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"We&amp;#039;re down to the Top 10 on American Idol, and it&amp;#039;s time for the live shows to begin! With five girls and five boys left in the competition, it&amp;#039;s anyone&amp;#039;s guess as to who this year&amp;#039;s winner will be. Tonight, they begin the final part of their journey: trying to win America over. How will they do? Let&amp;#039;s find out - sans Nicki, who is inexplicably absent from the panel. Oh wait, it&amp;#039;s the LA traffic that&amp;#039;s to blame. First up, it&amp;#039;s Curtis Finch Jr, who gets to meet with Jimmy Iovine prior to his performance for some advice and guidance. Curtis wants to be a modern Luther Vandross, but Jimmy urges him not to limit himself and get stuck in being too retro. Tonight, he&amp;#039;ll be singing Fantasia&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Believe&amp;#039;, which is a song he&amp;#039;s always loved since seeing her perform it a few seasons ago. Curtis has a great voice, but considering this is his first performance on the live shows, you&amp;#039;d think he would pick something that could highlight his voice a bit better. Unfortunately, this song falls a bit flat - it&amp;#039;s totally in the wrong key for him - and it&amp;#039;s almost as if he feels he doesn&amp;#039;t have to try. He sings incredibly well, of course, but it&amp;#039;s just a bit boring.  Keith disagrees with me, applauding him for always choosing the right songs because he knows who he is as an artist. However, he advises him not to let the adrenaline put him on the wrong key. Randy likes his vibe in general and thinks a couple of things were great in the track, but he now wants to see something a little different as he always sees these type of songs. Mariah disagrees, loving the &amp;quot;choir feeling&amp;quot; tonight and the gospel tinge he has in his voice.    Next up, Janelle Arthur is singing &amp;#039;Gone&amp;#039; by Montgomery Gentry, which Jimmy thinks is a good idea for her considering she does great with country ballads but wants to show different sides of herself. She does a well enough job of it - she&amp;#039;s entertaining, has a great voice and definitely puts all of herself into it. I can see her as a viable country artist, but it still falls a bit flat for me - the background music drowns her out in parts and all the running around on stage does change her vocal ability a bit. Overall, not bad for a first effort, though.  After getting her standing ovation from the audience, Keith comments that she was &amp;quot;burning it up&amp;quot; on stage and found it refreshing to hear a woman sing that song. Nicki&amp;#039;s here now and calls her &amp;quot;King Arthur&amp;quot; (uh, okay) before saying that her song from last week suited her better than this. However, she can see Janelle&amp;#039;s confidence has gone up and she is &amp;quot;electric and beautiful and exciting&amp;quot;. Still, she&amp;#039;s never 1000% on her song choices. Randy admits that the song didn&amp;#039;t lead anywhere and it may not have been the best choice, but it&amp;#039;s good to see her work the stage. Mariah feels that her &amp;quot;aura&amp;quot; was giving off star quality and notes that her favourite quality is the way Janelle&amp;#039;s voice can soar on ballads.  Devin Velez confides in Jimmy before his performance that his &amp;quot;sweet spot&amp;quot; is in his ballads, but Jimmy thinks he&amp;#039;s capable of doing more contemporary things. This week, Devin&amp;#039;s trying Carrie Underwood&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Temporary Home&amp;#039; as he thinks it&amp;#039;ll show America that he&amp;#039;s capable of different things and he also really relates to the message behind the track.  I absolutely love Devin&amp;#039;s voice. He&amp;#039;s got a lot to work on with his performances in general, but when it comes to singing (which is what this competition is supposed to be about, anyway), he&amp;#039;s just got it. It comes off as effortless and so melodic, though unfortunately the slower pace of the song makes it a bit boring if you&amp;#039;re looking for something more visual. I don&amp;#039;t know, but I like him.  Keith doesn&amp;#039;t think it was one of his better performances, which he puts down to the wrong song choice. It played to a great place in his voice, but he didn&amp;#039;t feel that Devin had confidence in it. Still, he thinks Devin has an amazing voice and beautiful vibrato. Nicki thinks Keith is &amp;quot;so crazy&amp;quot; and disagrees with everything he said, adding that she was afraid Devin was going to switch it up but this is him, his comfort zone. She thinks he looks like a professional and sounds great. &amp;quot;I love the song with your voice, I really did!&amp;quot;  Randy thinks it was way too safe and he underplayed himself, saying that the Top 10 have to put themselves out there and not rest on their laurels. Mariah knows he has the ability to do so much, but because of that, the judges expect more from him. For the competition, it was a boring song choice but she wants him to keep his confidence and really go for it next time.    Angie Miller is next, and has anyone noticed how much she looks like Miley Cyrus? I mean, good lord. Anyway, Jimmy says that she&amp;#039;s believable and likeable, but he feels like he&amp;#039;s watching a beauty pageant when she performs at times - trying to prove she can sing, dance, play instruments, etc. She&amp;#039;s singing Celine Dion&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Surrender&amp;#039;, which Kelly Clarkson sang years ago when she was on the show.  