Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, if you’re going to have two-hour performance shows every week, at least American Idol is doing it mostly right tonight.

Gone are the duets where one singer was forced out of his or her comfort zone and at a distinct disadvantage.

Instead, each contestant will sing twice.

That’s a total of 14 performances.

And, yes, folks, that’s an Idol record.

Never has the show had more than 13 performances from contestants once the finals began.

That should mean less filler and no long-winded critiques.  We might even be able to avoid a Tommy Hilfiger clip.

One song from each contestant tonight will be a hit tune recorded since 2000.

One will be a soul song from a past decade.

Why a soul song?  Who knows?  Chalk it up to an Idol whim.

Maybe producers want to give last week’s bottom three of Jessica Sanchez, Joshua Ledet and Elise Testone an edge.

Maybe they just want to mess with Skylar Laine now that she’s found her country groove.

After all, the show used the same theme last year, and no one made Scotty McCreery sing soul.

Not unless you consider Brenda Lee’s “Always On My Mind” a soul song.

Check back at 8 p.m.   I’ll be live blogging and grading each performance as it occurs.

For this week’s rankings of the Top 7, go here.