The Top 11 made it through to another week which means tonight was the end of the line for two contestants. Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. saved Qaasim Middleton last week after a strong performance of "Come Together." This week, the singer's tried their luck at tunes from the 1980s, which proved to be a difficult decade for the young crew.
Idol went a little over the top with celebrating the '80s. David Hasselhoff showed up to deliver last week's results. Unfortunately, he sang. Even more unfortunate, he sang a medley of tunes that was underwhelming. Boy George, this week's mentor, easily upstaged The Hoff. He stressed vulnerability for the young artists in their career before joining them onstage for Culture Club's "Karma Chameleon." Salt-N-Pepa also showed up. Yes, they performed that one song they have.
Unfortunately, two contestants didn't get to join in the celebration. Adanna Duru and Maddie Walker weren't feeling too rad following the conclusion of the episode.
9. Rayvon Owen, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" by Tears for Fears: Owen was the last one to make it through. The song matched his voice extremely well. The mentors had it right with him, though. He tends to over sing tunes a little bit. We know you have a great voice, just use it.
8. Daniel Seavey, "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall & Oates: The little guy actually sounded pretty decent this week. The tune matched his fun personality. He won most of his votes when he said that he just likes to make people happy. "You have to get more comfortable quicker," Urban advised. The poor kid probably had no idea who or what The Hoff was either.
7. Joey Cook, "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper: There were moments of inconsistency for Cook's performance, Urban said. He really nailed his assessment too, saying that the quirky singer set her bar so high that anything below it would be easy to notice. Although her vocals were mediocre, ladies nationwide were dancing around to this one. Sometimes you have to throw your audience a bone. This was Cook's bone, America.
6. Qaasim Middleton, "Addicted to Love" by Robert Palmer: Middleton deserves to be here, but the vocal runs for this performance were a little too much. The singer toned it down a bit this week, which was a wise decision. We're with Connick on this one — find the balance of singing and dancing.
5. Jax, "You Give Love a Bad Name" by Bon Jovi: Jax stripped away the '80s hair cheese at the beginning and end of the the Bon Jovi rocker. It was a powerful performance, but it would have been much better with her solo on the piano. She's still safe because her voice is exceptional and her look is captivating.
4. Tyanna Jones, "I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Who Loves Me)" by Whitney Houston: The band deserves a lot of credit on this one. Houston's classic sounded like a contemporary club tune. Jones did not disappoint either. The judges gave her a confidence boost, but Jones is doing fine. It was a nice recovery from last week.
3. Nick Fradiani, "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson: Wow. We've been on the fence with Fradiani for awhile, but the dude showed up this time around. Connick called it an "absolute perfect song choice." Correct. He really plugged into something this time around. If he can figure out how to replicate that performance, he will make a run at the top spots. Well done, sir.
2. Quentin Alexander, "In the Air Tonight" by Phil Collins: Alexander brought his signature flair to this well-known jam. He is basically the polar opposite of Qaasim in that his moves are cool and calculated instead of erratic and jumpy. Connick wants to hear something a little faster from the singer, but so far his mid-tempo stuff is killing.
1. Clark Beckham, "Every Breath You Take" by The Police: Beckham could belt out heartbreaking ballads for the rest of the competition and probably win. He looked supremely confident during the critique portion. Another big one for the singer.
