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"After last week&amp;#039;s Top 13 took the stage, it was a rough cut come elimination night as we said goodbye to one of our talented finalists. Things will get no easier this week, however, as the 12 remaining contestants take on songs that remind them of home. Who will shine and who will fall behind? Join Digital Spy live from 8/7c to find out!  21:57And that&amp;#039;s it for tonight. Who&amp;#039;s going home tomorrow night? Who knows - you&amp;#039;ll have to come back and find out then! 21:56Harry loves that she has a lot of confidence but wishes she&amp;#039;d stayed in the quiet zone because it overtook her. Jennifer admits that she didn&amp;#039;t really need to go for the high notes and the belting, and Keith agrees, though he&amp;#039;s sure she&amp;#039;ll be there next week. She&amp;#039;d better be! 21:55Majesty Rose is from North Carolina, where she&amp;#039;s a pre-school teacher, which is adorable. I love Majesty and she may be my favourite in the competition so far. She&amp;#039;s doing Coldplay&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Fix You&amp;#039; tonight, which is a GREAT track.  She plays the acoustic guitar for the first part of the song, which sounds slightly shaky, but I think that&amp;#039;s just because it&amp;#039;s in a weird key. It picks up after the first verse, and she gets more of a chance to show what her voice can do. The long, belted note is out of tune, but hopefully this is one of the whole &amp;quot;passion means more than pitch&amp;quot; scenarios. 21:48Jennifer admits that it was out of sync at first, but he got it together and the feeling was there, which is what she was looking for all night. Harry wasn&amp;#039;t feeling it - it felt shouted to him, and it wasn&amp;#039;t a knockout performance. Keith also really lost the emotion, and wishes Ben didn&amp;#039;t worry about the technicality so much because it would have made his performance better. 21:45Ben Briley is singing a song tonight, clearly, but I missed the title. It&amp;#039;s not one I know! He&amp;#039;s from Gallatin, Tennessee (a few miles north of Nashville) and he loves his hometown, so this song should bring some emotion. Oh wait, the song is called &amp;#039;Turning Home&amp;#039; by David Nail.  I like Ben - he&amp;#039;s got soul and seems like a really nice guy. Still not my type of music, but I can&amp;#039;t help but like him. This performance is... really mediocre, unfortunately. People just aren&amp;#039;t singing their best tonight. Is this a sound issue? 21:38Keith calls it &amp;quot;beautiful&amp;quot; and Jennifer got goosebumps, so that&amp;#039;s a good sign. Keith is pleased with the song choice and that she started on piano and encompassed both her vulnerability and power on vocals. Jennifer was with her as soon as she opened her mouth - she felt the story Malaya was telling and had tears in her eyes. Harry worried after previous weeks that she may have gone off track, but this felt focused and courageous. 21:35Next up, it&amp;#039;s Malaya Watson, who grew up in Michigan and is singing &amp;#039;Take Me to the King&amp;#039;, her first gospel song. She plays the piano for this performance, and while I don&amp;#039;t know the song, I really think it&amp;#039;s a lovely side to her that we haven&amp;#039;t been able to see in a while.  I really like Malaya and think she has such a great voice, a lot of potential and a fun personality, so I&amp;#039;d like to see her hang around for a while to see what she can come up with. She also looks so grown up and polished tonight! 21:28Harry likes the lyrics of the song and thought it was a &amp;quot;pleasant&amp;quot; performance, but he wants to see some sort of emotional dynamics in there. He feels like there&amp;#039;s only one beat when Sam sings, so he needs to try something else. Agreed! Keith knows what Harry is saying and believes it&amp;#039;s something Sam can do in future weeks - which Keith laughs as he mentions is a certainty. He&amp;#039;s got a good tone to his voice, he just needs to do something with it. Jennifer feels the same way - she wants to see some &amp;quot;super wow&amp;quot; performances and he needs to push outside of his comfort zone. 21:26Are we all ready for Sam Woolf, Florida boy that he is, to take the stage? Tonight, he&amp;#039;s singing Blind Pilot&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Just One&amp;#039;, which he used to listen to when he lived in Michigan as a kid.  I think Sam should NOT be on this show, so it should be no surprise that I really don&amp;#039;t like this performance (which is too country for my tastes, even if he was any good). The screaming teenage girls are the only reason he&amp;#039;s still in this competition, and obviously the producers knew that would be the case and are in no position to turn away viewers. So that&amp;#039;s what I think on that. 21:19Jennifer is glad that CJ put thought into his song and thinks he looks great... and she also loved the performance for the song. Harry says he was an example of a person who sang the entire song sharp but did manage to make it work because he actually felt something. Keith admits that what&amp;#039;s missing is CJ finding a way to make a song more his own, which is something he really needs to do as an artist or otherwise, he&amp;#039;ll just be a cover singer. 