dirActing

And now... RADIOeffingHEAD! Nini, my dark pop-rock queen! Soooo excited for this!!!

Yay, Evenesense! Come on Olivia, do this justice!!!!!

And now coming up... *drum roll* ... NINI !!! Ngl, D+S... ummm, how to put this kindly? I'll shut up, and give them a chance. At least we have WYNONNA! Oooh, Azan singing Anita Baker, and sounding sweeeet!!!

Here we go! Woohoo! And Mara chooses... Niall!

Really love Alison's tone. It's sweet, warm, quite radio friendly, imo. She's nowhere near the vocal beast Jacquie is, but she did well here

Looking forward to Radiohead and Evanescence later tonight. Two of my fav bands. With Nini, expectations are high, so fingers crossed we'll get fine to great performances of both, but regardless, just grateful to have the chance to hear these artists get to try on these great songs for size. Do we know Azan's song choice yet? Any hero?

Oh, I see, you meant Alexa with Believe, sorry my bad. Yes, you're right, Adam's version of the song is unBELIEVEable! Love Alexa, but those are big shoes, umm platform boots, to fill!

Mini-essay warning (read at your own risk) !!! For me, yes: Tanner > RUDI > Chechi I didn't hate any of the song choices, but I can see why some of you do. The most familiar song of the three is over-familiar, over-played, over-performed, and by an artist who I gather isn't too highly regarded here on IDF. Now, I'm no Shawn Mendes fan, but "In My Blood" is by far his best song, imho. Compositionally, the song is actually more rock than pop, and to me, some of the best parts almost could have been from a Kings of Leon song (humor me by imagining a rock vocal on the track; you'll really need to excise Shawn from the endeavor). So, it's kind of my bag. I think the song was to Shawn what "Sign of the Times" was to Harry, except that Harry would actually go on to transcend that moment, whereas the former I think will never be better than his best song. I agree the song is massively overdone, but when done right, it can be massively audience friendly. And here, Tanner did it right. Not a fan of his enunciation at the start (it's "help" not "hel" -- can the vocal coaches "help" the contestant hit those consonants, please!), but he built the song up quite magnificently and he definitely soared on the stadium chorus. Ngl, I'm a fan of Tanner's tone and emotional connection to the material, and he delivered both here, big time. Remember, he was the team newbie here, against two technically gifted four-chair turns! So I don't see Favoritism, but rather that he was Fodder (even had to go first, followed by the prohibitive Fav, Chechi) to begin with, but simply Flipped the script? Unpop here, but I disagree that Chechi's song choice was a bus. NCSG is absolutely a humongous hit from the Motown era (none of you complained when Tom chose a far more obscure Motown song), one made famous by none other than The Jackson 5, with none other than one Michael Jackson on vocals, and later, a hit several times over, famously by Gloria Gaynor (beloved in the disco era, i.e. same era as "Loving You"). Now, I originally hail from the UK, and in the late 80's/early 90's, The Communards had a monster hit with the song that is massive on the dance floor to this day. I have very fond memories of the song, with it's super-high wailing notes (tbh, perfect for Chechi). I don't think it was a "deliberate" bus, firstly because the band, instrumentation, arrangement and overall sound mix is stellar on this. Chechi's voice is perfectly positioned in mix. The setting was there for her to succeed with song (or some would argue, despite the song). Secondly, I suspect Chechi is a Jackson fan! Look at BA outfit -- reminds me of Janet! Take out the runs, riffs and whistle notes, and imagine her on a ballad like "Let's Wait Awhile". I think the tone is a near perfect match. And close your eyes while listening to NCSG, and tell me you don't hear Michael! Where Chechi falls short here is of high expectations, and literally the high note ("no", "so", "more", etc., twice? thrice? that was that many times too many to be under for a singer of her caliber on such a famously prominent note) in the first part of the song, but when she finally nails it at 3:43 ("...go!" -- maybe a touch strained?), she hit her stride and was Chech-excellent. That said, if you aren't as familiar with song as I am, I can see why one might blame the song choice. Also, it was a more up-tempo song than we've previously heard from Chechi, so there's that (though I thought she was more than fine in the pocket). RUDI -- I thought she was STELLAR here! A deserved save (unfortunately over Chechi) for sure. Only passingly familiar with the song, but I don't think that matters as much, when I can clearly see that this is EXACTLY the kind of artist she wants to be. You can see how overjoyed she was at the end of the performance. And why not? She nailed all the little runs to perfection, and showed pro-level mastery of tempo and pocket for a song where I imagine that is paramount. I honestly don't hear her put a foot wrong, except that the song doesn't perhaps allow her to soar like Tanner's did. RUDI's the better technical singer, but Tanner FTW, for me, for overall tone preference and those stand-out emotional highs in his delivery. I think Gwen's strategy was always to save one of this trio, and hopefully have another stolen. On paper this was the trio for that to happen, no? Except that (depending on the sequence of events), John chose to steal Brandon instead of Chechi. Again, sorry for the mini-essay.

Hmm, I don't seem to remember an Adam Lambert version of "Fire and Rain"? Can someone point me to it? I do remember an incredible version of Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire" though, on his Idol run, and he returned to Idol recently as a mentor and performed a stellar version of Tina Turner's "I Can't Stand the Rain".

WTF, Dan+Shay???? Gimme back my Winonna! She did soooo gooooood! These guys have all of next season!?!

Mara also shot for the rafters and hit it out of the park! Both girls cleaned up their enunciation (vocal coaches finally showed up for work?). A true battle royale!!! I say battle because unfortunately, Caleb did not show up for the knockout. Overall, best night of the season thus far, imo KAYLEE WINS!!!! MARA gets the double steal !!!!

Wow, Kaylee!!!! You go girl!!!! That was showstopping, ngl!!!

The girls have picked HUUUGE songs. Swinging for the fences. Looking forward to this.

Meh choice from Caleb? He's toast with this against those two!

Battle of the four-chairs! This better be good!!! These three can SANG! "Ain't No Way"... wow, Kaylee singing from the JHud playbook again! BOLD!!! Wynonna killing it as a judge!

Loved Alison, but yeah, Jacquie is next level. Really good first battle! Sad to see Alison go, compounded by the double steal for Tom (not that it wasn't deserved, but kinda wish Gwen stole Alison).

Niall with good song taste! Oooh, Alison improved from rehearsals. I like this! Not Jacquie level, but it's good!

Wasn't 100% sure about the Maren Morris choice, not that it's not a good song, but Jacquie SLAYED that! Still looking forward to "It's Too Late".

SWVK

Aww, Jacquie singing for her little girl Her voice is incredible. Would have loved a battle between Jacquie and Huntley! Can we get a duet in the finale? The half step adjustment was spot on

Note: John, "And they pick their own songs this round." (from the cleared pool, of course) Wynonna!!!! Jacquie!!! Carole King!!! "It's Too Late"!!!! LOVE that song! Wow, sound coaching from Wynonna. Impressed, tbh

YAY! Knockouts baby!!!! About time too!

Very high technical paise from Niall vs. very honest assessment of her own team performance from Gwen

Okay, much better from Brandon. But those harmonies were a little rough, ngl Kara is fine.

Honestly, Brandon was rough in rehearsal. Luckily, Gwen recognized, and gave some solid advice. Hope it comes together!