Duets: J Rome and Meleana Brown Tie at No. 1

The second episode of Duets featured Kelly Clarkson, Jennifer Nettles, Robin Thicke and John Legend performing classics with their “amateur” duet partners. We put “amateur” in quotes because, well, these singers are a bit more than amateurs — they’re damned good! Here’s where you can see last week’s results.

Round One:

John Legend and Bridget Carrington started out the show with a strong duet on Aretha Franklin’s “I Knew You Were Waiting for Me.” Jennifer thought it was fantastic and that Bridget’s confidence level was much better. Kelly thought it was an awesome job on a hard song and Robin thought she looked like a bag of Skittles “and I love Skittles,” he said. He said Bridget finished with incredible energy.

Host Quddus said it was time to take note of how much less clothing Robin had on week after week. “Somehow, he’s more naked this week.” Robin thinks next week is the “Speedo” episode. Quddus then reminded everyone of the scoring system:

The three superstars who did not perform enter a secret score from between 1 and 100 based upon performance and presentation. After each amateur performance, they add it up and see where they land on the Duets Chart. We just wish the score wasn’t secret. Why does it have to be secret?

Kelly Clarkson met with her partners Jordan Meredith and Jason Farol who were both dead last in the premiere. Kelly thought they were not as experienced as the other hopefuls and they had to work that out. Kelly and Jordan sang Pink’s “Misery Loves Company,” which went well with Jordan’s pink hair. Jennifer was impressed with her soul and grit. Robin thought it was a big difference from last week. John Legend said he loved her tone on top, but had some concerns on precision and using Kelly as a crutch. Her peformance did not top Bridget’s so she came in second at this point.

John Glosson and Jennifer were up next. Jennifer thought he was the top voice last week (when he came in No. 3). She chose to do the Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell hit “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.” Kelly thought it was smart to do an uptempo number. Robin thought it was a bad song choice and that John was copying some of Jennifer’s moves that didn’t work because he’s a guy. John Legend said Glosson’s voice is phenomenal. His only complaint was the energy and delivery felt a bit Broadway to him. John jumped into the No. 2 spot.

Olivia Chisholm and Robin were up next with Donny Hathaway and Roberta Flack’s “Where is the Love?” Olivia said she was very nervous and never heard the song before. We’re like, wow, and that was such a big hit, mama. Robin wants to capitalize on the sexual tension they have between them. We really liked that shirt Olivia had on during practice and Olivia looked beautiful during the performance, but there was something a bit off about it. Jennifer and Kelly were giving them weird looks during the performance. John Legend said she looked sexy. Jennifer thought it had pitchy moments. Kelly thought the song was too repetitive but she admired the texture in Olivia’s voice. Olivia came in 4th.

Round Two

John Legend was up for the second time with a new duet partner. Johnny Gray had to leave the show “due to unforeseen circumstances,” Quddus explained. Gray said on Twitter that he didn’t drop out and hopes he can talk about it soon. John Legend auditioned a bunch of singers that he narrowed down to two people he thought were awesome: Mario and Meleana. He gave them both a song to learn. We really liked Mario a lot but John picked Meleana Brown to do “Endless Love.” Mario looked hella like John Glosson and Meleana looked hella gorgeous. Quddus made a big deal over turning her experience into a Cinderella story. Robin said “You know when you get a sandwich and it has too much mustard and not enough onion and they forget the cheese?” making everyone think he was going to say something was off, but he said “Your sandwich had the perfect amount of onion. Definitely not too much mustard and you even put some provolone on there for me.” Quddus said he was hungry and John Legend wondered who was writing the script. Kelly said it was amazing but warned her against trying to be too technically perfect. Jennifer said her first impression was super classy! Meleana jumped into the number one spot.

Kelly Clarkson and Jason Farol did Mariah Carey and Brian McKnight’s “Whenever You Call.” John Legend’s issue is that Jason looks to Kelly for approval too much. Robin said it was a big improvement over last week. Jennifer felt he needs to move his upper body more. “You need to bring the sexy,” Kelly said. At No. 5, Jason came in just ahead of Olivia, who was still last.

For J. Rome, Jennifer Nettles chose “You’re the One that I Want,” Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta’s number from “Grease.” Like around the middle of the song backup singers/dancers suddenly showed up. That was weird. Kelly thought J. Rome looked like a little Bruno Mars up there. The range wasn’t much of a challenge though. John thought J Rome is a polished pro. Robin said he gets a 10 for his presence and a 10 for his pelvic thrusting. J. Rome tied with Meleana right up there at the top. They don’t reveal the scores, though. Just show two No. 1’s and then No. 3

Another Marvin and Tammi number “You’re All I Need to Get By” was chosen by Robin for his duet with Alexis Foster. It started out sounding like Alexis was singing background to us. They weren’t really singing to each other and the “need” warbling? Fuhgeddaboutit. But that’s just us. Jennifer thought vocally and presentation-wise it was wonderful. John Legend thought she wasn’t handling the mic right. Kelly kind of agreed with us. She thought it was really disconnected and wasn’t much of a duet. Alexis came in 6th.

So the Bottom 2 this week were Jason Farol at No. 7 and Olivia Chisholm at No. 8.

Next week, Quddus reminded us, someone will be going home.