Idol Chatter & Voice Views

American Idol’s Top 6 will take on arena anthems tonight as they try to nail down a spot on the Season 14 summer tour.

I’m not sure what exactly makes a song qualify as an arena anthem, but we’re going to be hearing a wide range of songs from “Yesterday” by The Beatles to “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus.

Guess who’s singing which?

Anyway, I’ll be providing song by song grades as the evening progresses, I’ll be missing Joey Cook’s originality and I’ll be hoping Idol’s most talented three — Clark Beckham, Jax and Quentin Alexander — nail down spots on that tour.

And here we go …

Round 1

1. Jax: Hooray, she makes the summer tour. Before she sings, we learn that Jax’s parents expected her to be a boy. That, apparently, partly explains her first name — Jackie. She’s kicking off the night with Jet’s “Are You Gonna Be My Girl.” Nice upbeat song to kick off the show, Of course, Jax has changed the song to “Are You Gonna Be My Guy.” The opening wasn’t great, but Jax improved as the song went on. Keith says it took her a while to get into it. Jennifer says she’s so “ready for tour.” Harry calls it strong. Not my favorite Jax, but pretty solid. Grade: B

2. Nick Fradiani: The 29-year-old is going to kick off his night with Maroon 5’s “Harder to Breathe.” Well, he’s certainly bringing lots of energy to this performance. And that guitar solo was really nice. Not sure about the vocal, I’m so used to hearing Adam Levine do that song. And if I didn’t know the song, I wouldn’t have understood anything in the first two lines. The last run-through on the chorus sounded really good. Jennifer says he seems to get more comfortable every time he steps on stage. Harry says Nick is getting better every week. Keith calls it a really good song choice for him. Grade: B–

3. Clark Beckham: I’ve considered Clark the front-runner the entire season. But the gap between him and the rest of the field narrowed a bit last week. He’s going ballad with “Yesterday.” He’s dressing sharper these days, but I’m not a huge fan of this rather sleepy arrangement of the song. Clark reached for several big glory notes during that performance, and nailed most of them. Keith wants him to sing with even more emotion. Jennifer calls the song choice a little risky, but says he sang it beautifully. Hmm, I thought I detected some rather serious pitch issues. Grade: C+

4. Tyanna Jones: Basically, everyone in Tyanna’s large family has a first name that starts with a “t.” She’s going to sing Miley’s “Party in the USA.” And Tyanna’s opening honestly does not sound tour worthy. She finds her groove on the chorus. OK, the crowd loved it. I did not. Keith calls it fun, but says he likes to hear her tackle something with a little more weight. Jennifer says she is 16 and should be having fun. She liked the song for Tyanna. Harry calls it a “smart” song choice and says she killed it. Grade: C

So, that leaves Quentin Alexander and Rayvon Owen as the final two.

5. Quentin Alexander: His first song of the night will be “Light My Fire” by The Doors. OK, this should qualify as an arena anthem, but as edgy as Quentin is, he seems to have de-fanged it. The first half of this performance was just way too subdued. He’s picking up the energy level a bit for the second half of the song, but the vocal highlight didn’t come until the very last note. Hmm, let’s see what the judges have to say. Jennifer was looking for more vocal “pow.” Harry says he “dug it.” I think Keith liked it. Grade: C+

6. Rayvon Owen: Interesting tidbit — Rayvon apparently used to keep track of what clothes he wore on a calendar so he didn’t wear the same thing twice too close together. He’s going to sing Sam Smith’s “I’m Not the Only One.” Hey, Rayvon, once again, sounds really good on a ballad. Hey, folks, he’s also emotionally invested in this performance. That was my favorite vocal of round one. Well done, Rayvon. Harry calls it a fantastic vocal performance. Keith thinks Rayvon could have had a hit with that song. Jennifer loved it, too. Grade: A–

Round 2

1. Nick Fradiani: He’s singing “Maggie Mae” and he’s speeded it the tempo a bit. Wow, just like last time, I’m going to wind up comparing this to Rob Stewart’s original, and Nick isn’t going to come out the better because ot it. I mean, for large parts of that performance, it sounded like Nick was shouting the song at me. Keith likes how relaxed Nick seemed on stage. Jennifer thought he did well, too, but wants Nick to create moments. There were no moments in that performance. Harry calls it a nice job. Grade: C+

2. Tyanna Jones: Her second song is “Heaven” by Bryan Adams. Interesting pick. Only problem, this is coming off like a beauty pageant performance. And she’s not owning this nearly the way Rayvon owned his first-round ballad. Besides that, Tyanna wavered off key during the second half. Jennifer liked the fact that she did something different. She calls it a good job. Harry has stopped critiquing and started asking questions. Grade: C

3. Clark Beckham: Ryan has promised us a special performance of Justin Bieber’s “Boyfriend,” courtesy of Clark. It’s going to be an acoustic version of the song. He’s certainly making the song his own and showing off his impressive range in the process. Not sure that worked as well as Clark had hoped. Harry says it might have been the wrong song to do what Clark was trying to do. Keith and Jennifer weren’t overwhelmed by it either. Jennifer’s looking for moments, and finding Clark lacking. Grade: C+

4. Jax: She’ll perform “White Flag” by Dido. She’s back behind her piano. OK, we’re going to get a winner. Finally. Jax sounded fabulous on that opening. Heck, she sounds fabulous on this song, period. And much more emotionally invested than some of the performances we’ve seen tonight. Very, very good, Jax. Dare I say, best of the night so far. Keith says he was riveted to that performance. Jennifer says that was exactly what she needed to do at this point. She calls it “so beautiful” for Jax. Harry calls it phenomenal. I’ll concur. Grade: A

5. Quentin Alexander: His second song choice is “Shake it Out” by Florence and the Machine. Hey, Quentin’s vocals sound really strong on the start of this song. And he wound up turning in one of his better vocals. Not fantastic, but solid for sure. Jennifer says he’s the type of guy she’d like to see on tour. Harry also thought it was pretty good. Keith likes his artistic instinct. Grade: B

6. Rayvon Owen: He’ll end his night with Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way.” And he might wish his earlier ballad was his final impression. Yup, I was right. This is not Rayvon at his best. He turned in an energetic performance, for sure. And he ended with a shriek that had the crowd going crazy. Hmm, not so sure about that as a whole. Keith loved the high note at the end. Jennifer calls the performance a great way to finish the show and compliments Rayvon on being such a fighter. Grade: C

This one could be very close. Rayvon was better in round one; Quentin was better in round two.

And the save goes to: Rayvon Owen.