Episode Recap
A brief review of this season’s Episodes
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March 21 and March 22
The third week’s theme was Billy Joel Songs. A number of the contestants neither knew Billy Joel, nor the meaning behind his songs and it came through in the performances, which were, for the most part, flat. Heejun Han did a rousing rendition of “My Life”, that was fun, but out of tune and campy. The standouts were Colton Dixon with a wonderful rendition of Piano Man, and Jessica, whose performance of “Everybody has a dream” was dubbed by Randy as “perfect”. In voting, the bottom two were Heejun and Erika, with Erika finally losing out and being sent home.
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March 14 and March 15
The second week of the live competition found a lot of run of the mill performances. The theme this week was “Songs from the year you were born”, with most performers picking a cover version of a much older song. There were a couple of standouts, including Joshua Ledet with “When a man loves a woman”. The mentors this week were Jimmy Iovine and Will.I.Am.
This week, Jermaine Jones was disqualified and sent home by the Idol producers for violation of their policies – specifically lying about his criminal past and outstanding warrants. Also this week saw Phillip Phillips undergo surgery for Kidney Stones, apparently something he has had ongoing troubles with.
During the voting, the bottom two that America Choose were Erika Van Pelt and Shannon Magrane. The judges then selected Shannon as the one who was going home this week. This left the competition with 10 remaining Idols. Everyone who survived through this week will be in the summer nationwide tour.
Read my overview of the March 14 performances.
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March 7 and March 8
The first live performances of the Top 13 were this week. The Girls and Boys performed together, the same night, with the Girls singing Whitney Houston Songs, and the Boys Singing songs from Stevie Wonder. The mentors for this week were Jimmy Iovine, and Mary J. Blige.
The bottom two fan voting picks were Elise Testone and Jeremy Rosado, with the judges choosing Jeremy as the one to go home this week.
Read an overview of the performances.
