Idol Chatter & Voice Views

While Mariah Carey was rambling on and on Wednesday night, she called Lazaro Arbos courageous.

And she was right.

While Jimmy Iovine was critiquing Lazaro Thursday night (and ranking him 10th among six singers), he noted that he did a good job early in the competition for someone with so little experience.

And he was right.

Lazaro took a lot of crap over the past couple of weeks for hanging around in the Idol finals longer than his talent should have allowed.

But why did that happen?

Because his back-story touched so many people, they kept voting to keep him in the competition.

And if those voters at home kept sending him forward, what could Lazaro do but show up on stage and do his best?

Granted, that wasn’t great recently. As other singers were eliminated, the gap between Lazaro’s skill level and those of the other remaining finalists became more apparent.

But let’s not forget what Lazaro told us before the Vegas round: It was the first time he’d performed in front of a live audience.

How often do you think Kree Harrison and Janelle Arthur performed live prior to Idol? I’m sure both have lost count of their hundreds of performances.

Candice Glover and Amber Holcomb entered this season having already performed for the Idol judges more often than Lazaro had performed live.

So Lazaro finishes sixth. A pretty darn good showing for a guy who said his problem with stuttering made him a loner in school.

One thing is for sure. He’s a loner no more.

And he’ll get plenty of practice singing live during that summer tour.

Nice job, Lazaro.

The rest of the recap:

Stock rising: It was quite a week of redemption for Candice Glover. A week ago, she failed to finish in the top three. This week, she vaulted to the top two on the strength of two stellar vocal performances. I still think it was a bit of an exaggeration when Randy called her version of “Love Song” the best performance ever on Idol. But it might have been the best vocal so far this season.

Stock sinking: I’ve sorta been operating under the impression that Angie Miller might run away with the competition. If you check out the number of Facebook fans and Twitter followers she has, you’d get the impression she’s way out in front of the pack. In this week’s voting, she finished third at best. That might be a wake-up call to Angie and her supporters. Of the big three — Kree and Candice being the other two — I still think Angie’s the one with that special spark.

It ain’t working, Idol: The Idol judges have been falling all over themselves with high praise for Amber Holcomb since the finals began. Hey, I get that she looks like a star. She seems like a really sweet young lady, too. But her vocal performances Wednesday fell way short of praiseworthy. And to even suggest she’s in the same league with Candice … well, it undermines the credibility of the judging panel. And so Amber finished next to last Thursday, right where she belonged.

Best new song: Two former winners returned to the Idol stage to sing their new singles Thursday. Scotty McCreery performed “See You Tonight.” Kelly Clarkson performed “People Like Us.” Gotta say, I preferred the latter by a very wide margin. In fact, it’s my favorite Kelly tune since “Stronger,” and “Stronger” became a mega hit for the original Idol.

Pick a theme: American Idol is letting us help pick a theme. And, guess what? One of the themes isn’t songs of the 1940s. Or 1930s. Or 1920s. Which seemed to be the direction Idol’s been heading in. Nope. We get to choose between: 1) Dedicated to someone special; 2) Guilty pleasures; 3) Breakup songs; 4) One-hit wonders; 5) Unplugged. Of course, we haven’t seen the list of songs the Idols will have to choose from in each category. Don’t for a minute think the Idols will get to sing anything they want. My choice would be Unplugged.

Idol history: So, yes, folks, the string of five straight male winners has ended on Idol. For the first time in the show’s history, the final five singers are gals. Five guys have been sent home. All five female finalists are still around. That’s difficult to fathom given the voting trends in year’s past.

Check back early next week. I’ll be ranking those top five ladies.

Meanwhile, I wonder what happened to the old rule that the judges had to use their save before Top 5 week.

Oh, well, I guess Idol rules are made to be broken.