From a quiet, dimly-lit stage, Ryan breaks the news that this is the first-ever sudden death round in front of a live audience. There's a crowd in the seats of Cirque du Soleil's The Beatles Love show at the Mirage in Las Vegas (enough proper nouns in that sentence?). After the credits, Ryan introduces the judges, and Randy -- who is dressed like Captain Kangaroo tonight -- explains that ten performers will sing tonight and five will go home. It'll happen again tomorrow, and week, and forever and ever amen, in this season's never-ending quest to stretch out every stage of this competition for as long as possible. This now takes the form of Ryan chatting at length with each of the judges... because ten people singing ten songs in two hours means we're not in any kind of hurry. Ryan points out Jimmy Iovine in the audience, waiting to serve as a tiebreaker if necessary. Good, I was hoping he'd be back this year. He and Nicki could be the only judges with a coin as the tiebreaker and I'd be fine with that.
Finally, Ryan introduces the singers who will perform tonight: Jenny Beth Willis, Tenna Torres, Adriana Latonio, Brandy Hotard, Shubha Vedula, Kamaria Ousley, Kree Harrison, Angelia Miller, Isabelle and Amber Holcomb. Yes, I know we've never met half of those people. Just go with it.
We start with Jenny Beth Willis, who is 17 and from Oklahoma City, according to some footage of her initial auditions that they somehow unearthed. She's working cowboy boots and an overly flouncy pink-and-black dress to sing an up-tempo country song I don't know. She's not bad and she's having fun, which is good because she's not going to get a lot more chances to sing on this show this season, her big note at the end notwithstanding. Keith didn't love the song choice, but appreciated her confidence. Nicki agrees with me that it wasn't that great until the very end. Randy accuses Jenny of being out of sync with the band and says she may be in trouble later tonight. Super-helpful, that. But then Mariah gives her some actual technical vocal critique as though she's going to get to do another take, which is also not terribly helpful. I guess at this point, the only purpose for feedback from the judges is to let everyone know what to expect later.
We're reintroduced to Tenna Torres, who we're reminded went to Camp Mariah as a teenager. Now 28, she's too ancient to come back year, so this is her last chance and her giant hair seems determined to rise to the occasion -- if rising were something that happened horizontally. She's going with some soulful, but overwritten ballad, making up for the five-dollar words in the lyrics by displaying some actual vocal restraint. Keith compliments the control she "mostly had;" Nicki asks why Tenna looks so sad before saying she remembered why she loves Tenna's voice. She adds, "Lose the hair," which is also good advice. Randy says the night just started, which is more bad news for Jenny Beth Willis. Mariah comments on Tenna's emotional commitment to the song. So that's unanimous on Tenna, except for her hair. Ryan comes out and reveals that she avoided seeing her boyfriend before the song to keep the sadness real. Method singing?
Ryan tells us that the singer is the first semifinalist from Alaska. Wait, so Jewel's not an American Idol? You learn something every day. Adriana Latonio is 17 and from Anchorage. We get to see some footage of her first audition and taking a walk on the Alaskan coastline, and then she becomes the third person tonight to sing a song I don't know. It's almost as though they're trying to showcase their voices instead of the songs. It's a strong performance, enough to earn her sort of a half-assed standing ovation from Keith and Randy, as well as a few sections of the audience. Keith talks about how close she was while singing and how hard it was to not react and throw her off. What a shame he didn't get to use that listening-face of his. Nicki does a little demographic research on Adriana's height and ethnicity (five feet even, Filipina), and goes on to compliment her for commanding the stage despite being such a wee elf. Randy gushes about what a pro she is. Mariah asks her how she's feeling, which is not usually a good sign, but says Adriana came through and gives her an A+. Great, I think Adriana just got a nickname. We'll know for sure when it becomes a hashtag.
After Ryan informs us that we'll be in Vegas for the "few weeks." Then we meet Brandy Hotard, 26, and from Louisiana. At the Baton Rouge auditions, she told the judges that she's a psych nurse, which of course they made all about them because of how they deal with crazy people too, ha ha. Tonight, she's going with yet another unfamiliar song, this one a country ballad. She puts her all into it, but that isn't all that much. Keith gives her props for doing a Travis Tritt song, but dings her for a lack of emotional consistency, smiling while singing sad lyrics. Nicki invites Keith to get out of her head and goes even further, calling it a "pageant delivery." Randy agrees with both of them, which is why they position him third in line to begin with and says she might also be in trouble. Mariah speculates that it might be because of the audience, but that her mid-range sounded great. She goes on at greater length, which is why they put her at the end of the line. Brandy admits to Ryan that she had trouble connecting with the lyrics because of how great she is at being done with people. Which will come in handy because I think most of the judges are done with her.
