We start with clips of each of the girls' original auditions (this season's auditions, not Candice's Season 11 audition). We're reminded that Amber liked shortie short shorts back then too.
Nicki is wearing a sleeveless wild animal print dress with a vaguely Empire waist, a gathered skirt, and a black and white polka dot neck ruffle. Mariah is in a royal blue mullet sack with a train. The slouchy neckline slouches deeply. Very deeply. I didn't notice what the guys wore owing to the danger that Mariah's unfettered chesticals could fall out of that deeply slouched neckline.
The Gals all visited LA's Children's Hospital to cheer the little ones. We'll get clips from each visit.
#1. Amber brought hats and craftiness to the sick kids, who are all pretty adorable, and some of whom are seriously ill.
She's wearing a rather attractive white and black belted jumpsuit with cut out sides and back (and *attractive* and *jumpsuit* are two words I never thought I'd type together). Her hair is really curly, and it looks nice that way. She's singing Power of Love, and doing very well with it, standing still at the top of the stairs. She begins a Capella, and builds with a controlled and lovely performance.
K-N-R Standing O.
K- that song was tailor-made for Amber
N: calls Amber a big sexy glass of milk
R: no fear, you are ready (repeated several times)
M: showed amazing range, # POW
JI: detected a small strain in Amber's voice, will be difficult to beat
#2. Candice played peek-a-boo with the most adorable little bald girl at the hospital.
She's wearing a loose black top with white (or maybe silver) zig-zags, black stretchy pants, soft curls, and huge shiny earrings. They keep talking about Drake, and saying the words hip-hop, which fill me with dread. But I should not have worried. If the song was originally rap, Candice changed it. It's smooth and jazzy. The lyrics consist mostly of five words (*I better find your lovin'*). She gets lots of applause, but no Standing O.
N: Knows Drake and promises he'll send a message tomorrow, loves Candice's vocal, but wishes she had stuck to the original melody
R: crazy vocal, but it's not necessary to throw in so m any runs
M: wonderful vocal, but the performance skewed Adult Contemporary
K: agrees with Nicki, thinks Candice is still finding herself
JI: agrees with Nicki
#3. Kree spent time at the hospital singing to preemies and hugging worried mamas.
She's wearing a belted red shirt and black leather pants, with orange lipstick. This song is Standard Country Smokey Bar stuff. Kree is trying to show sultry emotion, but the effort shows. I also think I hear a few off notes. It's okay, but not up to the first two performances.
R: Kree loves the blues, but this was maybe not her best vocal
M: babble babble
K: all four girls are exceptional, but Kree needs to show more emotion and connection
N: that performance will not put Kree through this week
JI: agrees with Nicki
Kree smiles bravely but she is barely holding back the tears.
#4. Angie visited with toddlers and got lots of hugs.
She's singing Jessie J's Who You Are, wearing a black dress with white splotches, and an odd leather harness-like collar that goes around her neck like a yoke, extends down the center front and then turns into a belt. Her hair is straight and flat tonight, and I like it a lot better than her usual Big Curls. She's sitting at a white piano, with blue lighting,. The judges love love love Angie at the piano, but I think her high register is thin and screechy. The lighting turns orange, which is a little unsettling. During the lively parts, Angie bounces on the piano stool like it's been electrified. This is not a horrible performance, but it's nothing I'd want to hear again.
K-N-R Standing O
M: Says she would have stood too but her train was caught under a chair wheel
K: Angie begins too prim and proper but lets loose at the end
N: loves Angie at the piano
R: 10 out of 10 out of 10, best performance of the night so far, in it to win it
JI: Angie is neck and neck with Amber
Amber (odd skinny pants with huge color blocks in shades of blue, a shortie denim vest, and a black tank) is dueting Adele's Rumor Has it with Kree (softer hair- I think it's been changed from a center part to a side part, and black top over the same black pants). Kree sounds much better on this song, but Amber has clearly taken over the lead on the duet. I love the Tribal Drums.
