Duets: Favorite Standards, Olivia Chisholm Voted Off

The 7/5/12 installment of Duets began with a “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” duet from Robin Thicke and Jennifer Nettles, then went on to the elimination of Olivia Chisholm, whose Lady Antebellum duet with Robin last week failed to impress America.

So both of Robin Thicke’s  amateurs are gone while Jennifer Nettles still has two. We don’t know how important that is. The judges don’t get anything if their amateur wins, do they? As far as we can see, the only benefit is we don’t have to listen to Thicke’s annoying falsetto anymore. Surprisingly, Bridget Carrington got the second lowest score for her performance of Beyonce’s “Halo” with John Legend.

Earlier eliminations: Alexis Foster, Meleana Brown, Jordan Meredith

Now we get to listen to four “favorite” standards tonight. We don’t know about you, but the standards they chose this evening aren’t exactly what we would put on our playlist for an evening’s entertainment. Four more ballads. Whoopee.

Bridget Carrington and John Legend – Unforgettable
We begin with Bridget and John Legend performing a Nat King Cole classic that his daughter famously brought back as a duet with her deceased father. Bridget is looking lovely in a floor length canary yellow gown. Legend is playing the piano and when he sang the line “in every way,” it sounded like he said “in ev-we way.” LOL. Quddus wanted to know how Bridget liked coming so close to being eliminated She didn’t want to go to her day job: collecting taxes. Kelly thought it was “effortless” and her best performance to date. Robin thought it was lovely. John Legend said it was his first talent show win. Jennifer loved her poise and class, but told her to watch her breath support.

J Rome and Jennifer Nettles – God Bless the Child
Quddus pointed out that J Rome made Kelly Clarkson involuntarily stand up on a hairline fracture in her foot. He commented that J Rome is used to singing contemporary material and this song is from 1939. “Do you think America wants to see that kind of versatility from you?” A good question because we were wondering why in the world they think this is entertaining. J Rome said “yes, absolutely,” to enthusiastic applause from the audience. John Legend thought it was funny that J Rome did a better job on a Billie Holiday number than an Usher song. Robin Thicke thought it was Grammy worthy.

To break things up, John Legend and Kelly Clarkson duet on a favorite standard in between: The Ray Charles classic “You Don’t Know Me’

 
John Glosson and Jennifer Nettles – Georgia on My Mind
We think that Jennifer Nettles’ voice blends even better with John Glosson than J Rome, but that’s just us. They did a fine job on this Ray Charles’ classic,  but probably not enough to come in ahead of J Rome. For one thing, Glosson just does not have the same versatility as J. Rome just displayed. Robin thought the song was a good choice for him and fit his voice. Kelly had some problems hearing it but said she could tell he did great. John Legend reversed his syrupy criticism from last week. This one had just the right amount of syrup, like a stack of Georgia pancakes.

Jason Farol and Kelly Clarkson – Feeling Good

Kelly’s foot problems helped land her behind the piano for this one, leaving lightweight Jason to hold his own on the stage but the judges were impressed. John Legend and Jennifer both commented on his phenomenal growth while Robin felt some of the soulfulness was lacking..

Again, we won’t know the voting results until next week, but predicting that Bridget and Jason will be the bottom two hardly seems like rocket science.

You never know, though. The voters could surprise us and both of them could end up staying!