21:17We&amp;#039;re going home with CJ Harris to Jasper, Alabama, and the song taht reminds him of that place is John Mayer&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Waiting on the World to Change&amp;#039;. Oh boy. CJ is another country singer, which is great for country fans, and he&amp;#039;s also really charming and genuine, so I can&amp;#039;t say much about him besides that.  As for the actual performance, I think this is the worst I have ever, ever heard this guy sing. In fact, I&amp;#039;d barely call it singing - he&amp;#039;s screaming! I&amp;#039;m not sure what&amp;#039;s going on with everyone tonight, but this is horrendous. 21:09Keith loves the song choice and says that her vocals are &amp;quot;fine&amp;quot;, but she has to keep working on connecting with the emotions. Also, if she&amp;#039;s not playing the guitar, she needs to move it and grab the microphone, apparently. Jennifer calls it a &amp;quot;nice song&amp;quot; but admits it&amp;#039;s not really a breakout performance. Still, she feels MK &amp;quot;pushing&amp;quot; and trying to belt out, which was a pleasant surprise. Harry feels like she doesn&amp;#039;t want to be there and tells her to keep working on the things that are hard for her to try to change that. 21:07Her performance is pretty good. She&amp;#039;s got a cute voice - not the most amazing or powerful, but certainly pleasant to listen to. The arrangement is sorta terrible on this song. I like that she&amp;#039;s doing a little acoustic thing with her guitar before the band comes in, but there&amp;#039;s something that&amp;#039;s missing there slightly. I still find her so likeable, though, that I feel bad even saying that this performance isn&amp;#039;t all that great! 21:05We&amp;#039;re checking in with the live vote so far, and unsurprisingly, Dexter is in first place, followed by Jessica, then Caleb, then Jena, then Alex and Emily. But enough of that. MK Nobilette is up and she&amp;#039;s singing Train&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Drops of Jupiter&amp;#039; - you&amp;#039;re taking me back! She&amp;#039;s from San Francisco and has two moms (who adopted her), by the way. Her parents separated when she was young, and they each have new partners now and she has lots of siblings and oh man, I love everything about MK. She&amp;#039;s the best! 20:58Harry thinks he&amp;#039;s unquestionably the most consistent performer on the show, but he does have some food for thought: there&amp;#039;s a difference between being consistent and being predictable. Unfortunately, he almost knows how he&amp;#039;s going to feel before he hears Caleb perform. He really wants him to push rock forward, but what&amp;#039;s he going to do next to avoid being predictable? Keith calls him one of the best singers he&amp;#039;s heard in a long, long time - he has an amazing gift - and says it was a bold choice to sing that song. Jennifer has faith in him, though - he&amp;#039;s going to be just fine. 20:55We&amp;#039;re moving right along to Caleb Johnson, who was born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina. That&amp;#039;s a great city for music, for sure. He&amp;#039;s singing a Rush track tonight, &amp;#039;Working Man&amp;#039;, as it really takes him back. This should be good!  Again, it&amp;#039;s hard to judge Caleb - he&amp;#039;s super talented, but totally not someone I would regularly listen to, so I can&amp;#039;t really be objective here. He&amp;#039;s got a fantastic voice and a lot of charisma, though, so you can&amp;#039;t really argue with that. I think he&amp;#039;ll be around for a long while. 20:52Jennifer&amp;#039;s pretty excited that Emily is repping all the Latinos in the crowd, and she&amp;#039;s really happy that Emily was influenced by this song. It&amp;#039;s the kind of song that gets people on their feet, and Jennifer thinks she did a really good job. Harry applauds her for her courage to sing in front of Jennifer, but it was an easy song to get people into and she had to match the intensity of it or else it&amp;#039;s going to overtake her. That&amp;#039;s what I said! Keith loves it, though, and promises her that she&amp;#039;ll still be in the competition next week. 20:49We&amp;#039;ve got Emily Piriz up next, from Orlando, Florida. She&amp;#039;s singing Jennifer Lopez&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;Let&amp;#039;s Get Loud&amp;#039;, which should be interesting!  