American Idol 11 – Top 6 Results – Recap, Videos and Photos

Elise Testone is eliminated from American Idol

Tonight, Katy Perry will perform her newest single, “Part of Me”; the official touring Queen tribute, The Queen Extravaganza, will perform their classic smash hit “Somebody To Love”; and American Idol Season 10 finalist Stefano Langone will perform his new single, “I’m On A Roll.”

And of course, a finalist will be sent home. Will we have another “shocker” tonight? Hm.

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I’ll be live blogging all the action at Entertainment Weekly. Join me there, will you? After, I’ll be back with a recap. Watch this space for photos and videos.

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American Idol tour dates will be announced tonight

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I am actually upset right now. Elise was my favorite. She has made some poor song choices during the course of the competition (FOREIGNER UGH) but I disagreed with Jimmy and Randy. I loved BOTH of her songs last night. I know these things are arguable, but I thought she had the performances of the night.

I don’t get Jimmy’s beef with her Queen song, “I Want It All”. I have no idea what he meant by calling the performance “clubby”. I thought it rocked pretty hard. And she killed her second song. The phrasing on the Hendrix tune was exquisite. I couldn’t have cared less that it didn’t have your typical verse-chorus-bridge construction. But obviously AMERICA cared. She had the ARTISTRY to take chances RANDY, but not the fanbase to pull her through if her risk didn’t pay off.

I knew she had no chance to win, and may not have been too niche to be a big success after the show if she had. But I was hoping she’d at least make it to the Top 5, but it wasn’t meant to be.

Elise was in trouble from the start. She never watched the show and obviously had not worked out a strategy. She also had a likability problem. Whatever emotions she was feeling were written all over her face. You knew when she was upset or mad—not a good thing for a finalist who wants to stay in the competition. A contestant who can’t appear humble and grateful at all times is not going to last. She made so many trips to the bottom, it’s amazing she lasted as long as she did.

I’m really going to miss her raspy growl, her musicality and HEY RANDY. Her ARTISTRY. See you on the tour, Queen Elise…

***

The producers just could not resist. Tonight’s pre-show video package ends with the title card “Tonight…another one bites the dust”. Argh

Ryan and the judges enter from the back again tonight, and I finally figured out it’s because Queen’s gear is in place where the staircase usually is. Funny moment: Ryan slaps hands with the fans. One girls extends her hand just as Ryan moves away. She shrugs, a little embarrassed. SCORNED. For the second time, Ryan announces the vote totals for the week. 58 million votes were cast last night–10 million more than this time last year.

First up–The Queen Extravaganza sing “Somebody To Love”, with the lead singer doing an excellent job of channeling Freddie. Looks like a fun show!

1 of 6 Voted Off, Queen tribute ~ American Idol… by HumanSlinky

Skeevy TMZ segment is next – Pointless video package of the night! Why put them through that torture, Nigel.

1 of 6 Voted Off, TMZ ~ American Idol 2012 by HumanSlinky

Finally time for some results. Ryan announces that he’ll be calling the contestants down in pairs. Jessica and Elise take center stage first. Video recap for each contestant first, and then Jimmy’s critique

Jimmy on Jessica: “Jessica, singing Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” was just a plain old mistake. And then, add to it, the three faces of Jessica that came on the screen. I was watching the show and I went–it actually scared me. That bit, was less Queen and more Stephen King. On the other hand, “Dance with my Father” by Luther Vandross was magnificent. She picked a song, that not only tugged on her emotional heart strings, but on the judges and the audience as well, ’cause her dad is being deployed overseas. She sang it brilliantly. She understood the words, but also understood her audience, which is always so important. That was clever. Clever, plus real talent–that’s double the vote.”
Jimmy on Elise: “I believe she picked the wrong Queen song. She picked sort of a monotone, stadium anthem. What happens when you do that, is it comes off clubby. I felt like I was in a nightclub somewhere in the back of beyond. It didn’t move me, I wouldn’t hit rewind, I didn’t want to see it again. She’s a great singer–wrong song. Elise chose for her second song, Jimmy Hendrix “Bold is Love”. To me, that was a double down on bad choice for the night. That song is a musical piece. It’s a guitar genius with a very integrated soulful blues vocal. One without the other it falls apart, and that’s what we got last night. Elise has a problem. She’s a great singer, made bad choices.

One is in the bottom 3, the other in the Top 3. Ryan says to Jessica, “Unfortunately, it’s not looking good for the other 5 contestants, because you are safe in our Top 3 tonight.” These fakeouts are getting dumber and dumber. With Jessica safe, Elise heads to the bottom 3.

Ryan announces the American Idol tour. Tickets go on sale May 11. Casey Abrams is on stage to give the kids tour advice. Watch out for pranks, he warns them. Casey’s hair and beard are looking really wild and wooly.

