ScarletDevilCCX

Unfortunately, that was brilliant. She went full Whitney on that ending which is perfect because she's at her best when she's channeling Whitney. The reason it's unfortunate is because whenever she gets out of that niche, she's awful. I'm dreading the idea of her still being here for Coldplay week.

Well, I managed to get through it without crying. Yay?

I think so.

That was an outstanding vocal showcase. Reminded me of Maddie.

Coldplay Week? Well, that's certainly a decision.

Also, wow Casey looks good tonight.

I was worried that even for Idol's compressed slots, that song might be too short, and I was right. It was a great performance until he had to pad it out at the end, and then it kind of got derailed a bit.

Though since he was in-character as Ada at the time, I guess Willie is still the first male.

No, Adam explicitly regarded Ada as an "alter ego". He's a drag queen. I think.

That was very mediocre, which by Willie standards means it was downright awful.

I'm not a fan of this performance. I think Caleb has a future in this industry, but not as a performer--every time he's done an original, I've been amazed that a 16-year-old wrote those songs because they're radio-ready. His voice? Not radio-ready. At all.

Casey no... Well, at least that song choice will get Alyssa sent packing. If Hunter really goes for that, I might have to reconsider my opinion on him. At least if he does it justice, and I can listen to it all the way through without bawling because Dumbo was my late father's favorite Disney movie.

Same. I hope her whole '90s thing extends to Disney Week (actually that's not quite true; the movie I want her to sing a song from came out in 1989...)

Eh, I'm not hearing it. I guess a bit, but they're very different performances. I score the head-to-head at 1-1, by the way. I liked Casey's "Black Hole Sun" better, but no one's ever going to beat out Haley on "House of the Rising Sun".

Uh...looks like I have to break the rating scale in both directions. Louis beat Makayla! I didn't think anyone was going to top Makayla!

Okay, Olivia would be an acceptable alternative to Makayla.

Well that too. Except Makayla; she's worthy of a spot.

...Excuse me? You're going to have to explain that one to me.

These professionals making the contestants look bad!

Let's just give Aliana some thanks. By giving a performance that I couldn't give 2 stars to while only being the third-worst performance so far, she opened the door for me to literally have a difference of 107 points between best and worst performance on a scale that should be only 100 points from minimum to maximum. Because while I had to go into negatives to express how much worse Franklin was than Aliana's already awful performance, Makayla slayed it, just shy of a perfect score from me.

Okay, actual talent taking the stage now.

That performance started out "not good but not actively bad" and progressively got worse.

Also, I'll totally take the blame for this. Back in Season 17, I suggested "Use Somebody" for Wade Cota (who I found to be very limited but perfectly enjoyable as long as he stuck to songs that fit his voice), and Eddie Island ended up singing it instead. And last night, I lamented that the theme being "Oscar Nominees" instead of "Songs from the Movies" meant that IDWTMAT was on the menu while Iris wasn't, and we didn't get IDWTMAT but we got this horrible version of Iris tonight.

It, uh...isn't as bad as Franklin's "Meant to Live"?