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"It&amp;#039;s hard to believe we&amp;#039;re already into the second week of live shows, but so it goes. With only nine contestants left in the running, it&amp;#039;s anyone&amp;#039;s guess as to who will bag the title of American Idol this season, but we&amp;#039;ll soon find out. For now, it&amp;#039;s time for another round of performances, so let&amp;#039;s get to it.  Tonight, it&amp;#039;s Beatles night, and you know what that means: some pretty average renditions of &amp;quot;classic&amp;quot; tracks that you&amp;#039;ve heard a million times. Try to contain your excitement! By the way, before we get started, Carly Rae Jepsen has turned up and she&amp;#039;s letting us know about her partnership with Coca Cola to let America write a song she&amp;#039;ll sing. Sounds like grounds for a total disaster. We also find out the results of a poll to determine who should fill the 11th spot on the Idol tour, and it&amp;#039;s Aubrey Cleland. Anyway, onwards!    First up tonight, it&amp;#039;s Kree Harrison, who&amp;#039;s definitely my American Idol - and yes, I&amp;#039;m comfortable with saying that already. She&amp;#039;s chosen &amp;#039;With A Little Help From My Friends&amp;#039; and despite having had a cold most of the week, she sounds brilliant as per usual. She changes the song up just enough to be her own while still maintaining the general spirit of the original. Her vocals are effortless and on point, and she&amp;#039;s just so great to watch. If this girl doesn&amp;#039;t win, I&amp;#039;ll eat my hat. Well, I would if I had one, anyway.  Keith thinks it was a great way to start the show and he loves that no matter what song she&amp;#039;s doing, Kree stays true to herself. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re all the cool things about country - bluesy and soulful,&amp;quot; he says, adding that she&amp;#039;ll have no trouble getting through tonight. Nicki agrees, saying that she adores the way she puts her &amp;quot;own Kreedom&amp;quot; on songs and makes the perfect choice for her voice. Nicki thinks she also looks really great and is becoming a superstar before their eyes. &amp;quot;You are the whole entire package!&amp;quot; she raves.  Randy dubs it &amp;quot;the bomb performance&amp;quot; and appreciates that she came out and blew the vocals out of the water and showed a lot of confidence. Mariah didn&amp;#039;t think it was good, she thought it was &amp;quot;fan-freakin&amp;#039;-tastic&amp;quot; and urges the public to vote for Kree. That shouldn&amp;#039;t be a problem!  Next up, Burnell Taylor has a bit of a problem because he doesn&amp;#039;t know &amp;#039;Let It Be&amp;#039; but the rest of the world does, and unfortunately, that&amp;#039;s what he&amp;#039;s chosen to sing. First of all, how do you not know that song? You don&amp;#039;t even have to be from a particular background to have heard it - it&amp;#039;s just... worldwide. But I guess it&amp;#039;s understandable. His vocals are great - there&amp;#039;s no doubt this kid can sing and has a really pleasing tone to listen to. He&amp;#039;s still a bit boring - he just stands in one place and sings and that&amp;#039;s it - but considering this is a singing competition, he&amp;#039;s doing a good job of that, at least. Nicki applauds him for not just singing the song but &amp;#039;caressing&amp;#039; it and using delicate riffs and raspiness - she felt like she was in church listening to it. She loves that he, like Kree, is keeping his own artistry regardless of what he&amp;#039;s singing. Randy could tell that he didn&amp;#039;t really know The Beatles, but he still managed to pull out a great performance and make smart choices, which is the mark of a great artist. Mariah was worried before he got on stage, but she was really proud to see him give such a heartfelt performance. Keith thinks he has the most instantly recognisable, soulful tone and hopes America responds to it like the panel has.    