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"American Idol season 11 returns this week to kick off the first live performances of the chosen 13 finalists. The show will honor the late Whitney Houston as the girls perform songs from her discography, while the boys will sing Stevie Wonder hits. The Top 13 finalists are as follows - DeAndre Brackensick, Hollie Cavanagh, Colton Dixon, Heejun Han, Jermaine Jones, Skylar Laine, Joshua Ledet, Shannon Magraine, Phillip Phillips, Jeremy Rosado, Jessica Sanchez, Elise Testone and Erika Van Pelt. One finalist will be voted off on Thursday, but join Digital Spy tonight as we live blog throughout the performances.  22:04It&amp;#039;s a wrap for the first live performance of the finalists. Watch American Idol again on Thursday, March 8 at 8/7c as one finalist will leave the competition - and don&amp;#039;t forget to vote for your favourite contender from the Top 13 in our exit poll. 22:03Before ending the show, Ryan asks the judges to pick two finalists who could be in trouble and two stand-out finalists. Randy begins by saying he has &amp;quot;no real idea&amp;quot; of who could be in the bottom, but he picks Joshua and Jessica as his top two choices. Jennifer, on the other hand, names Shannon as the finalist that she thinks is in trouble. She defends her choice by telling Shannon and the audience that it was her best performance. Steven also puts Shannon on his &amp;quot;worried&amp;quot; list along with Elise, but it seems that Jessica is his only top choice. 21:54  Phillip takes to the stage with a guitar on him, and two other male guitarists join in for the jam. He is praised for making the song his own, with Randy saying that he just can&amp;#039;t wait to hear Phillip&amp;#039;s interpretations of his choices. 21:50Phillip Phillips, our last finalist of the night, makes a big statement right away. He says that &amp;#039;Superstition&amp;#039; has not been done the way he is going to do it tonight. 21:46  Jessica receives the first standing ovation of the night from the judges. Randy calls her &amp;quot;legit&amp;#039; and proclaims her as the &amp;quot;best singer in the competition&amp;quot;, while Jennifer is &amp;quot;speechless&amp;quot; at how amazing her performance is. Steven ends the critique by telling Jessica: &amp;quot;You just made 40 million people cry.&amp;quot; 21:39Jessica Sanchez says that she has taken a huge risk by tacking Whitney&amp;#039;s biggest hit &amp;#039;I Will Always Love You&amp;#039;. 21:38  Jeremy attracts praise for &amp;#039;Ribbon In The Sky&amp;#039; from Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, who picked Jeremy for a place in the Top 13 as a wildcard. Randy, however, wasn&amp;#039;t sold by Jeremy&amp;#039;s performance, as he tells him that he lacked &amp;quot;swag&amp;quot; to make it more believable. 21:31Wildcard Jeremy Rosado says he wants to prove to himself that he deserves his spot. 21:29  Hollie Cavanagh soars with &amp;#039;He Fills Me Up&amp;#039;. Randy brings up the fact that her choice was one of Whitney&amp;#039;s biggest songs and says that Hollie &amp;quot;nailed it&amp;quot;.  Jennifer stops herself from possibly declaring Hollie as the winner, but she does predict that there might be a &amp;quot;sing off between two girls&amp;quot;. We wonder - who could be Hollie&amp;#039;s competition? 21:23  Heejun takes center stage singing &amp;#039;All In Love is Fair&amp;#039; behind a group of violinists. As expected, Heejun amazes the judges once again, so much so that even Jennifer declares her love for him. Randy says &amp;quot;it wasn&amp;#039;t perfect, but it was really good.&amp;quot; 21:18Heejun Han begins his segment by explaining a few pictures that he posted on his Twitter page. Mary J Blige&amp;#039;s comment that she was not expecting that voice to come out of Heejun reminded us of his very first audition. 21:15  This season&amp;#039;s country girl Skylar Laine chooses the big ballad &amp;#039;Where Do Broken Hearts Go&amp;#039;. The beginning of her performance is labelled &amp;quot;nasal&amp;quot;, but the judges are blown away by the end, causing it to draw probably the biggest compliments so far tonight. Jennifer tells Skylar: &amp;quot;You gave us biggest moment of the night.