American Idol Top 13 Sing Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder, Most Don’t Pull It Off
Jermaine Jones sings “Knocks Me Off My Feet.” Jimmy Iovine says he’s thrilled that the judges brought Jermaine back but he doesn’t deserve to be left out of the competition. As Jimmy is the replacement Simon of this show I feel like his opinion now holds a lot of weight. Steven says the song fits him like an Armani suit, JLo says he should connect more with the audience and suggested he sing to her, and Randy says he wasn’t crazy about the chorus but he’s akin to Jerry Butler.
Erika Van Pelt, the resurrected wild card, gives “I Believe In You and Me” a shot, a risk considering it’s one of Whitney’s more popular songs. Mary and Jimmy think she needs to sing in her own style and avoid attempting to replicate Whitney because well, nobody can. The judges praise her.
Colton Dixon does “Lately.” Jimmy and Mary are weirded out by it and ask him to sing one of his own original songs. So he does. Then he sings “Lately” again and now they love it. During the actual performance, he is really feelin’ it. Steven and JLo love it and Randy says there were some technical issues. He is finally starting to be real with the contestants.
Shannon Magrane sings “I Have Nothing,” another major Whitney classic. She starts off extremely shaky and off key, and continues to sound nervous and uncomfortable throughout the song. JLo says she was thinking too much, Steven says her nerves got the best of her and that she “crashed and burned on her turnaround.” Randy agrees.
