Here’s what critics around the interwebs are saying about last night’s American Idol 12 Top 10 performance show. Read my recap here.
‘American Idol’ recap: Waffles and Cringes – The guys and girls finally went head-to-head, and to honor this tremendous occasion, Idol created a “Music of the American Idols” theme that yielded some of the most boring, done-to-death Top 10 performances ever. But entertainment doesn’t really matter. What’s really important is that these people look fabulous, and that at least one of them has stimulated the sexual appetite of tardy-to-the-party Nicki Minaj. – Read more at Entertainment Weekly
American Idol Recap: The Competition Starts NOW? – With the top five women and top five men vocalists finally decided, Wednesday night’s American Idol began the competition proper. But when the house lights came on, judge Nicki Minaj was MIA. American Idol, you have made some bold choices tonight, and they’re either really going to work, or this ratings freefall is about to become a national incident. First, the show begins by telling us THE COMPETITION STARTS NOW. Though technically true, this seems to me like an explicit admission that Idol has been straight jerking us around for the last eight weeks. This show is only now starting to resemble the show you picture when you think of American Idol, and it is the middle of March. This season began in the dead of winter, and now in parts of the country it is light outside when an episode starts. That’s a long windup, and now that they’ve finally pitched the damn ball, it feels both sudden and long overdue. – Read more at Vulture
‘American Idol’ Recap: Where in the World Is Nicki Minaj? – “We are coming to you live and on time,” host Ryan Seacrest said before telling the cheering audience to “keep that energy going for three of your four judges who are here tonight.” Seacrest explained that Minaj was “stuck in traffic” on the 405 and proceeded to keep the show moving along until she finally arrived, completely missing Curtis Finch Jr.’s hideous attire. – Read more at The Hollywood Reporter
American Idol Recap: Oh I Can’t Believe This Theme Is Happening to Me [Updated] – Don’t get on Nicki Minaj’s case for showing up late to American Idol‘s Top 10 performance night. Let’s be honest: If you had known you were going to have to endure her fellow judges heaping praise (with a side dish of almost imperceptible criticism) on Curtis Finch Jr.’s dreary, off-key Fantasia cover, you’d have tuned in 10 minutes past the hour yourself. Okay, okay…maybe we should throw a little shade at Nicki. I mean, how many millions of dollars is she paid for working three hours per week at The House That Kelly Clarkson Built? I’d show up three hours early for $200 and a bottle of Trader Joe’s sauvignon blanc. – Read more at TV Line
“American Idol”: Candice, Amber, And The Rest Of The Top 10 Look Back – Last night American Idol entered its long-march phase, with the Top 10 competing for the nation’s phone calls, text messages, and in-app voting opportunities in the first of the season’s single-elimination episodes. Despite the show undergoing a near-total makeover, this first episode of the finals looked back: The contestants were charged with singing “songs by previous Idol winners,” a category that expanded to include not just the previous 11 Idols’ recorded output, but the songs they sang as they stormed the winners’ circle. The breakdown of previous Idols went as follows – Read more at Popdust
‘American Idol’ Recap: Top 10 Take On Idols Past – Nicki’s antics stole the spotlight from what was otherwise a winning night for Candice Glover and Amber Holcomb, the two best singers of the night. The theme was songs from other “Idol” winners, and Glover and Holcomb performed like champions in their own right, with Glover soaring on Shirley Bassey’s “I (Who Have Nothing),” a hit for Jordin Sparks back in Season 6, while Holcomb tackled Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This.” “Hashtag: Pow!” Mariah Carey told Holcomb after her performance, while Nicki suggested “I (Who Have Nothing)” should never be performed live by any singers ever again after Glover “destroyed and annihilated” it. – Read more at MTV
‘Idol’ Top 10 Recap: American Idol Rewind – But that was the only “Idol” first this week. The theme of Wednesday’s show was songs sung by past “Idol” winners (either covers the Idols did on the show, or Idols’ singles), so there was a lot of retreading going on. It sort of felt like a bad episode of “American Idol Rewind.” In general, it was just a bad idea. Remember when “So You Think You Can Dance” had contestants reprise past Mia Michaels routines, and it was a total flop? Yeah, it was sort of like that. Nigel Lythgoe clearly will never learn. – Read more at Yahoo.com
