American Idol 12 – Las Vegas Sudden Death Girls Part 2 – What the Critics Say

Here’s what critics around the interwebs are saying about last night’s American Idol 12 Las Vegas Sudden Death Girls Pt 2. Read my recap here.

‘American Idol’ recap: The Lion Queen – We’ve got our Top 10 ladies for season 12! The judges have put through nine excellent singers and one polarizing loose cannon who took last night’s Vegas opportunity to embody the spirit of Africa and breathe it back out in a rare form of leopard-print, trashy nail polish-infused fire. Many people would hesitate to call this fire “decipherable,” or “a song,” or “pleasing to the ear.” But love her or hate her, this creature is compelling. And hey, the producers needed there to be a reason for you to tweet at them during the show about how much you disagreed with the judges. So everyone wins! Except most fans. – Read more at EW

American Idol Recap: Zo My Freaking God – Long ago, I read an account of an American political prisoner in Iran, who was held in solitary confinement in a cell with one small window. Over time, the patch of sunlight this window cast against his wall became his link to sanity. He writes: “When my knees buckled and I fell to the ground utterly broken, sobbing and rocking to the beat of my heart, it was the patch of sunlight that brought me back. Its slow creeping against the wall reminded me that the world did in fact turn and that time was something other than the stagnant pool my life was draining into.” If Idol is my solitary confinement — and you guys, it totally is — then the snap predictions I get to make at this stage, as ten mostly unfamiliar women rise up from the floor, is my tiny window. It is, at long last, something to do. So here we go: Based on almost nothing, I predict that Melinda Ademi, Candice Glover, Cristabel Clack, Janelle Arthur, and Zoanette are going through. – Read more at Vulture.com

American Idol Recap: It Moves Us All, Through Despair and Hope [UPDATED] – Cue your local locust swarm and saddle up the proverbial four horses, American Idol fans: The end times are definitely nigh! How else to explain Zoanette Johnson being named by the show’s rebooted judges’ panel as one of the 10 most promising unsigned female singers in the country? Yes, Zoanette Johnson, the same chick whose tattered, Season 12 audition cover of “The Star Spangled Banner” caused Keith Urban to literally fall out of his chair — and was punctuated by an alarming booty drop. – Read more at TV Line

‘American Idol’ Sudden Death Recap: All Hail The Queen – When Zoanette Johnson first auditioned for American Idol with a wacky cover of the national anthem and a demand to be invited to the White House, befuddled viewers were shocked to see she earned a golden ticket. She then stunned audiences with a frenzied improvised song behind a drum kit during Hollywood Week. Still, could anybody have predicted what happened during Wednesday night’s American Idol sudden death round at the Cirque du Soleil theater in Las Vegas? With host Ryan Seacrest announcing that the show would be “doubling down,” the Fox singing competition continued its search for the next five singers to complete its top 10 batch of female semifinalists, which so far includes Angela Miller, Tenna Torres, Kree Harrison, Adriana Lotario and Amber Holcomb. – Read more at Hollywood Reporter

Five Ladies Enter The “American Idol” Circle Of Life – Tonight on American Idol: The female half of the Season 12 top 20 is made final! To celebrate, Ryan stands in front of a lot of fire at the show’s outset. And then it’s right into the performances, because there is lots of important work to do if the producers want to get the first female winner since the “Umbrella” era. – Read more at Popdust

‘American Idol’ Recap: Zoanette Johnson Owns Girls’ Night – During Hollywood Week on this season’s “American Idol,” Nicki Minaj remarked that she was honored to be a part of what she dubbed “The Zoanette Era.” On Wednesday, that era officially began, as contestant Zoanette Johnson took “Idol” by storm and wowed the Vegas crowd and viewers at home like the force of nature she is. Ten contestants performed on Wednesday’s show and five were sent home by episode’s end, but Zoanette stood head, shoulders and a massive blonde mane above everyone else after her towering, earth-shifting performance of “Circle of Life” that earned her the title of “Queen of the Jungle” from Keith Urban. – Read more at MTV

