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Learn more- "American Idol" - Top 11 Performance Show - March 23, 2011
Theme: Motown
Video Package: A retrospective on Motown history
In the audience: Liv Tyler, Brad Whitford of Aerosmith, Gordon Ramsay, Jennifer Beals
Contestant:Casey Abrams. Tells the producers he feels comfortable with Motown. He gets counseled to not get to screechy/growly.
Song: "I Heard it Through the Grapevine," Marvin Gaye
Performance: He has slicked his hair back and he starts off with a slow growl and eases into a more recognizable version. He takes a walk down into the audience. It's pretty good, a little shouty/too growly at the end but fine.
Steven: Calls him the perfect entertainer with perfect pitch and crazy ass ego. Calls him beautiful.
JLo: Says people already know who he is and he's very unique.
Randy: Calls him a true original. He says he can only do you and that you is great and they love him.
Contestant: Thia Megia. She wants to show her uptempo side. Jimmy thinks it's the right record for her and is pleasantly shocked.
Song:"Heatwave," Martha and the Vandellas.
Performance: She's wearing a kicky dress and moving around with a bit of a strut. It's cute and sounds fine and she's working really hard but still kind of lacking a certain something.
JLo: Thought it was great to see her let loose. She wants her to dig in deeper each week. She thinks part of performing is acting and to bring it.
Randy: Agrees this new thing is a good thing but thinks she could take more vocal chances. Happy to see her do something different.
Steven: Agrees that she's taken a step out and he's good with it.
Contestant: Jacob Lusk. He has a gospel background and he has to sing songs with meaning. Jimmy thinks he's a natural for this week but he wants him to control his voice and use his power more judiciously. Jacob agrees he needs to relax off of it a bit.
Song: "You're All I Need (To Get By)," Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell
Performance: He starts off nice and gentle. As it builds, the background singers drown him out a bit but he's doing a good job with his control. My favorite performance of his so far. Steven is so moved he goes up to hug him when it's over.
Randy: Thinks Berry Gordy is somewhere saying oh my god. Calls it his other best performance in his history and the history of the show.
Steven: Applauds that he held it back.
JLo: Says he made them beg for the notes. He moves them.
Ryan starts inviting people on stage to hug him.
Contestant: Lauren Alaina. The producers Rock Mafia picked her song, and Jimmy approves. She talks about how the meaning of the song resonates with her.
Song: "You Keep Me Hanging On," the Supremes
Performance: She starts out slow and ballad-y with cymbal rolls and piano. The beat kicks in and she works it, walking up on Randy and around the judges table. She sounds good and ends with a nice bit of sass.
Steven: Thinks she doesn't listen to anybody about anything and he likes it. Thinks it was just beautiful.
JLo: Thinks she looks beautiful. Loves that she threw some attitude in.
Randy: Thinks she has her swagger on high and is ready.
Contestant: Stefano Langone. In stool chat with Ryan we learn that Stefano's mom came by to cook for the gang at the mansion. He'd never heard of the song he's singing but when he heard it he knew he could connect with it. Jimmy warns him to not oversing and is worried about the song choice and the emotional content. The urge him to keep his eyes open to connect with the audience.
Song: "Hello," Lionel Richie
Performance: Seated he starts off creamy and tender and is working really hard to keep his eyes open. He takes some liberites with the melody but they work, although he starts to lose the battle with keeping his eyes open. He hits some big money notes at the end. Then he does a cheesy spoken, "I love you" whisper into the camera.
JLo: Says he's fine and sings like crazy, she doesn't want his intensity to come from him doing well she wants it to come from the fact that his heart is breaking. She thinks he can fly out of the building when he gets it right.
Randy: Agrees and says that's the only thing that's missing, he can soar but there was no real emotional connection. Tells him to take his time.
Steven: Thinks he ramped up too soon, he tells him his voice is so beautiful though, he just needs to pull back a bit.
Contestant:Haley Rinehart. Her goal this week is to not be in the bottom three. Jimmy tells her to go for it like she's got nothing to lose. He says she's got to connect this week.
Song: "You Really Got a Hold on Me," Smokey Robinson & the Miracles.
Performance: She seems a little nervous on the steps in her heels but she sounds good and she tosses in that growl that Randy has wanted to hear so badly. She hits some nice high notes too. Her body is a little awkward but maybe that proves she's really into it.
Randy: Says by the middle the girl they fell in love came roaring back and he's so happy to see her return.
