Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Laci Kaye Booth is stunned as she is saved and Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon eliminated on American Idol Season 17. (ABC Photo)

American Idol fans selected a Top 4 Sunday night.

Then the American Idol judges intervened and made it a Top 5 by saving Laci Kaye Booth.

That meant the elimination of Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon.

Laci joins an American Idol Top 5 of Madison VanDenburg, Wade Cota, Laine Hardy and Allejandro Aranda.

Here are the song by song grades from Sunday’s show.

ROUND 1: SONGS FROM WOODSTOCK

Madison VanDenburg, “Piece of My Heart” by Janis Joplin / Erma Franklin — Love the song choice. And Madison shows up with an electric guitar and lots of attitude, something Katy asked for last week. She even flings her ponytail around a bit. I’m not sure she nailed the big chorus perfectly early in the song, but she came back to deliver an impressive ending. Grade: B+

Laine Hardy, “I Don’t Need No Doctor” by Ray Charles / Joe Cocker — This was another solid performance by Laine who’s pretty much a lock to make the Top 4. But this performance was missing the stage presence Laine showed off at Adam Lambert’s urging last week. Laine seems more interested in showing off his guitar skills. Katy Pery, wisely, is urging Laine to push harder. Grade: B

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” by Joan Baez — Jeremiah goes more upbeat than we’ve seen him and gets high marks from the judges for doing so. Luke Bryan thought it came off smoothly. I didn’t think it was all that smooth — Madison and Laine both looked more comfortable on stage — but the last 30 seconds or so, in particular, were vocally impressive. Grade: B

Laci Kaye Booth, “To Love Somebody” by The Bee Gees / Janis Joplin — Liked seeing Laci go upbeat for a change. And, wow, did someone give her the big hair treatment. Lionel is giving her good advice, asking her to step up her crowd interaction. I’ve been waiting for Laci to cut loose on stage, and I’m still waiting. But this young lady’s look and unique voice scream marketability. Grade: B–

Alejandro Aranda, “White Rabbit” by Jefferson Airplane — My only conclusion is that this must have sounded better to the judges than it did through my TV. I could barely hear Alejandro through the first minute of that performance and he wasn’t registering very well at any point. A risk that didn’t quite pay off, but kudos to Alejandro for taking the risk. Grade: C

Wade Coat, “With a Little Help from My Friends” by Joe Cocker — This song is a great fit for Wade’s voice, but he has a veritable choir behind him to do the melodic lifting, leaving Wade free to freelance. Katy calls it the best performance in the show so far. Wade showed off nice stage presence, but that wasn’t as vocally impressive as Madison or Jeremiah. Grade: B

ROUND 2: SHOW STOPPERS

Madison VanDenburg, “I Surender” by Celine Dion — This vocal sounded just a little off from the first note, which is highly unusual for pitch perfect Madison. That said, she deserves high marks with her heartfelt performance and her stage presence, which has really improved over the course of the show. Grade: B–

Alejandro Aranda, “Poison” (an original) — I love the fact that Idol allows contestants to do originals. But this qualifies as a show stopper? Brave move by Alejandro. The crowd goes crazy when he plays guitar, more so than for his vocals. And he got the a standing ovation from the judges. Just wondering if everyone had the option of doing an original during show stopper round. Grade: B–

Laci Kaye Booth, “Open Arms” by Journey — That immediately becomes my all-time favorite version of “Open Arms” and an example of why Laci needs to be in the Top 4. When that young lady hits the sweet spot, like she did on that cover, she’s the American Idol among this cast. Wow, and she’s never had a vocal lesson. Grade: A–

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, “Somewhere” by Barbra Streisamd — Now that was a show stopper. Especially that ending. It’s not my taste in music, but Jeremiah was certainly vocally impressive. My guess is there’s no way the judges won’t use a save to keep one of these singers from going home. Grade: B+

Wade Cota, “Through the Valley” by Shawn James — Note that the show juggled the performance order in the second half of the show so that Laine — probably the safest contestant in terms of advancing — closes rather than Wade. This was much, much better than Wade’s first performance and is probably my favorite by him this season. That’s putting that gruff voice to good use. Grade: A–

Laine Hardy, “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry — And, again, how is this a show stopper? I actually thought this might be his Woodstock song pick. Anyway, Laine turns in another confident, self-assured performance. And if he didn’t show off many of the dance moves he and Lauren Daigle practiced, he showed nice interaction with the audience. Grade: B+