Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Alyssa Raghu reacts to being saved on American Idol while fellow contestants Evelyn Cormier and Riley Thompson look on. (ABC Photo)

Did the American Idol judges save the right three singers Monday night?

Given their choices, I have no complaints.

Uche and Dimitrius Graham turned in save performances that absolutely demanded saves.

And while the Alyssa Raghu call was a bit closer, she probably has displayed a bit more versatility than the three female singers she was up against for that final save.

If I have a gripe, it’s with fans, who voted five male singers and just two ladies into the Top 7.

If I was hand-picking contestants based on what I’d seen so far, I would have replaced Walker Burroughs with Riley Thompson and Wade Cota with Ashley Hess.

Here are the Monday night save performances, graded, of course.

Uche, “Diamonds” by Rihanna — Uche delivered a great performance and a mess of a vocal on Top 14 night. Backed into a do-or-die situation, he reversed that, delivering a splendid vocal, showing what great range he has, and cutting back on the performance antics. The result was a well-deserved save from Lionel Richie. Grade: A–

Dimitrius Graham, “When the Party’s Over” by Billie Eilish — For my money, this guy is right up there with Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon as the best pure male singer on the show. Check out the range. Check out the power. Check out that delicate ending. A very nice performance with his Idol life on the line. Grade: B+

Alyssa Raghu, “The One That Got Away” by Katy Perry — Alyssa sounded great on the quieter parts of the song and on that nice ending. But her voice wavered a bit when the song swelled. All the judges complimented her on the improvement she’s shown in stage presence since Season 16. Grade: B

Riley Thompson, “It Must Be Love,” by Alan Jackson — Riley’s impressive for 16 and shows tons of performance ability for such a young age. But she’s so dang pretty that she might need to change her style a bit so that she doesn’t look like a pageant queen every time she takes the stage. This wasn’t one of my favorite Riley performances. Grade: B–

Evelyn Cormier, “Dust in the Wind” by Kansas — My favorite performance by Evelyn was her re-creation of “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” I think this was an attempt to do the same, put her own spin on a classic ballad. But she seemed a tad out of snyc in the early going, perhaps because she’d just gotten news that she hadn’t earned a spot in the Top 10 on fan voting. She was the first singer faced with that situation Monday. Grade: B–

Ashley Hess, “Sir Duke” by Stevie Wonder — Ashley delivered an emotional performance Sunday night, one good enough to make the Top 10. But she’s best at singer-songwriter type songs, not an upbeat R&B pop number like this. It was one of Ashley’s weaker at the worst possible times. Grade: C+

Eddie Island, “Use Somebody” by Kings of Leon — No. Just no. Given his two Top 14 performances, Eddie was occupying a spot someone else should have had. That said, he brought Katy to her feet. Grade: D