Steven: Says it was beautiful and it touched his heart. "You don't look a day over fabulous." JLo: Admires her effortless control and says she's most definitely the most soulful on the girls' side.
Contestant: Scotty McCreery. In stool chat we learn he's a great basketball player, sort of, at least with a trick shot. He's a country guy but his dad was a big Michael Jackson fan. He and the producers try to country it up. Jimmy's worried it's going to come off lounge-y and wants him to keep up his intensity.
Song: "For Once in My Life," Stevie Wonder (for Motown)
Performance: It's lounge-y because he does that lounge-y finger-pointing thing that's hokey and a little pose-y. He sounds great though and the retrofit, if a little too hopalong, sounds fine. He really starts to feel it toward the end.
Steven: Says it was just beautiful and compares it to Glen Campbell. He knows you can't make a three point shot from under the net.
JLo: Calls it a great version of the song and says he made it his own even though it wasn't his strongest vocal so far.
Randy: Agrees it wasn't his strongest performance and it needed to peak a little sooner but smiled all the way through and calls his low notes the "young ladykiller" note.
Contestant: Pia Toscano. She worked with Harvey Mason, Jr. who thinks she's in the category of other great singers. Jimmy thinks it's time to take her influences and turn it into her own voice. He tells her to get out of her head when she's onstage.
Song: "All in Love is Fair," Stevie Wonder.
Performance: In a black gown and with a backing string ensemble Pia does a big ballad. It's a little different from week's past in that she uses a bit more of her head voice and she works her way up the big notes. Well done but not exactly sizzling.
JLo: Says she killed them with one of her killer ballads. Checks off beauty, image, and great vocal. And she says she had feeling but she needs her to own the stage like Celine Dion owns her stage, be more of a performer.
Randy: Agrees with Jennifer says she's phenomenal, beautiful, talented and glad that she incorporated more falsetto. His criticism is too many ballads, he needs a mid- or uptempo. Says she can't live by ballads alone.
Steven: Thinks she's the closest star in this "American Idol" universe, if stepping out and kicking some ass is what she needs to do by them he knows she can do it.
Contestant: Paul McDonald. He's going to play his guitar and go in a more folk-rock direction. Jimmy tells him to feel the song as if he wrote it. Calls his voice a rare gift. Says he needs a "moment" on the show.
Song: "Tracks of My Tears," Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
Performance: He does a pretty straightforward version with just a little acoustic surge. He's a little smiley for such a keening song. His smile does in fact look out of place.
Randy: Asks if he had a good time. Paul says he did. Randy likes he wasn't dancing around and likes that he has a distinctive different voice. He was worried at first but thought he took it to a cool place and liked how he sang tender at the end. He tells him to bring more of that out.
Steven: Calls his voice... beautiful. Shocker.
JLo: Calls him a well-seasoned performer and she says all he needs is a good producer and he's ready to go.
Contestant: Naima Adedapo. She's honored to be singing a song by the pioneers who blazed the trail. Jimmy calls it one of the great good time feel-good songs to sing he wants her presence to be contagious fun. She wants to add some African dancing. Jimmy is worried about her breathing.
Song: "Dancing in the Street," Martha and the Vandellas
Performance: Her vocal is strong if a little monochromatic and she seems to be having fun. Maybe a little too intensely but she's hitign the notes. And then she busts into some African dance moves with the aid of some African drummers.
Steven: He says it was E to the Z ooh tweedledee dee. He thinks it was... beautiful. And loves that she cames up with the drums, the dancing, and the arrangement.
JLo: Calls her an exciting performer and says it was her first goosebumps of the night.
Randy: Says finally tonight that all of Naima showed up, the dancer, the singer, the performance artist, he's glad that she took her time to sing. (Nigel gives her dance moves a nice hand off to the side of the stage).
Contestant: James Durbin. Jimmy thinks it's important for James to be singing this since it follows in the tradition of classic rock singers like Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and Steven Tyler, being inspired by soul musicians.
Song: "Living For the City," Stevie Wonder
Performance: He sounds good, a little tight in places and his jaunty little skip is a bit odd but overall it's good enough. Judging by the audience reaction it must've sounded better in the room than it does on TV.
JLo: She calls him serious business and admires his "back step." He leaves her speechless.
Randy: He says when it started it was a little bit rough. JLo interrupts and Randy asks to be let finish, he says when he hit his pocket he made it happen, loved it by the end.
Steven: Sometimes it takes a little bit of crazy to make a difference in the world and James has it. He thinks the song was perfect for his voice and he nailed it.
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