Stefano Langone takes the stage to sing “I’m On A Roll” – Stefano is as cheesy AND entertaining, as he was on the tour. The only thing missing is the strip act. I was so hoping he’d be ripping off some clothes tonight.

Next, Hollie and Josha take center stage. Video recap and Jimmy critique before the results.

Jimmy on Hollie: “I wonder if Hollie choosing the song “Save Me” by Queen was a subconscious plea to the public. She did a very good job. This was a hard one. Freddie Mercury is tough. ‘Cause of the way he sings, it’s so so unique. He takes words and turns them into things that no one would have ever thought you could turn them into. She tripped up at the very end and she got slightly out of tune. Can she get through the lyrics of the song and the meaning of the song? Technically, she was a B plus. Hollie singing “The Climb” was a great choice. I loved that I thought she caught the emotion of the song, I thought that was as well as Hollie could do. I just hope it’s not too little too late.”
Jimmy on Joshua: “I was really impressed last night with Joshua doing “Crazy Little Think Called Love”. He showed me something in the cross over aspect of his career that he can really hit on. That Gary US Bonds feel, with Sam Cooke singing a Queen song showed us that he knew how to interpret. And he can cross over to pop. Then after “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”, he switches you completely into “Ready For Love”–emotional, restrained and just moved all of us right where he wanted us. What he showed America tonight in those two songs–if he keeps delivering like that–that kind of intelligence–I think it’ll take him to the finals. If Joshua gets voted off tonight, there is something wrong with the competition, the voting, the entire ball of wax.

India.Arie sent Joshua a congratulations tweet, “Come onnnnn! Sing it BOY. Yes. Whoo hoo hoo hoooooooo!!! I got chills all over. Thanks Joshua. Call me.” “I will!” says Josh. I guess she liked it.

The best friends face off against each other–just like last week. Kieran dims the lights. “Hollie…you reached new heights last night, but tonight, I’m sorry to tell you, you are in the bottom 3,” says Ryan. Hollie is in the bottom 3. Joshua IS SAFE. Hollie nods and hugs Josh. He tells Hollie he loves her.

Katy Perry takes the stage to sing her single, “Part of Me”. She’s kind of awful.

Katy Perry” “Part of Me” live by HumanSlinky

Lastly, Skylar and Phil take the stage. Video recap and Jimmy’s critique:

Jimmy on Skylar: “I think Skylar did a very very competent job on “The Show Must Go On”. It’s a great song, she sang it powerful–a little out of her thing, it really wasn’t a country song, sang it more like a pop song. She did a very very good job. On her second song, ‘Tattoos on this Town” was a little self-indulgent. She said she picked this song because of her town. Which is a nice emotion. But if you’re going to do a song for one town, it has to be a strong enough song to appeal to the entire country in this competition, and I don’t think that song cut the mustard. The judges felt that she won round one. In my opinion, she got knocked out in round two.” Crowd boos.
Jimmy on Phil: “Ryan is not the only person not feeling well on this show this week. Phillip is really having a rough time and it’s starting to show. With him not feeling well, I believe he’s lacking the energy he would need to pull that sort of character off on fat bottom girl. If you watch Jack Black and Casey do it from last year, they exploded that song when they did it. I don’t think we got that tonight. It was missing something. Phillip for his second song chose Dave Matthews, The Stone. Dave Matthews is somebody who he is regularly compared too. I think that’s a mistake. That’s not the time to do this. The song caused a disagreement amongst the judges last night. I can’t tell you how happy I was to see that. Because when they agree all the time, I fall asleep. But, they both had good points. I’m very curious to see what the audience feels about this. What Phillip did last night, I believe left an opening for someone other than Phillip to be in the finale.” “You’re still sexy!” someone screams from the audience.

Time for an elimination! The person who takes the final spot in the bottom 3 is Skylar. Skylar is in the bottom 3. Phil heads back to the couches. But Ryan isn’t going to waste time keeping #3 in suspense. “Skylar…your are safe!” declares Ryan. To the couches! A relieved Skylar heads back to the couches.

After the break, the rest of the Idols have gathered around Elise and Hollie to give them support. Ryan shoos them back to the couches for the results. The person who leaves the competition tonight is Elise. Hollie you are SAFE. Elise hugs Hollie. “This is weird.” she says. The judges and the crowd get on their feet. Elise’s goodbye video runs. Elise sings out with “Whole Lotta Love”. She heads over to the judges and sings to each one of them as they rock out. Steven sings a little with her. The credits roll and we’re out.

1 of 6 Voted Off, p4 ~ American Idol 2012 by HumanSlinky

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