We come back to Shubha Vedula, who Randy and Keith met at the Long Beach auditions and whose name they riffed on for approximately forever. We also learn in her intro clip that she won $35,000 for her school in a county-wide singing competition. That's the kind of interesting factoid we learn about someone not long before we also learn it represented their professional peak. She starts off strong, sitting behind the piano for what looks like a slow, soft version of "Born This Way," but which goes into an ill-advised, angry (and not good-sounding) march section in the middle before cutting to a big finish where she sounds good again. Keith says she crammed a lot in there, but her voice made up for it. Nicki warns the audience, "Prepare to boo again!" and uses the word "comical" in critiquing Shubha, who she disses as a "combination of Christina Aguilera and the 'Gangnam Style' guy." Ouch. Randy advises Shubha not to overdo the runs, like that was the problem. Mariah agrees with Randy and -- I'll admit it -- with me, saying she would have preferred seeing her at the piano the whole time. Ryan comes out and makes excuses for Shubha, saying he figured she wanted to pull out all the stops for the sudden death round. Not much for her to say to that, but quietly agree. After all, Ryan's got a job to do and right now that means getting to say "Shubha Vedula" again.
Ryan welcomes us back from backstage with Brandy, who sang earlier, and Kree, who has yet to do so. Brandy talks about the emotional roller coaster tonight and says whoever goes through will deserve it. Ryan asks Kree if she's worried about being added to the pile of smoking corpses who have performed country songs tonight, and Kree says everyone's done great and she'll do her best. Like she's going to switch to a pop song at the last minute.
Moving on to Kamaria Ousley from the Long Beach auditions. She claims to have been in the music business for years singing backup. Tonight she's doing "Mr. Know It All," which proves to be a bad idea for two reasons. 1) You want to be very careful about reminding the judges you're not Kelly Clarkson. 2) Kamaria has a pretty tentative grasp on the melody. So she suffers not only in comparison to Kelly, but to everyone else who has sung tonight. Keith has to tell her it wasn't a great song for her, pointing out that she's made it this far so she can sing, but this wasn't it. I'm sure Kamaria appreciates his concern for the judges' reputations. Nicki starts by telling Kamaria that she looks great and then asks what was going on with her throaty tone tonight, which she's never heard from her before and which didn't work. Randy says the pitch was all over the place and this was her worst performance to date. Even the audience doesn't disagree with him enough to boo. At least until he keeps pushing them to do so by going on and on about how irredeemably bad it was. Mariah compliments Kamaria's smile and vivaciousness, which is great for a singing competition. Kamaria admits to Ryan that it was a challenge, but she's hoping for the best. Clearly a prepared speech. She should have prepared her song that well.
We're moving right on to Kree Harrison, the 22-year-old demo singer from Nashville. She talks about working in the business and paying your dues, which is kind of the opposite of what American Idol is all about, but whatever. As promised, she's doing another country song -- this one a gospel ballad -- but she seems destined to break tonight's curse. She's probably got the best voice we've heard thus far tonight, with this sort of Pam Tillis quality and she gets a Standing O from Keith and Nicki. Keith talks about how much he loved it and how effortless her performance was. Nicki tells Kree that the other girls tonight should be very scared and goes on about how she makes love to the song. Randy agrees that Kree is a natural-born singer, and Mariah talks about how Kree gets sincerely lost in the song and sings the hell out of it. Kree says to Ryan that this is all she ever wanted to do and thanks everyone. She's in a good position to do so.
Angela Miller is up, after her game-changing performance last week. She makes me feel old by talking about watching American Idol for the first time when Ruben Studdard beat Clay Aiken. And look how that turned out. Man, even I was still watching this show then. Tonight, her styling's a little overdone as she belts out "Nobody's Perfect." Keith says she's great and doesn't need to overcompensate in any way, which I think is a polite way of telling her she's overcompensating. Nicki says this was a step down from her original song last week and advises her not to overdo anything. "You're an artist, period." Randy gushes about how she's one of his favorites and she's going places. Mariah talks about last week's song and tells her to keep writing, which is probably not as encouraging for her prospects in this singing competition as Mariah intends it to be.
