Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Tonight, all eyes will be on Lauren Alaina and Haley Reinhart to see who advances to the Idol finals alongside Scotty McCreery.

I mean, come on, we all know Scotty McCreery will be in the Idol finals next week.

For him to be eliminated this week … well, that would take an upset bigger than Pia Toscano can imagine.

So in one corner, we have Lauren Alaina, an early frontrunner on Season 10 of Idol who hasn’t exactly lived up to expectations.

And in the other we have Haley Reinhart, who’s exceeded expectations so much, it’s almost unfathomable that she’s a step away from the Idol finale.

Each contestant sings three times tonight — one song of their choice, one selected by Jimmy Iovine, and one picked by the judges.

I’ve already labeled the judges’ choices as silly or stupid. Scotty will be singing the too-old “She Believes in Me” (Kenny Rodgers). Lauren will be singing the too slow for her “I Hope You Dance” (Lee Ann Womack). Haley is stuck with “You Oughta Know” (Alanis Morissette).

Those song choices seem to favor Scotty and Lauren, because they’ve been given songs well within their comfort zone. But Haley might have the best chance to pull off something unexpected.  And she’s got the only up-tempo number of the three.

In giving her something so unexpected, could the judges have done her a favor?

Time will tell. As usual, I’ll be grading each performance, so feel free to follow along. And please comment if you disagree.

Nice start to tonight’s show, with images of those trips home. If you missed any of the photos, there’s a blog for each contestant: Lauren here; Haley here and Scotty here. For videos from their trips home, go here.

We start off with the contestants’ choices and end with the judges choices tonight. And Beyonce is here to mentor the Idols.

Contestant choices

* Scotty McCreery: “Amazed” — Another ballad for Scotty, who sounds in fine voice as his rendition of the Lonestar hit begins. And he is showing more range on this song, and he’s doing it effortlessly. He also looks perfectly at home on the Idol stage, more comfortable than most 16-17-year-olds we’ve seen on this show. If there’s a criticism of Scotty’s song choice, it should be that he picked another ballad. And I’m not sure the song needed that little extra flourish at the end. All in all, though, a solid start to tonight’s show. Grade: B.

* Lauren Alaina: “Wild One” — Hey, someone’s going up-tempo in the first round. Like I keep saying, Lauren should be young and fun. But being young and fun isn’t enough; you always have to deliver a good vocal, and this might be the worst vocal we’ve heard from Lauren in weeks. There was a very tortured segment there in that first verse. That, folks, was not a good vocal from Lauren. Fun song, she just needed to sing it well. It sounded rushed. All style over substance. Grade: C-.

* Haley Reinhart: “What Is and What Should Never Be” — Haley is singing Led Zeppelin, accompanied by her dad on guitar. Loved the opening to this song. And she certainly picked a song to show off her knack for performing. Oh, no, she takes a mid-song tumble, but quickly regains her focus. This is one of the oddest, most audacious final three performances we’ve seen on Idol. Now, let’s see what the judges have to say. And the judges are praising Haley. Proclaiming, correctly, that she took round one. Grade: A-

Jimmy Iovine Choices

I guess for this round we’re going to get a look back at each contestant’s auditions.

Scotty McCreery: “Kiss Me or Not” — Jimmy picks a Thompson Square hit for Scotty, a little more up-tempo, which is a step in the right direction. Look, Scotty is never going to give less than a very good vocal. And we’re getting yet another here. I liked that better than his first song, though there were a couple of bum notes. The weird look at the end is the one he needs to avoid. All in all, another fine performance from Scotty. And, thank you, Jimmy, for picking something like this for Scotty since the judges have saddled him with a ballad for round three. Grade: B

Lauren Alaina: “If I Die Young” — Idol’s giggle girl is giggling again because she got a run in her stockings. Jimmy is having Lauren sing “If I Die Young,” a great song choice. Lauren’s rushing this a little. The problem with singing such a current hit is everyone if so familiar with the original, and this is coming off a little second-rate in comparison. I really thought she was going to start the song a cappella, which might have been special. And, sorry, but the end got a little too shouty for my taste on that song. There was also a significant slip in the middle. Grade: C.

Haley Reinhart: “Rhiannon” — Great song choice, Jimmy Iovine. I actually think the judges suggested she sing some Stevie Nicks earlier this season. And Haley is doing the start of the song justice. Let’s see where it goes. As huge a fan as I am of Haley, she didn’t pull off the end of that song as well as I thought she could. Not as good as her round one performance. Grade: B-.

Now, it’s time for a Beyonce commercial.

The Judges’ Choices

Scotty McCreery: “She Believes in Me” — The song is too old for Scotty, but let’s ignore that and focus on his performance. Scotty’s struggling a little with the chorus, but doing a credible job on a song that’s going to come off as a little boring. Of course, we knew that before he began singing. Another fine, but less than spectacular performance from Scotty, who belongs in the finals on consistency alone. Grade: B.

Lauren Alaina: “I Hope You Dance” — She actually got the best of the three song choices by the judges, though it’s not young and fun, or age appropriate. Hey, Lauren is doing better on this song. It seems well suited to her vocal range. Not sure it will create the moment she needs at this point. And there was a stretch there where she tried to do a little too much with the song and fell a little short of pulling it off. But that was her best performance of the night. Grade: B.

Haley Reinhart: “You Oughta Know” — This is going to be difficult to pull off and turn into a crowd pleaser. Like the way Haley is starting off, but that chorus turned into something of a screamfest. I think Haley did about as well as you could expect with that song. We lost her words a little at the end of a couple of those verses. I just wish the judges had picked a better song for Haley. Grade: B-

That’s it for all the grades. A roundup blog will be coming soon.