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"It&amp;#039;s getting down to the wire on American Idol with only eight hopefuls left in the competition. As the group fights for the top spot, some definite favourites have emerged amongst the voters as well as judges Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler. Still, it&amp;#039;s anyone&amp;#039;s guess as to who will ultimately take home the grand prize.  Will the usual stars continue to shine or will a new frontrunner emerge? Stay with Digital Spy live from 8/7c to find out!  21:57Well, that&amp;#039;s it for tonight. Who will be going home tomorrow? Who can say? You can join us live at 8/7c on Thursday night, however, to find out! 21:54I say every week how much I love Skylar and I still do. I think this is a lovely performance, quite different to her usual hyper, overly energetic numbers. It shows off the power of her voice and a little more emotion, which is never a bad thing. I think she&amp;#039;s great.  She gets a standing ovation for it - well deserved, might I add. Jennifer is even in tears. Randy can only say &amp;quot;Wow!&amp;quot;, though he later adds that he loves her look and the way it started, but thinks it was consistent all the way through. He deems it her best performance of the competition, which Jennifer agrees with. She also loves that Skylar can compete with the biggest singers in the competition even though she started as a little country singer. Steven thinks it was &amp;quot;the beginning of a great career&amp;quot;. 21:50  Skylar Laine is last up tonight, and she&amp;#039;ll be taking on &amp;#039;Wind Beneath My Wings&amp;#039; by Bette Midler. Both Jimmy and Gwen are wowed by it in rehearsals, so let&amp;#039;s hope she brings it on stage. 21:44His performance is actually really good. It might be my favourite of the evening, to be totally honest. It&amp;#039;s clear that Colton knows exactly who he is as an artist and is able to make every single week reflect that, which is so great to see. Especially on a show like this, which has been so faithful to straightforward pop acts, it&amp;#039;s nice to see someone doing something different (even if it is trendy) and do well with it.  Steven thinks that he has such a good voice that he could do a record right now. Jennifer agrees, saying that he was in sync with the band throughout. She admits that she felt a lot throughout the entire performance and particularly loved the &amp;quot;climax of the journey&amp;quot;. No comment. As for Randy, he says a little of what I was saying - he&amp;#039;s so current and in his own zone. 21:40  Up next, it&amp;#039;s Colton Dixon! He&amp;#039;s singing... Cyndi Lauper&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Time After Time&amp;#039;. I called it! It&amp;#039;s a nice choice for him - I expected a girl to do it. Gwen also loves it, although she was initially skeptical. Jimmy helps him with the arrangement and Gwen even sings some harmonies with him... seems he has a little crush. 21:33Aretha Franklin and George Michael&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Knew You Were Waiting For Me&amp;#039; is the song that Jessica and Joshua are singing. I&amp;#039;m just going to come out and say it. I&amp;#039;m so over Joshua, okay? I&amp;#039;ve had enough. I just want to change the channel when he&amp;#039;s on stage, and that&amp;#039;s never a good thing. Otherwise the performance is okay, I suppose. Meh. The judges give it a standing ovation. What they have to say doesn&amp;#039;t even matter to me at this point. I&amp;#039;m just done - especially when Randy calls them the best singers ever on the show. Seriously? Dear God. 21:24After a technical difficulty (no power to the keyboards - great!), Hollie is up and running. I think she has a lot to work on as an artist, but I just really like her. I think she&amp;#039;s got an incredible amount of talent for her age and is just a good kid. That makes me feel old, referring to teenagers as &amp;quot;good kids&amp;quot;, but whatever. She handles the song quite well and moves around the age quite a lot. It&amp;#039;s not really in the best key for her, to be honest, but in the parts of the song where she&amp;#039;s able to open up, she does really well.  Steven thinks that she always arrives at the end of a performance and admits that her pitch was all over the place. &amp;quot;You got there at the end, but it took a while to get there,&amp;quot; he adds. Jennifer is upset that she&amp;#039;s listening to the directions that everyone is giving her but thinks that she needs to &amp;quot;let it go&amp;quot; at the end of the day in order to lock into who she is and stop thinking so much during her performances. Randy agrees, saying that she has the talent and can be an incredible performer if she overthinks. 21:19  Hollie Cavanagh is singing &amp;#039;What a Feeling&amp;#039; by Irene Cara from Flashdance. Love this song! Jimmy is pleased with her song choice as it has a rocky edge to it. Gwen also advises her to make sure she channels the edge of toughness from the track into her performance rather than seeing it as a sad thing. 