K: the girls sound really good together
N: Amber has grown so much and commands the stage, Kree has lost her confidence
No time for Randy and Mariah to babble
Angie (black shorts romper and boots that look like those things you use to hang from the ceiling to do upside-down stomach crunches) and Candice (short-sleeved black top, black pants, smaller earrings) will sing Rhianna's Stay. I worried about this pairing, but I needn't have. Candice is perfect as always, and even Angie is head-wagglingly fierce. This pair is playing off each other perfectly.
K-N-R Standing O.
R: yo yo yo un-believable yo yo yo
M: babbles over Randy
Ryan informs us that the second theme of the night is One Hit Wonders. For a moment, I hope that we'll get to hear one of older girls sing Afternoon Delight, but it very soon becomes apparent that the show has not the slightest idea what a One Hit Wonder is. I'm getting ahead of myself here, but every one of the next four songs was recorded several times, a Bilboard charter several times, written by award winning writers, and sung by people/bands with multiple studio albums (and in many cases awards). Nothing about any of aspect of any of these songs qualifies them for this category. I'll provide links for each, if my head doesn't explode first.
#5. Amber is in a tight, short, bright orange shirred dress with darker side panels, and white gladiator boots. She's singing McArthur Park,written by Jimmy Webb ( many Grammys, inducted in the Songwriter Hall of Fame), and a #2 Billboard hit for Richard Harris (multiple Grammys). Amber is singing the Donna Summer version. Yeah, that Donna Summer, who is probably the absolute opposite of a One Hit Wonder. And my word, this is just plain awful. Amber's unnecessary key-change into her lower register is weird, and I am pretty sure that she messed up the lyrics.
R-M Standing O
K: incredible performance
N: blooming flower, called her Angie, and says that of all four girls, she would like to get to know Amber the most (Me: Does Nicki realize that the other girls can hear her?)
R: in it to win it
M: inner glow, star quality
JI: Judges missed the mark, bad song, cheesy performance
#6. Candice is in a red jacket over a white and black circuit-boardy kind of print. She's singing Emotion, which was originally done by Samantha Sang, which would be the closest to an actual one hit wonder singer in the lot tonight (though she charted with it in 13 countries) except that Candice is singing The Bee Gees version. They also wrote the damn thing. No one hit wonders here. Her performance is oh so smooth and oh so good. No Standing O's though.
N: Candice made her groove to the old song, and then segues into a rebuttal of Jimmy's comments about Amber's performance.
R: Candice is returning
M: points out that Candice has a cold
K: wonders if there are only old one hit wonders (Me: I wonder who decided what constitutes a one hit wonder. I also scream at the TV a lot).
#7. At first I think Kree is wearing a pretty little black dress, but when the camera pulls back, I see that she's actually wearing a jumpsuit. It looks nice on her though (that's twice tonight with the jumpsuit approval- odd). She's singing Procul Harum's (several charted songs, 11 studio albums) Whiter Shade of Pale. Well, this performance is better than her first one, but I don't think it'll be enough to keep her on the show, which makes me really sad.
R: Kree is back
M: takes 100 words to say "I have no words"
K: too middle ground
N: Kree is in danger
Kree holds it together. Barely.
#8. Angie is in a long mullet dress with a black leather bodice. She's singing Julie London's Cry Me a River. For crying out loud- Julie London recorded more than 30 studio albums over a 40 year time span, and had at least six charted singles. The song itself has been covered at least 22 times. The performance is standard Angie stuff- thin in the high register.The audience loves it.
M: Even Mariah knows that Cry Me a River isn't a one hit wonder
K: mystical celestially powerful
N: tonight was Angie's night
R: yo yo yo
I don't know whether Jimmy didn't care to critique the last two performances, or if they just ran out of time.
Round 1 Ranking:
1. Amber
2. Candice
3. Angie
4. Kree
Round 2 Ranking:
1. Candice
2-3 Tie: Kree, Angie
4. Amber
Best performance of the night: Candice and Angie's duet.
I am very afraid that Kree will go home tomorrow night. Or I would be, except that Ryan said something cryptic about a special announcement tomorrow night. Since there are three more weeks until the finale, and the show only needs two more, I wonder if no one will go home tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see.
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