Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 5 on American Idol, Sonika Vaid, La’Porsha Renae, Trent Harmon, MacKenzie Bourg and Dalton Rapattoni. (FOX Photo)

The American Idol themes tonight are Sia and classic rock as the Top 5 is whittled down to a Top 4.

Of course, barring a major shocker, Sonika Vaid will be the contestant eliminated. She has needed judges’ saves to survive the past two weeks and isn’t coming off a particularly strong week of performances.

And this week, the low vote-getter automatically goes home. No more judges’ saves. Ryan Seacrest and company have promised.

We’ll also be able to download one performance per artist from iTunes for the first time this season.

Those include Dalton Rapattoni’s version of “God Only Knows” by The Beach Boys, La’Porsha Renae’s cover of “Elastic Heart” by Sia, MacKenzie Bourg’s take on “I Want You To Want Me” by Cheap Trick, Trent Harmon’s “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top and Sonika’s version of “Loved Me Back to Life by Sia.

And, hooray, we’ll get guest performances from David Cook and Katharine McPhee tonight. They’ll also be at this year’s Idol finale, along with dozens of other former finalists. See the list here.

The rock songs come in first tonight.

1. La’Porsha Renae: She’ll be singing Bon Jovi’s “Wanted: Dead or Alive.” Scott Borchetta wonders about the match of La’Porsha and this song. La’Porsha says she’s determined to prove she can be a cowboy. Check out what they’ve done to La’Porsha’s hair. Look, this isn’t going to go down as one of the most memorable of La’Porsha’s Idol performances. But here’s betting we look back and remember that as one of the night’s best vocals. Great glory note at the end, too. Keith likes the unexpected song choice and the blues and soul she brought out in the song. Jennifer, borrowing an old Randy Jackson phrase, says she could sing the phone book and it wouldn’t matter. Grade: B+

2. MacKenzie Bourg: He’ll perform Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me,” admitting classic rock isn’t exactly in his wheelhouse. MacKenzie says he’s come up with a new arrangement of the song. Really nice opening. Unfortunately, when the song calls for power, MacKenzie can’t muster much. Shame, because otherwise this is a really neat rendition of the song. I actually like this chane more than last week’s “Billie Jean.” Jennifer didn’t love it. Harry says the vocal was fine, but it wasn’t one of his favorite MacKenzie performances. Keith hated the arrangement. Grade: C+

Now, a guest appearance from David Cook, singing “Heartbeat.” And, of course, David is giving us a lovely version of this ballad. He’s always been vastly underrated as a singer.

Trent Harmon: His song choice is “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top. Trent jokes that he likes to think of himself as a sharp-dressed man when he isn’t on the farm. OK, Trent has changed this up, too. Probably a wise decision. Unlike MacKenzie, he brought tons of energy to a very fun performance. Really neat ending too. Harry called the performance “so, so smart.” Keith calls it “so freaking good.” He calls it a 10 out of 10. Jennifer says she’s been waiting for a performance like that from Trent. Grade: B

That leaves Dalton and Sonika as the bottom two on Idol. Dalton should go home, but he won’t.

And the contestant heading home on Idol is Sonika Vaid.

4. Dalton Rapattoni: So Dalton wanted to sing “Seven Nation Army.” Instead he’s doing the Beach Boys “God Only Knows.” Hold it, they thought “Seven Nation Army” didn’t go anywhere. Where is this going? Except to show off all of Dalton’s vocal flaws. Keith thought it was a good song choice. Jennifer calls it really beautiful. Harry thought he did a good job. Grade: D+

Now Katharine McPhee will sing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” her signature song from Season 5. Katherine released a pretty good, but mostly ignored, pop album last year.

Now it’s time for round two, the music of Sia.

1. La’Porsha: She says Sia is the type of artist she wants to become. She notes that “Diamonds” is a song Sia wrote. La’Porsha will sing “Elastic Heart.” Another very solid vocal from La’Porsha. I was expecting true magic after hearing the rehearsal. It wasn’t quite magic, but it was very good and La’Porsha seems so natural on stage. Harry says he feels like he’s in the passenger seat of a NASCAR driver when she sings. Keith says he feels like he’s a spectator at an awards show when La’Porsha sings. Grade: B+

2. MacKenzie Bourg: He’s taking on Sia’s “Titanium” and worried about whether he’ll hit a high note in the song. Sia tells him to go for it. MacKenize thinks it could make or break his Idol future. Anyway, he’s stripped down the song and delivery an okay vocal. He hits the note; the crowd cheers. But it’s another MacKenize performnce that doesn’t do a ton for me. Keith likes the fact that he made it a singer-songwriter song. Jennifer likes the fact that he stepped out of his comfort zone. Harry doesn’t like the fact that the performance’s focus became whether or not he could hit a single note. Grade: B–

3. Trent Harmon: He’ll sing “Chandelier.” Okay, this should be interesting. Hey, Trent is having himself a pretty darn good night on Idol. I didn’t know he had that much range. And he sounds good when he stretches his voice like that. One of Trent’s best performances yet. Keith called it “great.” Jennifer likes the diversity Trent showed in his two songs choices. Harry calls it an “artful” performance and says he’d give it a “100 out of 100.” Grade: A–

4. Dalton Rapattoni: He’ll sing “Bird Set Free” by Sia. That was actually one of my favorite Dalton performances. The opening was very good. The ending was fabulous. In between things got a little vocally shaky. But he did a very nice job with that song. Jennifer calls it “a really beautiful performance.” Harry liked the song choice. Keith likes the way Dalton pushes through his musical limitations. Grade: B