Tonight's pre-credits sequence hearkens all the way back to the first auditions of each of the final four, most of which I don't remember, if we even saw them at the time. The four finalists also have some thoughts about the state of things, which Angie wraps up by saying that America has the hardest choice. I don't know, difficult choices usually have consequences.
As usual, after the credits and the entrances, Ryan brings out the final four -- Amber, Candice, Kree, and Angie -- for a quick look before sending them off backstage. Ryan says there'll be two rounds plus some duets, the first round being the nebulous "contestants' choice" and the second round's theme having been chosen by call-in voters. We'll find out what that is when the time comes (translation: they're still deciding).
For now, we learn that the final four visited Childrens' Hospital in L.A. this week, so video of that is going to be what their intro reels are coming from. Amber describes it as a "life-changing" experience as we see clips of her wandering the halls with Angie as her partner, and then singing a song for the kids. This would be a lot more touching without the American Idol logo and branding pasted all over every available surface. Including, I believe, some kid's sterile mask (not really).
For the first round of tonight's competition, Amber is singing "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion, which she also got to rehearse in front of the kids (so the contestants got something out of it too). Amber starts it off almost a capella, near the top of the upstage steps, and it's pretty, if not all that thrilling. One would have thought nobody would want to go near Celine again so soon after what went down with Kree last week, but unlike Kree, I think she might have actually pulled it off. The judges certainly think so, as Keith, Nicki, and Randy all give her a standing ovation.
Keith loved the song choice and her range and poise. Nicki compliments Amber's looks first, as usual, commenting on her mostly white outfit and saying she looks like a big sexy glass of milk. She also says Amber is current and ready, and doesn't even seem like a contestant any more. Randy makes Amber turn around and show off how her outfit is black in the back and says she looks more like a "black-and-white cookie." Which is not an expression, obviously, but I guess I should give Randy credit for having the uncharacteristic presence of mind to not call a young African-American woman who just covered a song by a white singer an "Oreo®." It probably would have been better if he'd just kept the thought to himself entirely, but this is Randy Jackson we're talking about. Anyway, Randy also declares her "Most Improved" and agrees with Nicki that she's ready. Mariah babbles as usual, the only part of which cuts through the white noise is "hashtag pow." Oh my God, it's actually working. Also, like last week, Jimmy is backstage for some instant criticism. He says he heard a little strain at the top end of Amber's voice, but maintains that the song is going to be hard to beat.
Ryan brings Candice up, saying she's going to be doing a Drake song. It turns out she actually met him in person last year and made him promise to watch her when she was on the show, so it's like she knew, somehow. Candice also met some young patients at the hospital, which is sweet, but I wish she'd stop playing nervously with her hair in front of children who have none.
The Drake song she's doing is "Find Your Love," kind of jazzy and lounge-y, and it's got Randy and Mariah competing between themselves at the judges' table over who's got the best listening-face. Also, I never would have guessed this as a Drake song in a million years.
Nicki tells Candice that she already gave Drake a heads-up about this, and hints that she might have a message from him for Candice tomorrow. She says she's given up commenting on anyone's voices because they're all awesome and we all know that, but says she kind of wishes Candice had stuck to the melody a little more and is worried about her seeming too old-fashioned. Randy of all people says she could maybe stand to dial it back a little bit now and then with the runs and the churchiness. Mariah loved it, of course, reiterating her love for last week's "Straight Up" before saying she might have gone a little adult contemporary tonight, but she can sing anything. Keith says he's not even thinking about what Candice's market is, and leaving that up to her. But that's crazy talk! Post-ads, Jimmy tells us from backstage that as much as he loves Drake, Candice, and the song, that was the second-best of the night. I assume Amber is still in first place for him, then.
Kree got to hang with the hospital's music therapist, who goes from crib to crib with a little backpack guitar and gets an emotional mom crying for the Idol cameras. Kree hugs her, of course.
