The group opened the results show this week with "Bailamos," which I enjoyed a lot. Ryan announced that they have received over 5,000 entries for the American Idol Songwriter competition. Then footage was shown of Ryan walking around The Farmers Market in Los Angeles getting people's opinions of the show on Tuesday night.
Ryan then told the viewers about the American Idol Hit List where, each week, you can vote for your five favorite songs from the top 50 on the hit list. Then the votes will e tallied and announced on the show the following week. You can also suggest some that are not currently on the list as well. One of the top 50 songs selected by the voters will be performed by the original artist during the show! This week Akon performed his hit "Don't Matter." He got the crowd on their feet and swaying to the music.
The Ford music vignette was next, featuring the song "Happy Together," originally sung by the Turtles. They used morphing visual techniques on the contestants and the cars.
Ryan mentioned the Idol Gives Back campaign and News Corp pledging 5 million dollars. The lineup of star performers keeps increasing as we get closer to the big week. Then a clip of Simon and Ryan in Africa with some little children and the "schoolroom in a box" was shown. One of the little girls drew a picture of Simon and it was hilarious. Ryan also tried to coax Simon into singing if people donated large sums of money, but he flat out refused.
Next there was an "unseen audition" video clip spoof featuring Tony Bennett that was pretty funny.
Then we had the Latin show recap and the contestants talking about their experience working with Jennifer Lopez, followed by Jennifer performing a song off her new album, which is number one on the Latin charts. She sang entirely in Spanish. I liked the music and, thanks to my high school Spanish classes many years back, I was able to understand a few words of the song. Jennifer was then interviewed by Ryan as to how she would judge the contestants. She made the comment that she comes from the "Paula school of criticism" and always accentuates the positive, hoping that more positives will be the result.
In the biggest vote of the season so far, with over 35 million votes cast, the bottom three chosen this week were Phil Stacey, Haley Scarnato and Chris Richardson.
Haley Scarnato was sent home this week. She sang "Turn The Beat Around" as her exit song. I think she did a much better job of it this time around. It was much stronger vocally this time, possibly because she channeled her frustration and disappointment of having to leave into her performance. I see her following down Katharine McPhee's path - a good combination of fashion and music. Best of luck to you, Haley!