21:18Phillip and Elise are duetting now, taking on Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty&amp;#039;s version of &amp;#039;Stop Draggin&amp;#039; My Heart Around&amp;#039;. It&amp;#039;s actually quite a good choice for both of them. You can&amp;#039;t go wrong with Stevie Nicks, really. However, it does go... really off key in the end and I&amp;#039;m not sure if that&amp;#039;s intentional. Either way, that part wasn&amp;#039;t very pleasant to listen to.  Randy welcomes Elise back, calling her performance &amp;quot;hot&amp;quot;. Meanwhile, Jennifer wants more performances from the two of them because they work so well together. Steven also thinks it was &amp;quot;outstanding&amp;quot;, calling it &amp;quot;as good as it gets&amp;quot;. 21:09The performance itself is good - full of energy and the girl can&amp;#039;t sing a wrong note, so I can&amp;#039;t fault her. Still, it isn&amp;#039;t as good as past weeks and leaves a bit to be desired. It seems like Jessica&amp;#039;s not really in her zone as she has been in other performances, but it&amp;#039;s still top quality.  Jennifer thinks it was another powerhouse performance and loves that she makes such natural choices and has a great stage presence, saying that she seems like a little girl and a woman at the same time. &amp;quot;Your vocals just make everything go away for me,&amp;quot; she adds. Steven agrees, admitting that he finds it hard to judge her as &amp;quot;everything [she does] is beautiful and great&amp;quot;.  Randy had the pleasure of working with Whitney on the original version but thinks that she filled the shoes well and did a wonderful job. He also applauds her maturity level as she has poise and confidence beyond her years. 21:05  Up next, Jessica Sanchez is singing Whitney Houston&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;How Will I Know&amp;#039;. Gwen is a fan, calling her &amp;quot;shockingly good&amp;quot;. However, she advises the 16-year-old to do some more unique moves with her body rather than coming off like a lounge singer. Jessica also vows to show off her alter ego &amp;quot;BB Chez&amp;quot;, making her slightly more obnoxious than she already was by being so good. 21:03The actual performance is... okay. I do agree that sometimes Joshua is too much. He&amp;#039;s a wonderful gospel singer, but I can&amp;#039;t listen to the screaming week in and week out. He just doesn&amp;#039;t seem to know how to reel it in, but the judges don&amp;#039;t seem to care and give him a standing ovation.  &amp;quot;Ask and ye shall receive,&amp;quot; Jennifer says, referencing her earlier request for a &amp;quot;powerhouse performance&amp;quot;. She loves that he held back upon first coming on stage (uh, was I watching something different?) but thinks that it was &amp;quot;spectacular&amp;quot; overall. Steven also thinks it is outstanding and spectacular, appreciating his natural ability and dubbing it &amp;quot;absolutely perfect&amp;quot;. Randy admits that it&amp;#039;s rare when he wants to stand up from the beginning to the end of a performance, saying that he sang the song with a great maturity well beyond his years. 20:58  Joshua Ledet is ready to give it his all, taking on Simply Red&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;If You Don&amp;#039;t Know Me By Now&amp;#039;. Gwen appreciates what he can do with his voice, but thinks that sometimes it&amp;#039;s too much. Jimmy urges him to get into the song in the right away and keep it simple rather than trying to do so many vocal runs. 20:51Steven liked to see Hollie &amp;quot;let go&amp;quot; and get &amp;quot;so excited&amp;quot;. Jennifer had her reservations, but she liked it, applauding Hollie again for finding the soul in everything she&amp;#039;s doing as it enhances her vocals. She also appreciates DeAndre&amp;#039;s ability to look comfortable on stage. Randy thinks it was &amp;quot;very nice&amp;quot;, especially considering how young they are. He also is most impressed with Hollie for letting her vocals flow. 20:48Hollie sounds great, by the way. You know I&amp;#039;ve always liked her. The song choice is slightly weird, but her voice is just that good that I don&amp;#039;t even care. 20:47Time for duet number two! It&amp;#039;s Hollie and DeAndre with &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m So Excited&amp;#039; by The Pointer Sisters. Watch out, Hollie - you might get whipped in the face by Mr L&amp;#039;Oreal over here... because he&amp;#039;s worth it! 20:41Steven calls him a &amp;quot;wild flower&amp;quot;. What? Anyway, he loves Phil&amp;#039;s individuality and the way he sang the notes and believes that his love of who he is &amp;quot;transcends&amp;quot;. Someone got into Nicole Scherzinger&amp;#039;s old X Factor USA stash tonight.  