Top 4

Photo via buddy.tv

You see, what had happened was…

Ryno Seacrest made us all fall for the banana in the tailpipe.

Last week, he mentioned that there was going to be a surprise on the elimination show. As it turned out, because the judges didn’t use the save, they had an extra week of booked TV time. And thus, last week’s elimination never happened. Instead, they’ll combine last week’s and this week’s votes and vote out the contestant with the lowest combined votes.

Before Ryno let us in on the surprise last week, Amber and Candice were in the bottom two. Now, unless he was yanking our chain, you have to think that Amber is in trouble. And after tonight, she could be barbecue chicken. Though, she shed some tears which may turn out to be smart. Amber fans may have started voting right when those tears rolled down her cheeks.

On Wednesday night, there were two themes yet again. The first was a hit song from 2013. And the second was a standard from the Great American Songbook. But really, the theme could’ve been lullabies because the show was boring. It had to put some of the audience to sleep.

Your guest mentor – a bearded Harold Connick Jr.

Breaking down the performances

I agreed with the judges most of the time and that hasn’t happened much this year. I like that they called the contestants out when they were boring. But they should’ve called the contestants out for being so nervous too. Outside of one of the four remaining, it was a bad show.

Angie Miller
Angie’s choice for her 2013 hit song was Rihanna’s Diamonds. Rihanna’s version itself is super gimmicky, sort of like her own rendition of an Ellie Goulding song. But at least, when Rihanna sings, “Shine bright like a diamond,” it’s catchy and memorable. So what did Angie decide to do? She slowed it down and made it boring. That was her theme for this week.

Her second performance was Someone To Watch Over Me. She was in great voice. She was in great Constantine stalker-face. But man, I couldn’t get to the fast forward button quickly enough when I figured out where it was going. I can’t imagine people skimming through channels would’ve stopped at Angie’s performance and drank it up.

Amber Holcomb
Amber was feeling the pressure. But at least she was wearing some sweet Jordans when singing with Harold.

She chose a great song for her first in Pink’s Just Give Me a Reason. It should’ve been a lay-up for her. Okay, it’s not an easy song to sing necessarily, so maybe a reverse lay-up with Dikembe Mutombo waiting to block her shot. But still, at this point in the competition, we should expect them to do really well. Amber did well once the song got going, but was really shaky early. She was terribly worried about forgetting the lyrics.

With song two, she did better, but the night was getting to her and she broke down. Well, she broke down after Nicki asked her about it. She performed My Funny Valentine, but before she did, Harold chided her for not understanding the lyrics to the song. So, when you watched her perform it, all you could think of was her not understanding what she was singing. Thanks Harold, says Amber’s fan base.

Candice Glover
And for your non-boring contestant of the week, I present to you Candice Glover!

How bad (and when I say bad it’s bad meaning good, not bad meaning bad) is Candice? She took Bruno Mars’ When I Was Your Man and didn’t change a thing. She presented herself as a male and didn’t care. She didn’t just sing. She saaaaaaaang. The song itself is pretty straight forward, so she didn’t get a chance to show off any theatrics, but it was the best performance of the first round.
And then she brought the house down with You’ve Changed.

Kree (Summer) Harrison
Kree promised us. She really did. She said she was going to connect with us again. She wasn’t going to be sad and pout. She was going to be the Kree (Summer) that we knew and loved. Well, she lied.

She sang Carrie Underwood’s See You Again and it was fine and nice, but not dynamic in any way.

And then it seemed like she was going to finish the show with a great performance and it just never happened. The set-up was perfect. She was dolled up more than ever before and she just came out flat. Her vocals were nice but you could tell that she just didn’t exactly know where to go with the song. Earlier when she was practicing, Harold told her to sing the Lena Horne version of Stormy Weather rather than the Etta James version. You could tell that Kree (Summer) wanted to sing the Etta version. It’s more her style. But she didn’t.

This led to Randy and Harold arguing, though I’m not sure Harold understood Randy’s point. He just didn’t want it pointed out that he gave Kree (Summer) bad advice. Randy said she should’ve done the Etta version because she needs to be herself. Harold took that comment literally and tried to say that Randy was double-talking. How could you be Etta and Kree (Summer) at the same time? But really, all Randy was saying was that Kree needs to go with her own instincts. Harold was beside himself. So, instead of owning up to it, he said that Kree (Summer) had to learn the melodies first before owning the song. Oh, so Kree (Summer) didn’t learn the melodies? Kree’s (Summer) fan base says thanks for that one as well Harold.

Who goes home?

I wonder if Amber’s tears were enough to keep her. If we were basing it off the last few weeks of performances, Kree (Summer) would be going home. But since Amber was in the bottom two last week, I have to believe she’s going home.

Right now, if I were to rank the four, it would be like this:
1. Candice
2. Angie
3. Amber
4. Kree (Summer)

But I think Kree has enough juice from last week to stick around one more week. I say Amber goes home, unfortunately.