Amber Holcomb has chosen &amp;#039;She&amp;#039;s Leaving Home&amp;#039; - I know a bit of Beatles music, but I don&amp;#039;t think I&amp;#039;ve ever heard this one. Shame on me! She&amp;#039;s another singer with an effortless voice who could go out and record an album tomorrow and it would still be great. The orchestra sitting in smoke is a nice touch, and she seems composed and professional. It&amp;#039;s hard to fault her performances because she just seems like someone who&amp;#039;s been doing this for so many years already. Not the best song choice, but still nice to listen to. Randy thinks it started a bit slow, but by the time it got into the second verse, it picked up and she found her rhythm eventually. Mariah applauds Amber for performing the track in such a fearless way despite her not having known it previously, saying she did a &amp;quot;beautiful job&amp;quot;. The track happens to be Keith&amp;#039;s favourite from The Beatles, and he believes Amber managed to make it seem as fresh and modern as ever. Nicki comments on her lipstick and long legs before getting to her &amp;quot;unmatched vocal&amp;quot;, admitting that she could tell Amber was wondering why she was singing that song because it&amp;#039;s clear she didn&amp;#039;t love it.  Moving right along, Lazaro Arbos is doing &amp;#039;In My Life&amp;#039;, which is one of my personal favourite Beatles songs. He&amp;#039;s trying something pretty ambitious with it, changing the tempo just slightly and making it... well, boring. It&amp;#039;s meant to be low-key and intimate, but it&amp;#039;s just not working. I like Lazaro, but he&amp;#039;s off key in several areas and the arrangement just isn&amp;#039;t working. He seems uncomfortable, and I&amp;#039;m uncomfortable listening to it, as well.  Mariah knows it&amp;#039;s difficult to perform a Lennon/McCartney song (which is her way of saying it sucked), and she commends him on his bravery for standing on the stage and making it through the song. However, she does critique the performance by saying that a song so intimate should have been done acoustically and was just a little too low for him. Keith agrees that choosing the key of a song is very important - it started off in the right one, but the rest of the song didn&amp;#039;t bring out the &amp;quot;sweet spot&amp;quot; in his voice.  Nicki is sad because he&amp;#039;s not the Lazaro that she remembers from earlier rounds, particularly because he comes off as nervous and lacking confidence. Randy thinks it was his worst performance ever and that it was out of tune from beginning to end - he&amp;#039;s beginning to wonder where Lazaro&amp;#039;s vocals have gone.   Next up, Candice Glover is covering &amp;#039;Come Together&amp;#039;, which could give her voice a place to shine. It&amp;#039;s rock-driven, soulful and loud, giving her a chance to show a different side of herself. Is it the most amazing thing I&amp;#039;ve ever heard? No, definitely not, but she still manages to make it work even though this is definitely not in her wheelhouse. Most importantly, her vocals are spot on with not one note out of place. Can&amp;#039;t fault Candice at all. Keith loves seeing her showing off a different vibe (the &amp;quot;rock chick vibe&amp;quot;) and knows she could have gone even crazier with it vocally. Still, he says it was &amp;quot;absolutely killer&amp;quot;. Nicki reveals that her &amp;quot;Barbz&amp;quot; (fans) are sweating her and even she loves Candice&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;out of this world insane&amp;quot; vocal, but sometimes she wants her to show off more attitude in her face. Randy agrees that her voice is &amp;quot;crazy&amp;quot; and is glad she chose to do something uptempo, straying from the ballads that she&amp;#039;s known for. Mariah is glad that she &amp;quot;murdered&amp;quot; the song but thinks the only thing is missing is that she hasn&amp;#039;t experimented too much with her voice to show off what she can really do.  Paul Jolley is going to ruin another of my favourite Beatles songs by performing &amp;#039;Eleanor Rigby&amp;#039;. He&amp;#039;s far too theatrical and just not good enough vocally, in my opinion. Despite being given advice to tone all that down, he still tries his hardest to stare in a sultry way down the camera and closes his eyes/raises his arms to indicate how passionate he is about music, I guess. I just can&amp;#039;t with this guy. It&amp;#039;s not the worst thing I&amp;#039;ve ever heard, but it&amp;#039;s certainly not anywhere near one of the best, either. Get rid of this guy.  Nicki likes his outfit but did not like the performance because it was &amp;quot;very safe, bland and forgettable&amp;quot;. Agreed! Randy loves &amp;#039;Eleanor Rigby&amp;#039; and thinks that by the time he hit his &amp;quot;sweet notes&amp;quot;, that&amp;#039;s when it got better - still, he never quite got into it and seemed disconnected. Mariah loves the song choice and agrees with Randy about his sweet spot, but she&amp;#039;d advise him to work on giving as much emotion when he&amp;#039;s singing softly as when he&amp;#039;s at the top of his range. Keith isn&amp;#039;t a big fan of the falsetto but thinks the &amp;quot;pop-rock edge&amp;quot; he brought to the middle of the track was okay.   