‘American Idol’ In Vegas, Round 3: The Lion Freaks Tonight – Okay, let’s just cut to the chase. This Wednesday, Zoanette Johnson made it through to “American Idol’s” live top 20 shows, which kick off next week. Yes, that Zoanette Johnson. (Could there ever be more than one?) The one who mangled the National Anthem at her bizarre Oklahoma City audition. The one whose Hollywood Week solo performance was a scream-of-consciousness jazz-funk improv behind a drum kit. The one who showed up this week in a lightsocket-shocked Dee Snider weave that made Nicki Minaj’s hair look like Anne Hathaway’s crop. On Wednesday, 10 more female semifinalists competed in Vegas, five of them were instantly eliminated…and Zoanette survived. In fact, she was the very first contestant that the judges saved. Oh—and did I mention that Zoanette got the pimp spot, and that she sang Elton John’s Lion King anthem “Circle Of Life,” which was Jennifer Hudson’s signature song on “Idol” Season 3? Yep, that actually happened. – Read more at Yahoo.com

‘American Idol’ Recap: Zoanette ‘Finds Her Place’ as Singer to Beat – A lackluster episode last Wednesday preceded the 10 girls who took the “American Idol” stage last night to sing for a spot in the top 20. Though a few singers, like Kree Harrison and Angela Miller, stood out, it wasn’t incredibly reflective of the claims that the remaining female contestants were a talented crop, possibly the best chance the gender has had in years of actually winning the entire competition. After last night, to say the girls have a shot at beating the boys still might be a stretch; right now, it seems more even between the two than anything. But man, was it a step up. – Read more at Billboard.com

Sudden Death, Week Two: The ‘American Idol’ recap – Who would have guessed when we first saw Zoanette Johnson back in Oklahoma City, mauling the national anthem, that she’d still be around when American Idol named its Top 20? Quite possibly nobody but Johnson herself. And maybe Nicki Minaj, but she sometimes seems to have her own unknowable reasons for liking what she does. For some reason, though, the judges kept allowing the wild-haired 20-year-old from Liberia to stay round after round — perhaps because they found her amusing, perhaps because they saw a gleam of mad, raw talent in her performances that they hoped she’d learn to contain. – Read more at USA Today

Kimberly Caldwell’s American Idol Blog: Why Zoanette Deserved to Stay—and Why Nicki Minaj Is the Best New Judge – Wow, was Nicki Minaj right on point when she said that Zoanette Johnson would be the standout girl we remembered after last night’s performance! Whether you get her or not, she is unforgettable. She laid it all out there in every aspect. From her bleach blond afro to her queen-of-the-jungle spirit, I could not take my eyes off the screen! Definitely not the most controlled vocalist out of the girls, but damn, she can give you chills up your spine. Good choice to keep her around. – Read more at EOnline

‘American Idol’: The Final Girls – Round three of SUDDEN DEATH, the Idol brain trust’s leanest, meanest invention since Clay Aiken with a hangover. It was the girls again last night, with some favorites emerging alongside a fluke or two who are there to keep the contest interesting, but who will never in a million years, not if Taylor Hicks lives to be three hundred years old (so, not in four years), actually win the damn competition. In a season when the producers have made it clear that they’d like to see a girl win the whole thing for the first time in six seasons, I’m surprised they’d send even one novelty act through. But, oh well. What do I know? Not much. Last week I went singer by singer, even though we all knew who got sent home and who was through to the next round. So this week let’s try talking about the five ladies who are heading off to the next round first, and then we’ll get to the losers when we can, K? Great. Let’s goooooo. – Read more at The Atlantic Wire

#idolagree or #idoldisagree that is the question: Girls Part II in Vegas – My DVR is currently housing 4 hours worth of American Idol Does Vegas, which I’ve been ostensibly avoiding due to the fact the only thing worse than an Alicia Keys song is a cover of an Alicia Keys song. Yet every day I’ve felt pangs of guilt for not recapping those 4 hours, as I know there are like, 20 of you still left who actually enjoy reading the nonsense I attempt to hammer out once a week. – Read more at Top Idol Blog

‘American Idol’s’ Las Vegas Semifinals: What You Didn’t See on TV – American Idol continues its “field trip” this week, originating at Las Vegas’ Love Theatre inside the Mirage hotel on the nights when Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles show Love is dark. Among the Idol loyalists in the audience? The Hollywood Reporter, keeping eyes and ears peeled to bring you these eight behind-the-scenes things you didn’t see on the broadcast: Read more at The Hollywood Reporter

About mj santilli 34841 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!