Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Former American Idol contestant Jackie Tohn has written her last song for Platinum Hit.

The season eight semifinalist got the boot on the sixth episode of the Bravo songwriting competition Friday night, after what might have been the contestants’ most difficult challenge yet.

First, they had to write a hook and perform it on a street corner. The three contestants who raised the most money were declared the winners.

So far, so good for Jackie, who confessed to having played every subway station from Harlem to Brooklyn. She earned 43 percent of all the money raised by the seven remaining contestants.

But then the songwriters were again asked to split up into teams and turn that hook into a song … with a twist. They had to write the song in a genre other than the one in which the hook was written.

And that’s probably where Jackie made her biggest mistake. For her team, she’d picked Sonyae Elise, an R&B/pop diva, and Scotty Granger, creative director for Jordin Sparks. At Scotty’s suggestion, she decided they’d write a country song. And almost immediately realized they probably should have gone the R&B route.

By the end of the show, only two contestants had anything to smile about.

Johnny Marnell, who has shown a true knack for writing winning hooks, wrote another. Then he teamed up with Brian Judah to turn that hook into a reggae song called “Bettin’ My Life on You.”

It was proclaimed the night’s winning song. Heck, judge Keith Naftaly, senior vice president of A&R with RCA/Jive, said it might have been his favorite song yet.

The judges weren’t nearly as impressed with a pop song called “Save Yourself” from Jes Hudak and Nick Nittoli, or with the sorta country “Say it Back” from Jackie, Scotty and Sonyae.

And with Sonyae having earned immunity for doing so well last week, the decision of who to send home came down to Jackie, who wrote most of the lyrics, and Scotty, who wrote most of the melody.

The judges chose Jackie, And though she complained that she didn’t believe it was her time to go, they made the right decision.

She’d already been near elimination on two other occasions. She’d failed to contribute to a winning song in six weeks.

Prior to Friday’s disaster — and that’s what it was based on the judges’ comments — Scotty had contributed to a winning song four straight weeks.

I’m a little disappointed this show isn’t drawing more viewers than it is. The contestants are being asked to do something more difficult than those on American Idol or The Voice.

They’re expected to write a hit-quality song in a day or two, collaborating with fellow contestants they don’t always work well with.

And they certainly face harsher criticism than the contestants on Idol of The Voice.

Check out these critiques:

Jewel, criticizing “Say It Back,” to Jackie: “The only country thing I heard was you faking an accent.”

Kara DioGuardi, criticizing the same song: “You’d be escorted to the airport in Nashville with these lyrics.”

And my favorite, from Naftaly to Nick: “I keep waiting for you to have this moment where you break away from the pack … it’s like you’re a lot of talk, so far.”

That was especially sweet after Nick boasted that he brings out the best in all the other contestants and that “Jes is very talented when she works with Nick.”

His egotism is so outlandish, half the time I think this guy is auditioning for other reality shows in need of a villain.

Anyway, the remaining six songwriters were immediately put to their next challenge — writing as many hooks as possible in two hours. We’ll see the results next Friday night at 8 p.m.

Meanwhile, of the remaining contestants, here’s how it breaks down in terms of winning songs after six episodes: Scotty, 4; Brian, 3; Johnny, 3; Sonyae, 2; Nick, 2; Jes, 2.

You might want to check out some of those songs. If so, just follow this link. All the songs from the first four episodes are there — the losers as well as the winners. Some are quite impressive.