Next up, it&amp;#039;s Miley Cyrus Angie Miller, who&amp;#039;s chosen to sing &amp;#039;Yesterday&amp;#039; and wants to keep it simple. Her version of simple is just standing alone on a very dim stage and singing - simple enough, indeed. The vocals aren&amp;#039;t as good as they could be - she seems nervous or like she&amp;#039;s trying to do too much and show off her entire range when the song doesn&amp;#039;t really call for it. She&amp;#039;s still good, mind, and definitely won&amp;#039;t be going home, but I&amp;#039;ve definitely heard her do better.  Randy dubs her one of his favourite singers in the competition because she gives stellar performances and is able to hold back and emote. However, she also gave them a little &amp;quot;twirl&amp;quot; in her vocals in the end just so they don&amp;#039;t forget what she&amp;#039;s capable of. He also compares her to Hayley Williams from Paramore (my girl!) because of her rocky edge and loves listening to her.  Mariah feels that Angie did a respectable version of the song, especially since it&amp;#039;s such a popular one that people would be critical of. She showed her voice and showed simplicity but also still has that other edge, which Mariah hopes to see more of. Keith noticed moments when she was trying to stop thinking about people&amp;#039;s advice and loved it when Angie became herself again - she drifted in and out of that state, but he could see her the whole time. Nicki calls it &amp;quot;unbelievably amazing&amp;quot;, and loves that she didn&amp;#039;t play it safe.   Devin Velez is giving his all on a version of &amp;#039;The Long and Winding Road&amp;#039; - another track I&amp;#039;m not all that familiar with but one that he absolutely kills, in the best way possible, with that R&amp;amp;B flair he&amp;#039;s got and that effortless passion. I really love Devin&amp;#039;s voice - he sings the hell out of absolutely every song he gets, and this performance has a bit of Donny Hathaway in it, even (though he was going for more Brian McKnight). I really like listening to him. Mariah never ceases to be amazed and doesn&amp;#039;t have words for his performance because it was &amp;quot;so good&amp;quot; and he&amp;#039;s a budding star. Devin has sung so many different types of music for them, and she says hasn&amp;#039;t disappointed them ever. Keith was a fan of the song, but thinks he&amp;#039;s missing a little bit of passion because his laid-back attitude could come off as lack of engagement. Nicki disagrees and loves that he is committed emotionally all the time and doesn&amp;#039;t try too hard. Randy had been missing the &amp;quot;swag&amp;quot; and thinks it was great to finally see it in tonight&amp;#039;s performance.  Finally, it&amp;#039;s Janelle Arthur with &amp;#039;I Will&amp;#039;. This isn&amp;#039;t one of my favourites, by any means, but Janelle manages a nice, stripped-back performance that still stays true to her country roots even though it&amp;#039;s a bit boring, I think. Vocally, she&amp;#039;s completely on point and everything is on-key. Every time I see her, however, I just keep thinking how much more fun Rachel Hale would have been to watch as she has more personality and a similar voice.  Keith loves the country element in her voice and the fact that it&amp;#039;s always present and appreciates that even in a long white gown, she&amp;#039;s still rocking the cowboy boots. Janelle is pure and true, which is another good thing. Nicki wants to renew her vows with Janelle, who she describes as a &amp;quot;beautiful swan goddess&amp;quot;, and says that she is even more obsessed with her after that performance. Randy proclaims that Janelle is back tonight after that performance and thinks it was one of the best of the night. Mariah appreciates that she&amp;#039;s listened to the judges&amp;#039; feedback over the past few weeks and thinks that it hasn&amp;#039;t gotten to her because she&amp;#039;s still &amp;quot;sweet, elegant and gorgeous&amp;quot;. Well, that&amp;#039;s it for tonight. Who will make it through to the Top 8 and who will be headed home? Tune in tomorrow night (Thursday, March 21) at 8/7c on Fox to find out.   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/american-idol/news/a467270/american-idol-top-9-perform-songs-by-the-beatles-recap/>