The performance is good - not great, but good. Her voice is strong and clear, but I can see where Jimmy&amp;#039;s coming from with the pageant comment. She stares into the camera and adds in too much drama with her facial reactions and the like. Of course, the point of the competition is to put yourself into it, but I don&amp;#039;t know, I think it might work more in her favour if she tones a lot of that external stuff down. The audience loves it, though, giving her a standing ovation. &amp;quot;As do I surrender, Angie!&amp;quot; is the first thing out of Keith&amp;#039;s mouth. He goes on to say that she&amp;#039;s a true artist and can take any song from any era and sound contemporary. Nicki thinks she looks like a billion dollars and is obsessed with her dress, plus she loves how Angie walks in heels. Well, okay. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re just, to me, perfection on every level,&amp;quot; she adds, calling her voice &amp;quot;flawless&amp;quot;. Randy is glad that the competition finally started with Angie&amp;#039;s performance, and believes she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;in it to win it&amp;quot;. Mariah calls it &amp;quot;stellar&amp;quot; and leaves it at that.  Next up, Paul Jolley meets with Jimmy and is told that he &amp;quot;perpetually oversings&amp;quot;, which is great for stage but not for popstars. Paul does know he gets too into the performance and vows to tone down the theatrics. He&amp;#039;s going to sing Lonestar&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Amazed&amp;#039;, which he saw Scotty McCreery do a couple years back and really enjoyed.  Paul sounds okay, but those theatrics are still there - much like Angela does, only he&amp;#039;s not good enough to pull it off. I never really got why the judges liked Paul so much, as I find him pretty boring and his voice average at best. This song does nothing for him and could easily be heard at your local karaoke club - definitely not good enough for the Top 10 on a nationally televised reality series.  Keith has always loved the song and appreciates that Paul&amp;#039;s been listening to the judges and Jimmy. As such, he feels it was one of his better performances and advises him to stay on that track. Nicki calls this &amp;quot;the first time [he&amp;#039;s] stimulated [her] sexual appetite&amp;quot; (barking up the wrong tree there, I&amp;#039;d think), and loves that he has the ability to pick songs she likes. Plus, he did the track justice and seems comfortable on stage. Randy also applauds the song choice and his ability to take in advice, while Mariah doesn&amp;#039;t want their advice to take away the &amp;quot;real singer&amp;quot; from him, telling him to forget about them and just go from here. Well, that&amp;#039;s descriptive.    Candice Glover gets a lot of compliments from Jimmy, who thinks she has a fantastic voice. She tells him she&amp;#039;ll be singing &amp;#039;I (Who Have Nothing)&amp;#039; by Ben E. King, which Jordin Sparks sang during her season. He doesn&amp;#039;t seem to have a problem with that or much advice for her because she&amp;#039;s pretty spot on.  The performance is pretty great - the arrangement is more of an R&amp;amp;B feel with a great beat and the orchestra and Candice&amp;#039;s voice is just effortless and really, really good. She looks fantastic, as well. She sort of reminds me of Jazmine Sullivan in a lot of ways, and that&amp;#039;s a good comparison. She just knows what she&amp;#039;s doing and seems like she&amp;#039;s already a professional. It&amp;#039;s a strong standing ovation for Candice, and Keith says if there was more time, they&amp;#039;d be standing and clapping themselves (the judging panel, that is). He loves so many things about her, and loves that she has the same command that Shirley Bassey had when she sang the song. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re incredible, baby! Amazing!&amp;quot; he adds. Nicki says it&amp;#039;d be in everyone&amp;#039;s best interest to never perform that song again because she just &amp;quot;destroyed and annihilated&amp;quot; the track, making it Nicki&amp;#039;s favourite that she&amp;#039;s ever done.  Randy is glad the entire panel loves it, saying that she &amp;quot;worked that song out&amp;quot; and calling it one of the best performances on the show this season. Considering the season only just started, it doesn&amp;#039;t hold much water, but it&amp;#039;s the thought that counts, I guess. Mariah can only really say that every time Candice is on stage, it&amp;#039;s mesmerizing because a singer of her calibre can do anything.  Lazaro Arbos is up next, and Jimmy notes what a big following he already has. However, he admits that if he doesn&amp;#039;t pick the right songs, the audience might not stick with him. Still, he&amp;#039;s chosen Kelly Clarkson&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Breakaway&amp;#039; for this week, which he&amp;#039;ll need to practice endlessly to make sure he knows all the words and notes perfectly.  He&amp;#039;s styled pretty cutely, very &amp;#039;50s style - which I&amp;#039;m not sure has anything to do with the song, but that&amp;#039;s okay - and he sounds good, too. There are no real disasters in terms of being off-key or forgetting the lyrics. You can tell he really worked hard on it. I like Lazaro, but I also wonder if he&amp;#039;ll last long in this competition as he&amp;#039;s not really one of the best singers (though this isn&amp;#039;t really a boy&amp;#039;s year, I don&amp;#039;t think), so I&amp;#039;m a bit torn.  