Harmon covered Chris Stapleton’s “What Are You Listening To” for his performance in the Top 24 Solo portion of the competition. The Civil Wars song “Safe and Sound” provoked judge Harry Connick Jr to say, “It was one of the more emotional performances I’ve seen”.
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Manny Torres, a 21-year-old worship leader from MI, grooved his way through Coldplay’s “Adventure of a Lifetime”, and while Lopez said she “loved” his voice and thought it had been a good song choice, she felt he could have “connected” to the audience a bit more. But the judges brought up Jenn’s originality – if anything saves her, that will be it. As for CJ, “I’ll Be” is one of the worst songs an Idol contestant can sing, not because it’s a bad song (in fact, it’s a good song) but because “I’ll Be” has been done to death on this show, going back to the very first season. Keith Urban said he thought the duet was really “incredible” and Jennifer Lopez called Dalton a “dark horse coming to the surface at the right time”. “Great song, great vocals – I feel like you were singing that to me”, JLo agrees. Hell to the no. J. Lo whipped up some delicious cream topping for Kory and Keith lauded his mix of confidence and vulnerability, but Harry just wasn’t having it: “I don’t think it was great because it wasn’t particularly special”. “I’m not sure whether it was the type of song that you chose, but it wasn’t the Trent that I’ve come to sit on the edge of my seat with great expectations”.
Tristan McIntosh tackled Carrie Underwood’s “Good Girl”. Lopez didn’t think she hit the sweet spot in her voice.
Reinhart and Adam Lasher took the stage next for a performance of “Can’t Help Falling in Love”. The song choice had Keith “baffled”, explaining that Lasher needs to choose something no one else in the competition could do. And while the judges made some positive comments about Shelby’s song, they emphasized the key change, and that will really hurt her. The song choice didn’t really suit her, and Connick advised her to start picking “quirkier” songs.
Finally, Olivia Rox won the night with her version of “Confident”, by Demi Lovato. Urban praised the way Rapattoni “Daltonized” the song and made it his own. Jennifer couldn’t find much to critique about the performance, except to suggest that Rox “get into her inner rock chick” by making the performance match her powerful voice.
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The farewell season of American Idol continues each Wednesday from 8-9 p.m. ET/PT and Thursday from 8-10 p.m. ET/PT.