After the ads, Ryan pauses to give shout-outs to Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson for their Grammy wins last week. We then move on to Isabelle, the formerly big girl who brought along a few of her "before" photos." I can see the improvement; she definitely looks better as a blonde. Unfortunately, she's doing a lounge version of "God Bless the Child" tonight. She does hit the notes and hits them hard, but the overly jazzy arrangement is just killing her. Keith and Nicki talk about how great she looks and Randy gives her credit for being an inspiration, but that it was a little old-fashioned. Mariah tells Isabelle that she would have preferred a simpler arrangement. Which is funny, because that's how I feel about Mariah Carey's entire 1990s catalog.
Amber Holcomb is 18, and she's back this year after being cut in last season's Vegas round. But she seems determined to step it up this year. She's singing "My Funny Valentine," and actually doing a decent job with so little effort that she occasionally looks bored. But there are lots of note runs in there for Mariah, who can't resist giving a seal-clap after one batch of particularly high notes. All the judges save Nicki are on their feet after that. Keith appreciates her making it look easy and doing a song Randy would call "old-fashioned" but making it her own. Nicki said it was an "A-plus-plus-plus vocal" but is only worried about her personality shining through the TV. Randy says it can, if Amber believes in herself. Mariah says it was so brilliant she wanted to smack her. That would shine through the TV.
So now that everyone who is singing tonight has sung, Ryan announces that the judges' decisions were unanimous, so Jimmy Iovine can stay in his seat. Speaking of seats, it's about to get dramatic all up in here, furniture-wise. There are five empty stools onstage waiting for the five women who will stay in the competition. Even more dramatically, four directors' chairs with the judges sitting in them are raised on a platform from below the stage. Eerily, there is no audible audience reaction to this. I presume that along with the usual "APPLAUSE" sign, this show has a "BOO" sign and an "EERIE SILENCE" sign. Without further preamble, Jenny Beth Willis is trotted out. Keith wastes little time saying it must have been tough for her to kick off the show and she did a good job, but the talent that followed her means she's done. She takes it well, managing to hold it together until she's actually walking off the stage. One camera did catch a pretty serious moment of weepy-face as she walked, though.
It's Nicki's turn to deliver the news to Brandy Hotard. She talks about her in the past tense the minute Brandy presents herself in front of them, so it's no surprise when she's cut loose. Nicki also tells her to keep being a psychiatric nurse because that's great work. I'm sure that's why Brandy is here in a singing competition.
Randy tells Tenna Torres about how emotional and hard this is for everyone, including them, but it's all just a setup to psych her out so she's more excited when he tells her she's staying in the competition. Tenna hugs them all and takes the first empty stool across the stage from them. Kree's turn, and Mariah performs a lame, quarter-baked about how she never liked her, but the other judges overruled her so she's in. At least Kree is smiling after that, even if nobody in the audience is laughing.
We're back around to Keith as Isabelle comes out. He says they were split on her and although she gave a strong performance, she's done. When Angela shows up, Nicki asks her if she thinks she's going through. She's smart enough not to say yes and Nicki agrees that one should never predict things like this, but after tonight, Angela's fate is up to the voters. Which means she's still in it. So we go to ads with the first three stools occupied by Teena, Kree and Angela.
That moved fast after a slow-moving night, so Ryan kills a couple of minutes chatting with Mariah and Keith. No point in trying to build any suspense for Kamaria, but Randy tries anyway. She makes some excuses for herself before saying, "No excuses," which is kind of a mixed message. Randy reminds her that it's tough for the judges and "breaks" the "news" that she didn't make it. She's all smiles and hugs on her way out. You know what they say: "No surprises."
Amber comes out and Mariah is giving the news, once again doing a poor job of trying to psych her out. Obviously Amber is going on. So she goes and hugs Angela, Tenna and Kree, leaving just one stool available.
Ryan is now backstage with Adriana and Shubha, one of whom is by necessity doomed... and I think we all know which of them it is. They get all emotional, because they've become best friends on the show, which explains why the producers left them for last rather than having the last slot come down to two singers who were actually not that far from each other on the quality spectrum. Ryan lets Shubha talk longer, because like everyone else he knows how this is going to go. After clips from their performances, they're both standing before the judges on the stage. Keith reminds them that millions of people have now seen them (though he forgets to mention that they never will again) and drops a spoiler telling Shuba that she was fought for at the judges' table. He also says Adriana was fantastic. So the announcement that Shubha's done and Adriana stays is not exactly one of those "shocking moments" this show is always flogging. To conclude, of the ten singers who performed tonight, it'll be Tenna, Angela, Kree, Amber and Adriana who will get to sing for votes, which should happen sometime in early June, the way things are going.
Check out an interview with Keith Urban, find out what past runner-up Crystal Bowersox thinks of this season and look back at the best and worst judges ever with our friends at Wetpaint.
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.
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