Keith questions why he chose the song because he could feel the true emotion behind it, but he doesn&amp;#039;t feel like it was in his wheelhouse so he hopes to hear Lazaro sing again. Nicki didn&amp;#039;t like it, but likes that he looks like Ricky Ricardo tonight. Still, it was her least favourite from him, though she tells him not to let anyone break his confidence. Randy notes that the pitch was all over the place and that the song was too big for him, telling him to stay true to his own choices in future. Mariah knows a lot of people are falling in love with the courage he has to get up on stage and go for it while still showing vulnerability.    Jimmy is a massive fan of Kree Harrison&amp;#039;s and loves that she has the range and momentum to sing pretty much anything, he just advises her not to over-sing. She&amp;#039;s picked a good song, though - Roy Orbison&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Crying&amp;#039;, which Carrie Underwood did an amazing version of back in season four. This is going to be good, I&amp;#039;m sure of it.  Okay, I&amp;#039;m going to say this right now: Kree is my favourite singer in this competition, hands down. I&amp;#039;m not even a country fan but I&amp;#039;m just obsessed with how good this girl is. She&amp;#039;s effortless from the first note, completely true to herself and an absolute star. If she doesn&amp;#039;t win, she&amp;#039;ll get a record deal anyway and become a massive star because she&amp;#039;s just a total natural and sorta way too good for this show, even. The performance is perfect, start to finish. Keith thinks she could sing the phone book if she really wanted to - she&amp;#039;s that good. He would also go and buy a record by her tomorrow because she&amp;#039;s got real, genuine life experience that comes through her voice every time she sings. Nicki jokes that sometimes when she wakes up in the morning she eats waffles and syrup, which she warms up in the microwave a little bit, and that&amp;#039;s what that performance was - fun, smooth, etc. Uh, okay.  Randy gets back to the vocals - from note one, he&amp;#039;s in. &amp;quot;It makes me feel good all over,&amp;quot; he adds, saying that she has an infectious voice that&amp;#039;s amazing to listen to. Mariah thinks it&amp;#039;s obvious that she has an enormous range, can sing any kind of song and has great taste in her song choices. &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t help but emote and be real when you sing,&amp;quot; she says. Next up, Burnell Taylor chats with Jimmy about his chosen path. Burnell wants to stay true to his R&amp;amp;B roots, and to do so, he wants to sing &amp;#039;Flying Without Wings&amp;#039;, which Ruben Studdard did during his season. Jimmy&amp;#039;s fine with that, though reminds him not to just do ten ballads in a row or he&amp;#039;ll lose the audience. Burnell understands, but basically is going to do what he wants to do, pretty much. Burnell&amp;#039;s voice is great - another effortless voice, but another boring performance, as well. It&amp;#039;s hard to be too visually stimulating when you&amp;#039;re singing a ballad, of course, but I just feel that this is sort of forgettable and I doubt he&amp;#039;ll be sticking around too long in the competition, to be honest. Keith appreciates the unique tenderness in his voice and the touches he puts on every song he does that are natural and somewhat eccentric and magnetic. Nicki loves the song and says she was obsessed with Ruben&amp;#039;s first album, adding that she loves him and he&amp;#039;s well on his way, putting his on twist on all other artists&amp;#039; music.  Randy thinks it was &amp;quot;very nice&amp;quot; and agrees with Nicki about Burnell putting his own twist on things. He also loves that Burnell is back and the zone and has picked up again after a few rough performances in the earlier stages of the competition. Mariah doesn&amp;#039;t want to say too much, but she feels very emotional hearing him sing and loves the melodic choices he made today.    Last but not least, it&amp;#039;s Amber Holcomb. Talking with Jimmy, he notes that she&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;really pretty&amp;quot; and sings like crazy, and she tells him she&amp;#039;s singing Kelly Clarkson&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;A Moment Like This&amp;#039; since she really understands the sentiment of the song. Jimmy wants her to do something uptempo, but she will probably go more in her own direction. Amber&amp;#039;s voice is another one that&amp;#039;s just effortless - the girls have it in the bag this year without a doubt - and she stays pretty faithful to the original arrangement, adding only a slight drum beat in the background. Fair enough; I think it would sound odd if made too uptempo. It&amp;#039;s meant to be a ballad. Pitch-wise, she&amp;#039;s right there. She does seem to be missing a bit of the passion of the song, putting more of a smooth vibe over it, but I still like her a lot.  She gets the only standing ovation from the judges of the night, though, so they&amp;#039;re definitely fans. Keith calls it &amp;quot;beautiful&amp;quot;, saying that he loves the song for her and how effortless she sang it. Nicki dubs it the best performance of the night and is reminded of Whitney Houston&amp;#039;s first album when she listens to Amber sing, adding that she&amp;#039;s impressed by her beauty, charisma and grace.  Randy thinks it&amp;#039;s the best finale song in Idol history and that she blew it out of the box tonight. Mariah says she sounds magnificent and that she has a natural gift that can&amp;#039;t be explained. It&amp;#039;s unnecessary to critique it because everyone gets goosebumps when Amber sings.  Well, that&amp;#039;s it for tonight. Who will America vote for and who will be heading home? Tune in Thursday night (March 14) at 8/7c on Fox to find out!   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/american-idol/news/a465550/american-idol-recap-top-10-perform-songs-from-past-idol-stars/>