by Gina Scarpa

 

Alright, I admit it. Maybe, in some way, I've been too hard on the contestants of American Idol this season. Maybe they're just slow burners. Their renditions of songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney last night were actually pretty good. As a huge Beatles fan, I was totally prepared to go into that performance episode ripping them apart from the comfort of my couch but it ended up being tough to find many bad things to say about the Top 9 (well, except for you, Aaron Kelly).

 

Tonight's episode kicked off with Seacrest calling the results "shocking". Okay, so right there, we can deduce that neither Aaron or Tim will be leaving us. Could it be Katie? Andrew? Casey? You'll have to wait 58 minutes to find out. First, the singers perform a little Lennon/McCartney medley and if you were ever wondering if they lip sync these cheesy group numbers, look no further than Siobhan's solo about halfway through.

 

Time for some results and Ryan is going to split the Top 9 into three groups, which is always evil and unfair to these poor kids. The first group of three is Crystal, Siobhan, and Katie and they're all safe!

 

Wow, big news. Adam Lambert will be next week's mentor. Somewhere, Kris Allen is crying out, "What about ME?!"

 

Jason Derulo performs his hit, "In My Head". Thanks for singing live, dude. It may not have always been pretty but at least you kept it real. The next performer is season 7 runner up David Archuleta with his rendition of "Imagine". I actually loved when he did this and was happy to see it again. As he sings, I am reminded of the time that Ryan compared Aaron to David Archuleta. Archie is about fifty steps ahead of Aaron... take notes, little buddy.

 

The guys are separated into groups and they are: Lee, Casey, and Tim vs. Mike, Aaron, and Andrew. They don't even need to tell me who's in the top and the bottom. I can't believe that Tim isn't even in the bottom three! Don't get me wrong, he was good... for a Tim performance. Right, Randy? Ryan immediately sends Aaron back to safety which means that either Mike or Andrew could be going home! WHAT?!

 

Whereas Jason Derulo sang his song for better or for worse, the same cannot be said for Rihanna, whose overprocessed microphone makes her sound a bit robotic, which is fitting if you saw her outfit.

 

58 minutes later... Andrew is safe and Mike is up for elimination.  For his last ditch effort with the judges, he absolutely kills with Maxwell's "This Woman's Work".  This is the kind of performance he should've done last night but lucky for him (and his hysterical wife in the audience) that the judges are forgiving.  The one save of the season has been used on Big Mike and he'll be back next week!

 

 

Be sure to tune in when the Top 9 take the stage (again) on American Idol, Tuesday night at 8/7 on Fox.

 

(Image courtesy of Fox)

 

Follow Gina at twitter.com/ginascarpa

 

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