seacrest presented her with her first bouquet of flowers and charged it to HCJ.

Caleb Johnson – The Edge of Glory (Lady Gaga)
Well, Caleb is one of our favs but we didn’t care too much for this one. “I’m on the edge, the edge, the edge, the edge.” Blech. HCJ liked that he took a pop tune and gave it his own spin but he’s seen better from Caleb. He gave him an A for originality and Keith got HCJ to bump it up to an A+. Keith thought it was interesting but didn’t dig the half-time feel because Caleb’s locomotive voice is too big for that. J-Lo liked it but didn’t think Caleb was really feeling it himself.

CJ Harris – Invisible (Hunter Hayes)
Just a run-of-the-mill tug at your heartstrings type of thing. Keith thinks CJ is a born singer and he nailed the song in rehearsal but was out of tune live. J-Lo said CJ is like “our little quiet killer.” She agreed with Keith and hoped he didn’t get the boot. HCJ thinks he needs more discipline to get his pitch in check.

Jessica Meuse – Pumped Up Kicks (Foster the People)
An enthusiastic response from the crowd. J-Lo thought it was a big improvement over last week. HCJ thought she had a complacent smile on her face and just sang it one-dimensionally. He wants her to emote. Keith liked it and thought she brought a 60s country vibe to it. The judges then got into an argument over the lyrics vs. the tune. We mostly agree with Keith except we didn’t like it.

Majesty Rose – Wake Me Up (Avicii)
Majesty found being in the Bottom 3 so scary, she decided to play her guitar and sing a folk ballad. The crowd really loved it. HCJ thought her interpretation was very smart and took back all the bad things he said last week. Keith thought she kept it in a straight folk place and that didn’t work, but her voice still delivered. J-Lo sensed her fear in the first half of the song and advised her not to let it show.

Sam Woolf – We Are Young (Fun feat. Janelle)
Well, here is our season hottie, the favorite of the young’uns. With time running short, Keith just said great job and thought he’d be around next week so Keith could say more. J-Lo thought it was quite an improvement from last week. HCJ thought he still needed to work on his assertiveness. We agree with Keith. It will carry him through another week.

Tough to predict a Bottom 3 this week. The only standouts, in terms of the judges’ comments, were Jena Irene, Alex Preston and Malaya Watson. We’d bet the voters will send MK Nobilette back to the Bottom 3. We can also see them sending CJ Harris and Dexter Roberts. At this point, we’d send MK, CJ and Sam home, all together, and let them work on their stage presence, pitch and assertiveness somewhere else.