Jennifer thinks that he struggled to find his groove for a while but that he eventually pulled it together for a &amp;quot;really great&amp;quot; performance. Randy appreciates that Phil&amp;#039;s brother played guitar on the song and applauds the song choice. He also gives props to Tony Kanal for advising them not to play the guitar during the bridge of the song. 20:39  Phillip Phillips is up next, and he&amp;#039;s taking on Genesis&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;That&amp;#039;s All&amp;#039;. I said I wanted Phil Collins, so he&amp;#039;s getting close. I&amp;#039;m not really impressed with Phillip in general - I&amp;#039;m not really taken in by the whole cute guy thing - but I really do love this performance. Is it the power of Phil (Collins)? Is it legitimately good? Does it even matter anymore? It&amp;#039;s a nice, unique take on it. A little rough, but at least he&amp;#039;s not so boring this week. 20:31Randy really enjoyed it, even though he could see that Colton was outside of his comfort zone. Jennifer also thinks it was &amp;quot;perfect&amp;quot;, while Steven calls them a &amp;quot;match made in heaven&amp;quot; because of their well-blended harmonies. Then Ryan has to go and ruin things that claiming that their performance was &amp;quot;really believable&amp;quot; and that they have a lot of chemistry. Yeah, because two people can&amp;#039;t sing together on a TV talent show without being secretly in love. 20:28It&amp;#039;s the first duet of the evening, and Colton Dixon and Skylar Laine are doing Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers&amp;#039; &amp;#039;Islands in the Stream&amp;#039;. What a classic jam! (No, that&amp;#039;s not sarcasm.) Aw, it&amp;#039;s a great song for Skylar - y&amp;#039;all know I love her - but Colton seems slightly uncomfortable. 20:21Steven loves Elise&amp;#039;s style and voice but questions whether it was the right song. He is glad that she chose and &amp;#039;80s song but doesn&amp;#039;t have much else to say about it. Jennifer compliments her for looking beautiful and having an evolving look (that&amp;#039;s helpful, Jennifer). She adds that it &amp;quot;wasn&amp;#039;t perfect at every note&amp;quot; but thinks it was a great performance as she put so much effort and heart into it.  Randy admits that it&amp;#039;s one of the hardest songs to sing and believes that she never fully got the right pitch, making it slightly off-key the whole song. He thinks she&amp;#039;s much better than tonight&amp;#039;s performance and generally just did not like it at all. 20:18  Do people get Elise? I feel like they don&amp;#039;t, and I only say that because I&amp;#039;m just beginning to, myself. This performance isn&amp;#039;t the best thing I&amp;#039;ve ever seen, but I really like it. I feel like it&amp;#039;s lulling me to sleep, but not in a boring way (for once on this show). It&amp;#039;s emotive, her vocals are just the right amount of raspy and it&amp;#039;s just generally really great. 20:17I know I&amp;#039;ve talked a lot of smack about Elise Testone, but she&amp;#039;s growing on me - especially since tonight, she&amp;#039;s singing Foreigner&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Wanna Know What Love Is&amp;#039;. Thank God she went with that, too, because she almost performed Leonard Cohen&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Hallelujah&amp;#039;. Gwen thinks that the drama is very Elise but also very &amp;#039;80s - she really loves Elise and singles her out as one of her favourites in the competition, saying it could be &amp;quot;magical&amp;quot; for her. 20:10After six more hair whips and some vocal runs in dog hearing range, he finally concludes to thunderous applause. The judges seem to love it.  &amp;quot;I like it a lot,&amp;quot; Jennifer says, saying that he seemed &amp;quot;super comfortable&amp;quot; and enjoyed the crowd. She also thinks it was very natural that he whipped his hair around, and that he did a lot to the song to make it his own. Steven was &amp;quot;totally captivated&amp;quot; and says that he forgot where he was - erm, Steven, you sure that was because of DeAndre&amp;#039;s performance?  Randy congratulates him for using more of his natural voice and not singing the whole thing in falsetto, claiming that DeAndre could be a &amp;quot;2012 version of Debarge&amp;quot;. Do we need a 2012 version? Did we need the &amp;#039;80s version? 20:07  DeAndre Brackensick is going to be going first, and he&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;I Like It&amp;#039; by Debarge. Gwen doesn&amp;#039;t seem too interested in him, but urges him to have fun and get comfortable with it. It&amp;#039;s hard to tell if he takes her advice or not, since he just sings in his typical falsetto for most of the track. I&amp;#039;m over it. I don&amp;#039;t mind the song if I close my eyes, but unfortunately DeAndre&amp;#039;s schtick (as I typed that, he whipped his hair back and forth dramatically - seriously) is terrible. 20:05In additional to their individual songs tonight, the Top 8 are also going to be paired up for duets tonight. And guess who&amp;#039;s mentoring them? No, not anyone actually from the &amp;#039;80s, but two members of No Doubt. The amazing Gwen Stefani is one of them, but I forget who the other is. Tony Kanal? Tom Dumont? Yeah, it&amp;#039;s Tony. 20:04Ryan wants to illustrate a typical &amp;#039;80s look, so he shows a photo of Randy from the decade. Jennifer is way too delighted with this and bounces in her chair. Steven looks typically blank and uninterested. 20:03Well, we&amp;#039;re off! It&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;80s night tonight, which means I predict we get at least one cover by any of the following: Madonna, Cyndi Lauper or Pat Benatar. I wish someone would take the plunge and cover Phil Collins&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Billy Don&amp;#039;t You Lose My Number&amp;#039;. That&amp;#039;s one of my favourites. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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