Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Members of the Top 8 on American Idol include, from left, Alejandro Aranda, Laine Hardy, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Madison VanDenburg, Alyssa Raghu, Walker Burroughs, Laci Kaye Booth, Wade Cota. (ABC Photo)

The Top 8 on American Idol took on the songs of Queen and classic movie duets Sunday night.

When the dust settled, the show was left with a Top 6 of Laine Hardy, Laci Kaye Booth, Madison VanDenburg, Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Alejandro Aranda and Wade Cota.

Walker Burroughs and Alyssa Raghu were eliminated as the Idol judges declined to use their one and only save for the second straight week.

In my mind, that was a wise decision. The show’s should-be frontrunners all advanced, and you never know if that’s going to be the case next week.

Here are song by song grades for Sunday’s performances.

Queen solos

Walker Burroughs, “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” — For a guy who doesn’t like moving around, Walker looked pretty comfortable sitting by the judges, chilling with his lead guitarist and interacting with fans. But except for the last few seconds, he really didn’t cut loose vocally. And that’s a song that screams for cutting loose. Fun performance, not a great vocal. Grade: C+

Madison VanDenburg, “The Show Must Go On” — Another nice display of vocal power from Madison, who gets the judges to their feet by the end of the performance. Madison sounded a bit shouty early in the performance, but pulled it together for a big ending. Luke calls it her best vocal yet. Katy wants her to kick up her performance game another notch. Grade: B

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, “Who Wants to Live Forever” — Jeremiah said he was feeling a lot of pressure heading into this performance, partly because his parents will be in the audience for the first time. I was really hoping he’d do “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Jeremiah wound up delivering a standout vocal, on a performance that was a bit bland at the opening, but certainly blossomed in the end. Grade: B

Alejandro Aranda, “Under Pressure” — Kudos to Alejandro for wanting to show off his musicianship. Kudos to Idol for encouraging him to do that. But here’s the thing: When Adam Lambert and David Cook switched up songs on Idol, they did it in a way that I wanted to download their versions. I would not be rushing to download Alejandro’s version of “Under Pressure.” Grade: C+

Laine Hardy, “Fat Bottomed Girls” — Was that the best vocal of the night? Nope. Was that the most fun performance we’ve seen so far tonight? Hell, yes. Laine, who said he was self-conscious about rocking out on the stage, rocked out just fine, interacting with the crowd and delivering a rousing ending to the Queen classic. His vocal suffered a bit when he was doing all the moving, but it mattered not because everyone had a great time. Grade: A–

Laci Kaye Booth, “Love of My Life” — I was wondering how this would turn out because it’s one of the more obscure song choices of the night. But Laci’s voice is unique, no matter what she sings. Not sure it was her best performance. I would have liked to have seen a tad more emotion. But it was definitely Top 6 worthy. And I’m still not sure Laci realizes how good she is. Grade: B+

Wade Cota, “We Are the Champions” — I was with Wade on the spoken word verses with that gruff voice of his. He delivered more emotion and intensity than we’ve seen from most of the performers tonight. But he did not pull off the chorus of this Queen classic. He didn’t even come close to pulling it off. Spitting all over the mic didn’t help. Grade: C–

Alyssa Raghu, “Somebody to Love” — This performance was a bit of a mixed bag. Alyssa’s stage presence was top notch. She prowled the stage like a diva, but a diva in the best possible way. She displayed a neat growl at one point and nailed the big ending. But in between, the vocal got away from her at several spots. And performing last — normally the most desired spot on a singing show — might not do any favors to someone who needed a big performance to advance. Grade: B–

Classic Movie Duets

Laci Kaye Booth and Laine Hardy, “Jackson” from “Walk the Line” — Idol fans are going to love that. And I loved watching Laci Kaye go upbeat for a change. She even showed a little of sass in that performance while Laine looked as comfortable as ever. Here’s hoping both breeze into the Top 6. Grade: B+

Alyssa Raghu and Wade Coat, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” from “Guardians of the Galaxy” — Bobby Bones calls this the oddest pairing in Idol history. Did he notice that Alejandro and Walker are paired up? Anyway, I’m not sure either one convinced anyone who wasn’t already a fan that they belong in the Top 6. Wade sounded more unique. Alyssa seemed more comfortable on stage. Grade: C

Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon and Madison VanDenburg, “A Million Dreams” from “The Greatest Showman” — No doubt, these are the best two voices remaining on the show, and they did a fine job vocally with this. Not sure they delivered quite as much emotion as Bobby was hoping for — it didn’t leave me crying in a fetal position — but again, I think both belong in the Top 6. Grade: B

Walker Burroughs and Alejandro Aranda, “Mrs. Robinson” from The Graduate — These guys do not look like they should be singing together. That’s one of the reasons I’m not a big fan of duets in singing competitions. Let each contestant be judged on his or her own merit. This was fine, but not particularly memorable. It was a bit difficult to hear them over the instruments. And, throughout, I got the feeling that Walker was holding back vocally out of respect for Alejandro. Grade: C