&amp;quot; 21:08Skylar Laine admits that she has never sung a Whitney Houston song, since she didn&amp;#039;t grow up listening to the late singer. 21:02  Wildcard DeAndre Brackensick is back singing his own rendition of &amp;#039;Master Blaster&amp;#039; (Jammin&amp;#039;)&amp;#039;. Steven Tyler loves that DeAndre is a &amp;quot;different flavor&amp;quot; and J-Lo admits that she didn&amp;#039;t want the song to stop, which Randy agrees with as he tells DeAndre that he was &amp;quot;performing&amp;quot; on stage. 20:56Shannon tells the judges that she &amp;quot;can sing that song&amp;quot;. When she was asked by Ryan what she was thinking during the performance, Shannon admits she was more focus on how to sing &amp;#039;I Have Nothing&amp;#039;. 20:55  Colton is followed up by Shannon Magrane, who went for Whitney&amp;#039;s 1993 &amp;#039;I Have Nothing&amp;#039;. Mary J Blige tells Shannon to stop thinking and just sing the notes. While it appeared Shannon ended things on a good note during her session with the mentors, the live performance tells a different story. As Steven Tyler puts it, her nerves got the best of her. 20:48  Colton Dixon decides on &amp;#039;Lately&amp;#039;, but Jimmy and Mary aren&amp;#039;t feeling his choice until Jimmy makes him play his own song on the piano, which impressed both guest mentors. Jimmy advises Colton to rely on his vulnerability, since it&amp;#039;s an asset here. Jennifer can be heard yelling &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; in the background at the end of his performance. Steven loved his final note, while Randy says the song started shaky until the last eight bars, where Colton was &amp;quot;flawless&amp;quot;. 20:37  Erika Van Pelt is a lady in red as she begins her performance with an interview on stage with Ryan. She chooses to go for Whitney&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll Believe In You And Me&amp;#039;. Mentor Jimmy says that if she does a literal version of the song, she&amp;#039;ll find herself in trouble. Guest mentor Mary J. Blige agrees with Jimmy, saying she&amp;#039;ll &amp;quot;crash and burn&amp;quot; if she sings it like Whitney.  Randy was sold by Erika, and tells her not to think when she performs. Jennifer admits she got &amp;quot;goosies&amp;quot; but tells Erika she is still &amp;quot;playing it safe&amp;quot;. Steven says that Erika was at her best during the chorus. Just like Jermaine, Erika needs to &amp;quot;let it go&amp;quot;. 20:30  Jermaine Jones, aka the &amp;#039;Gentle Giant&amp;#039;, follows Elise. Steven Tyler says his voice fits &amp;#039;Knocks Me Off My Feet&amp;#039; perfectly. Although Jennifer Lopez knows Jermaine is hitting the notes, she wants to see him feel more connected with it. Randy loves the way he sang the verses, but didn&amp;#039;t like the chorus. The judges agree that Jermaine needs to be more &amp;quot;relaxed&amp;quot; next week. 20:27  Elise Testone chooses Whitney Houston&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Greatest Love of All&amp;#039;. Both the finalists&amp;#039; mentors Jimmy Iovine and Mary J. Blige are unsure with Elise&amp;#039;s selection, which worries the finalist. So instead of singing her original choice, Elise takes the stage with a rendition of &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m Your Baby Tonight&amp;#039;, chosen by Jimmy. Unfortunately for Elise, it isn&amp;#039;t met with praises from the judges, as they all agree that this wasn&amp;#039;t the best performance from her. 20:12Randy Jackson praises Joshua for proving tonight that he can do ballads and now uptempo. 20:07  Joshua Ledet kicks things off for the guys with his rendition of Stevie Wonder&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Wish&amp;#039;. 20:04It&amp;#039;s the first time in Idol history where the girls will go into direct competition against the guys - tomorrow night, the judges will be made to save either the bottom-placed female or male contestant after the public voting results have been announced. 20:03Ryan Seacrest begins the live show by announcing that tonight is the 400th American Idol episode. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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