‘American Idol’ Recap: Finalists Tackle Songs By Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia and Other Past Winners – The girls dominated Wednesday night, many bringing powerhouse performances and at times stunning vocals that screamed “artist!” from the get-go. Meanwhile, the collective guys could rarely rise above the din their counterparts made. Sure, much will be said of Taylor’s turn at the mic, but even two weeks down the road, it’s unlikely we’ll remember much of anything of what they did. – Read more at Billboard.com
‘American Idol’ Top 10: The recap – This season’s crop of Idol finalists is one of the strongest groups ever, in terms of vocal talent. But several of them have displayed terrifically bad judgement when it comes to picking songs for themselves to sing. Forcing them to choose material from previous Idol winners — either songs they had performed on the show or had recorded since their victories — only exacerbated the problem. It might have seemed like a good idea to pick songs that were highlights years ago, but what it actually accomplished was removing any sense of contemporary relevance from this group. – Read more at USA Today
‘American Idol’: Remember the Titans – Well here we are, ladies and germs. Finally at the big show. Last night America’s picks for the top ten absolute best singers in the country, no question — this is legally binding — sang their goopy guts out and tried their damnedest to put on a show that we’d want to see again next week. It was such a big deal that Nicki Minaj decided to show up fifteen minutes late. Yeah, the gossip blogs were making a big ol’ stink about that this morning, but I dunno. She said it was traffic, and it is Los Angeles at 5 p.m. I mean, duhhh, it probably wasn’t traffic, she was probably just being a diva, but whatever. Who really cares. It’s live television, things happen. I know that people really want to make there be some big judge drama on the show this season, but it’s not really happening. (And by “people” I mean Fox. This was probably a thing orchestrated by Fox. “Nicki, why not show up thirteen minutes late. Maybe that will get people talking!” It’s gotten pretty desperate over there.) Nicki was late. So what. Let’s build a big beautiful bridge and get the heck over it. – Read more at The Atlantic Wire
Top 10 “American Idol” Contestants Perform for the Nation’s Vote – The top 10 American Idol contestants performed for the nation’s vote Wednesday night singing songs from past Idol champs. Judges Keith Urban, Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey were on hand to offer their critiques. Nicki Minaj was absent at the top of the show, and host Ryan Seacrest explained she was stuck in traffic. She finally made it to her seat 20 minutes into the broadcast. Here’s a rundown of the night’s performances: – Read more at ABC News Radio
‘American Idol’ recap: Nicki Minaj is late for live top 10 – It was a theme guaranteed to feel derivative — and to show off comparative flaws — but what are you going to do? Clearly, “Idol” is doing what it can to remind us of our long history together: Even though Nicki Minaj can’t be bothered to show up on time (stuck in traffic, she said; unprofessional, I say), clearly irritating the other judges, the producers would like us to keep coming back. And, of course, they also want to up the emotional quotient by reminding us of the stakes — that the show can mint superstars with staying power (lots of Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson songs) — or … not (Lee DeWyze’s accomplishments, whatever they are, went unhonored). Here are the performances — the good, the really good and the yawn-worthy: – Read more at LA Times
But you look great: American Idol 12 goes live with the Top 10 – Um…where is Nicki Minaj? Homegirl sure knows how to make an entrance. Tonight (finally), American Idol goes live with the most boring Top 10 ever assembled. So boring, they’re even singing songs performed by other Idols on the show. All I care about is Curtis—who’s position in the line ostensibly means he’s probably leading off tonight, but he’s already #1 in my heart due to his red paisley sportsjacket that’s the most bold fashion choice since Bobby Bennett’s (in)famous orange suit in the Season 5 semifinals. – Read more at Top Idol Blog