Live, she sings "Hurts So Bad," a slow, bluesy 12/8 standard that lets her relax a bit in the verses and stretch out in the choruses. She had told one of the kids in the hospital that she was planning to dance a bit, but in the heels she's got on tonight that's just asking for another broken toe.
Randy comments on how much she likes the blues and can do everything, although that wasn't her best vocal for him. He tries to backpedal when he gets booed, but what he doesn't get is that he's not being booed for being negative but for being useless. Mariah's long-winded praise is uncharacteristically tepid (which means she hated it), but she liked how Kree finally connected with the audience. Keith says it's been established that all four of them can sing, so now it's down to song choice and performance and especially emotion, which Kree didn't give enough of. Nicki likes how she looks in red, but says that performance wasn't worthy of the top four, and gets bleeped twice in the process. Ryan asks her what she was trying to accomplish with that song choice, but I'm wondering more how Kree is finding time in her busy schedule to tan.
At the hospital, Angie bonded with a toddler wearing a "tough little dude" t-shirt and presented the kids with a new acoustic guitar. Her first song tonight is "Who You Are" by Jessie J, and she's back behind the piano again. The white Steinway this time. The song plays to her strengths, too, which is the big loud semi-high notes and the dramatic moments.
She gets the traditional three-way standing ovation from the judges. Mariah claims she was standing up in spirit because the train of her dress is stuck under her chair, but that the song was "beyond." She also wants Angie to write another original song and do it at the piano. Keith talks about her evolution, both from Angela to Angie and during the performance just now, which went from all enunciated and proper to...well, better. Nicki still loves Angie behind the piano and the whole performance, saying it was like she was closing out an awards show. Randy says Angie make him forget about Jessie J (which can only mean he's never met her, because his memory is photographic when it allows him to name-drop), and that this was the best performance of the night. And he starts yelling at Ryan, which means we can all see his "in it to win it" catchphrase coming up so far in advance that the editors pop the hashtag up on the screen almost before he's done saying it. Ryan calls Angie's grandmother onstage to hug Angie. The tiny little woman is overcome, possibly because until this moment she thought she might be as tall as Ryan Seacrest. Then Keith gives grandma a hand off the stage, possibly earning himself the biggest audience cheer of his season.
Duet time, and Kree is doing "Rumour Has It" with Amber. And I think we may finally may have found something Kree can't actually sing all that well, because Amber has her pretty much outmatched, even when missing the last line. We're continuing with the charade of the duets being judged, so Keith talks about their different stage presences and is starting to want someone to cut loose and throw a microphone stand or something. He's getting bored, in other words, which I can't imagine what that feels like. You want some chaos, Keith? Some unpredictability? Try taking your Coke cup off of that stupid little stage on the table in front of you and see how fucking crazy things get. Nicki tells them to add some personality on top of their voices and interact with each other more. I guess Randy and Mariah will get to comment on Angie and Candice's duet.
And here it is, as they're doing "Stay" by Rihanna and Mikky Ekko. No way, a duet that's actually a duet? They have some interesting harmonies together, and unlike in the first round, I'd have to give the advantage here to Candice -- but only by a narrow margin, and by the end they're both blowing the roof off. Not to mention they clearly listened to Nicki's advice from the duet. They get another three-quarter standing O from the judges. Figure out how to keep your dress out from under your chair, Mariah, damn. You're going to get deep vein thrombosis one of these nights. Randy hollers about how that's the way to do a duet. Mariah tries to interject something about unity, only to get shouted down by Randy, who isn't done gushing yet. What were you saying about duets just now, Randy?
The fan-selected theme for tonight is "one-hit wonders," which is one of the few forms of mocking I'm not entirely comfortable with. I mean, how many hits do most of us have? I'm pretty sure I don't have any yet. Anyway, Amber is covering a hit by the original Albus Dumbledore: "MacArthur Park," although she's doing the Donna Summer version rather than the Richard Harris one. Probably just as well. This is more suited to her style, though she gets a little shaky on the first big "agaaaaaain." I can't wait to see what Keith has to say about emotionally connecting to lyrics predicated on baking-related tragedies.
