Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Well, I guess Burnell Taylor and Lazaro Arbos had better hope they don’t land in the bottom spot on American Idol anytime soon.

Because they won’t get a judges save.

At least not if Nicki Minaj sticks to her Twitter word.

If you missed reading about Devin Velez’s conference call interview with the media Friday … well, it was interesting.

Now Devin was gracious in defeat. He said he knew why the judges didn’t save him — that they were waiting to use the save on “someone really, really special.”

And though he blamed his ouster largely on the group performance disaster with Burnell and Lazaro, he said he wouldn’t consider his elimination “unfair.”

But he also took a couple of mild jabs at Ms. Minaj. Though, whether he knew it or not, those jabs were much like Nicki’s Idol critiques, prefaced by something along the lines of “I love Nicki as a judge” but …

Among Devin’s comments …

On Nicki ordering the three guys off stage at the of her critique: “When she went crazy, when she was like ‘get off the stage, blah blah blah’ and it’s just like ‘Whoa, Miss Minaj, I need you to calm down please. We’re still human, we still have feelings.’ She doesn’t care sometimes. It’s all good, we still love Nicki.”

On Nicki’s judging style: “She’s her own person. And it’s weird, because you never know what you’re going to get with Nicki Minaj. She could have been upset because the night before she was wearing the same colored dress as Mariah, or that she was on time. We never know. But I know that I love her as a judge. It’s when she gets into the exaggerative speaking, where it’s just like, ‘Ah, take it easy! You don’t wanna hurt somebody else’s feelings.’ But, yeah, she is who she is.”

When the conference call ended, I wondered if there would be a response from Nicki.

I mean, Jimmy Iovine might be diplomatic after Nicki criticizes his advice to Lazaro on national TV.

But criticize Ms. Diva Minaj, and there’s likely to be a backlash.

It came in this series of tweets …

#1: “Lol. Be mad @ AMERICA when u get sent home. The JUDGES are the ones who FOUGHT for America to get the opp to VOTE 4 U!!! #memba?”

#2: “America r the “potential” fans…u MUST win them over. “Saves” are bullsh-t and they know it. Those girls are just too good this year.”

#3: “Send the judges some flowers and a card. If Curtis didn’t get SAVED, NONE of u get saved! Best male voice of the SEASON!!!!!!!!!!!”

#4: “Trust me BEW BEW. If EYE didn’t want u in that TOP, YOU wldnt have been in that TOP. Fought for ALL of you. So just simply b gracious.”

#5: “Jennifer Hudson didn’t win!!!! Oscar winner!!! #memba??? ok. Take that exposure and let your light shine.”

So, it’s pretty clear that Nicki still holds a grudge over Curtis not being saved in the very first week of the finals, which tells me she’s clueless about the strategy of the save.

And it’s pretty clear that she’s not going to use a save if Lazaro or Burnell wind up as the bottom vote-getter. The save, remember, has to be a unanimous decision among the judges.

Nicki also mentioned the mistake of not saving Curtis during her own rather rude conference call with the media earlier in the week.

But she’s never had a bad moment on Idol. Every one had been “spectacular.”

She said that during her conference call, too.

Just trust her on this one. LOL.