With the contestants counting on audience votes for the first time, the pressure was on at "American Idol." The Top 10 girls went live and had to grab the attention of not just the judges, but all of America.
Last night, the Top 10 ladies had the chance to show us what they've got. The night was full of show-stopping numbers, separating out the true frontrunners and allowing them to shine. So who wowed the judges? And who failed to impress?
After she brought the house down with her "Circle of Life" last week, expectations were high for Zoanette to bring the night to life. Her performance of "What's Love Got to Do with it", unfortunately didn't quite do it for the judges and even Nicki, Zoanette's number one fan, didn't think it was her best. Luckily for Zoanette she isn't easily forgotten and the audience just might keep her around for entertainment value alone.
Breanna Steer was up next with "Flaws and All " and her performance had the judges split. Keith loves her song choices but Nicki thought it was the absolute wrong song for her, telling her she didn't think she should get too comfortable with the idea of making the Top 5 girls.
Aubrey Cleland, who was last week's "it girl" continued to deliver the whole package with her rendition of "Big Girls Don't Cry." All of the judges loved her look and sound and Mariah went as far as to tell her, "you so obviously have multi-platinum potential".
Janelle Arthur was desperate to find the right song after her Lady Antebellum number got her in trouble the week before. This week her choice of Elvis Presley's "If I can Dream" was perfect and had Nicki exclaiming "That's my girl! You're back!" telling her that she had the best vocals of the night so far. Nicki also found the time in her rave review to call Janelle a "marshmallow," which as Ryan Seacrest aptly pointed out, she probably had never been called before.
Tenna Torres took on Faith Hill's "Lost" and the judges all agreed on her beautiful vocals, although Nicki wasn't so sure if her personality would jump out at the audience.
Angela Miller (who is now apparently "Angie") was looking to top her performance in Hollywood. This week she chose to get back to the piano and perform former "Idol" contestant Colton Dixon's "Never Gone." The song was just the ticket and the judges were once again left in awe, with Nicki asking "Can I just get your album?" and Randy announcing "a star is born."
It looked like it would be impossible to top Angie's performance, but Amber Holcomb's effortless cover of Whitney Houston's "I Believe in You and Me" brought the audience and judges to their feet and Nicki told her that her vocals were surpassing the entire competition.
Continuing the hot streak was country singer Kree Harrison who brought her "sexiness level" up another notch with Faith Hill's "Stronger". "How do you top that?" Mariah asked.
Unfortunately for Adriana Latonio, she couldn't quite top Kree's performance (or Angela and Amber's) and her "pageanty" performance left the judges bored, despite her powerful voice.
Candice Glover ended the night with a bang, covering John Legend's "Ordinary People" with soul. Nicki was left speechless and could do nothing more than salute her, while Mariah thanked her for sharing her gift.
Who do you think gave the best performance?
"American Idol" airs live this week on Wednesday and Thursday at 8 p.m. on Fox.