Mariah actually does stand up for this one, as well as Randy. Keith settles for telling her she's dominating tonight. Nicki calls her a blooming flower, and asks if she went for the longest note in Idol history. She also says Amber's the one of the top four she wants to be friends with, which may mean she's the most marketable. Randy deploys his catchphrase and babbles on until he concludes that he'd sign her right now. Mariah speculates that Amber has an "inner glow" and "star quality," which the show is helping her to develop. Ryan asks if Amber's been hustling us all along, and she's smart enough not to deny it. Backstage, Jimmy disses the judged because he's got a big hate-on for how corny the song has always been, "and not even Amber can pull off corny."
Ryan schmoozes with a couple of the kids who were well enough to leave Children's Hospital for the evening and are here in the audience. Candice's one-hit wonder is "Emotion" by Samantha Sang, which of course was covered more famously by the Bee Gees. I think they're maybe cheating a little bit with this one-hit wonder theme. Candice can sing it, obviously, but doesn't do much with it until stretching out a bit on the last chorus.
Nicki says it's an older song but didn't feel like it, and wants to be sure Candice knows she's a superhero like everyone else. And then she leads a brief mass revolt of the judges against Jimmy's comments on "MacArthur Park" from earlier, apropos of nothing. Randy calls "Emotion" a classic song and says she did it well, and also disagrees with Jimmy. Mariah drops some knowledge on the masses about how difficult it is to keep up their voices in this competition, and was able to detect a slight cold that Candice confesses is actually terrible. Keith complains about whether there are any one-hit wonders from the last decade (obviously there are, most of which have been on the cover of Rolling Stone), like songs from the last decade ever get anybody anywhere on this show. Then Ryan drags Jimmy out from backstage to defend his earlier opinion, which turns into this whole hairball of an argument with Nicki coming up onto the stage to get into Jimmy's face (and Randy following), but then not doing anything but hugging him while Mariah moves over to sit to Keith. I'm sure this is a moment that'll be ridiculously trumped up in tomorrow's episode and maybe even the media, even though not much of anything actually happened.
After the ads, Ryan asks Kree how she plans to come back from her earlier drubbing by the judges, and she says she just hopes to redeem herself. Which I don't think she's not going to do with her song choice of "Whiter Shade of Pale." I mean, yes, Procol Harum doesn't exactly have a bulging catalog of hits, but hello? "Conquistador"? Two is still more than one. Also, we didn't need a country cover of this one. I once thought she might win this whole thing, but now I'm wondering if she just peaked early.
Randy starts off the comments this time, saying singing is not her problem and that she did indeed redeem herself. Mariah says she's going to go put it on her phone and there was no redemption necessary. Keith says he's not in "agreeance," much to my annoyment, and says that Kree does well with ballads and barn-burners, but the in-between ones she's been doing tonight aren't cutting it. Nicki says it was a nice performance, but she doesn't think it was enough to keep her out of the bottom two. Ryan asks her about her choice of song, and she talks about having grown up listening to Percy Sledge, who sang that song when she opened up for him one time. That's quite an accomplishment. So why is she in this competition?
Angie gives the last performance of the night, all glammed up on a dreamy smokescape of a stage to do the Julie London version of "Cry Me a River." So I think we can safely call the one-hit wonder theme a bust. She's away from the piano, but she's not coasting, throwing in a big powerful high note in at the end before signing off with the kind of fancy run she doesn't usually bother with.
Mariah calls it a classic and accuses Angie of holding out on them up until now. Keith, having been allotted three words for some reason, declares is "mystical and celestially powerful." Nicki questions his math and tells Angie that she's snatching wigs off of heads. Randy calls it the best of tonight, declares Angie the winner for the night, and catchphrases again so that even Angie is embarrassed for him. Ryan runs the recap of tonight's performances, opens the lines, and promises a twist during tomorrow night's show. My prediction? The "twist" is going to have something to do with the save, or be something that can only be called a twist in the most generous possible sense of the word. Probably both.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis- based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter, or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.