I like Emily well enough - she&amp;#039;s harmless, really - and it&amp;#039;s brave to sing Jennifer&amp;#039;s song right in front of her (and Jennifer seems to like it since she&amp;#039;s singing along!) It&amp;#039;s obviously part of her heritage, but I don&amp;#039;t know that it&amp;#039;s the best choice for Jessica&amp;#039;s voice - it doesn&amp;#039;t really show much power for her and the band is almost overpowering her vocals in a strange way. 20:41Keith thinks it was the perfect song for his voice and loves that he took liberties with the phrasing that made it his own and really told a story. Jennifer is reminded of Scotty McCreery, who always surprised the judges - and Dexter&amp;#039;s doing the same. Harry&amp;#039;s a big fan, as well, so there&amp;#039;s that! 20:38Dexter Roberts is from Fayette, Alabama and this week, he&amp;#039;s taking on &amp;#039;Lucky Man&amp;#039; by Montgomery Gentry, which is a great song. It&amp;#039;s hard for me to judge Dexter accurately since country music isn&amp;#039;t my thing, and he&amp;#039;s so precious. He&amp;#039;s talented, for sure, and he&amp;#039;ll certainly have a massive fanbase - this country LOVES them some country boys - but he does zero for me.  It is a pretty overwhelmingly boring performance, I&amp;#039;ll admit, even for Dexter - I&amp;#039;ve heard him sing better. It&amp;#039;s passionate, for sure, and you can&amp;#039;t fault him on his sincerity, but I feel like I&amp;#039;m half asleep. 20:28Harry thinks the whole thing seemed &amp;quot;understated and blase&amp;quot;, which was pretty underwhelming. He also notes that she was sharp the entire time - the audience didn&amp;#039;t even applaud for her high note because she was that off. Keith loves the way that she sings and her musicality, but he doesn&amp;#039;t mind so much about the pitch if a singer really means it. The problem is, she sorta didn&amp;#039;t. Jennifer understands both of the guys&amp;#039; arguments and compliments Jessica on her appearance but admits that she&amp;#039;s not coming off as comfortable. It was so sharp the entire time, it was distracting - she just needed more conviction to overpower that. 20:25Now it&amp;#039;s on to Jessica Meuse, who&amp;#039;s from Slapout, Alabama and is singing &amp;#039;White Flag&amp;#039;, which she knows might seem like a bit of an odd song choice, but oh well! Who doesn&amp;#039;t love a bit of &amp;#039;Dido&amp;#039;? (Shh!) Something is going on with her voice tonight - it&amp;#039;s part Stevie Nicks and part someone I can&amp;#039;t put my finger on. It&amp;#039;s... not good, I&amp;#039;ll say that. She&amp;#039;s pitchy, the acoustic guitar doesn&amp;#039;t suit her, and it&amp;#039;s quite boring. I feel like I&amp;#039;m watching a busker or an open mic singer/songwriter. Shame, really - Jessica is great, but this is just an absolute mess and her voice is awful in comparison to past weeks. 20:22Jennifer thinks he looks like he belongs on stage but the song wasn&amp;#039;t his best vocal performance - his arrangement didn&amp;#039;t really suit the song, in her opinion, and it overtook his performance. Harry is used to hear him in an &amp;quot;interesting, introspective&amp;quot; context and he&amp;#039;s good at that - and while it&amp;#039;s nice to see him step out of his comfort zone, he didn&amp;#039;t really like it because, like Jennifer said, he was overpowered by the arrangement. Keith agrees with the others, adding that he lost his breath and got pitchy because he was nervous and not completely confident. 20:19What is Alex Preston, who&amp;#039;s from New Hampshire, singing this week? Gavin DeGraw&amp;#039;s &amp;#039;I Don&amp;#039;t Wanna Be&amp;#039;, which is an awesome song, even though Gavin DeGraw sucks. He&amp;#039;s got a nice little electric guitar and a bright blue suit on. He&amp;#039;s super awkward in a way that I can&amp;#039;t put my finger on, but you can&amp;#039;t deny that he&amp;#039;s got talent. Is he someone whose record I would wanna buy? Never in a million years, but I can see his appeal to those who are into the &amp;quot;white guys with guitars&amp;quot; thing. 20:11Keith isn&amp;#039;t sure about the song choice, but he likes seeing her let go - but she could let go even more. Jennifer appreciates that no matter what sort of song she chooses, she has a voice that&amp;#039;s really unique and her own. And while tonight wasn&amp;#039;t the best song choice, it did show the true marks of an artist. Harry applauds her for her melody choices, but he wanted to see her jump around a bit on rhythm to &amp;quot;act [her] age&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;climb all over the ceiling&amp;quot;. 20:09In case you forgot how things are going this season, voting is over RIGHT NOW. But enough - our first singer tonight is Jena Irene, who&amp;#039;s singing &amp;#039;Suddenly I See&amp;#039; by K.T. Tunstall, which reminds her of growing up. Weird song choice, but I like Jena - she&amp;#039;s one of my favourites, in fact. It also reminds her of her hometown in Michigan. She definitely looks the part and could do really well in this competition. It&amp;#039;s not the most amazing song choice for her powerful voice, but it is young and fun and she does sound good, so I guess it could be a lot worse. Jena seems to be more and more comfortable on stage, as well, which is great to see. 20:06Ryan asks Keith how contestants can give great performances tonight, and he thinks they need to know how to &amp;quot;get lost in the moment, but also being really present&amp;quot;, which makes a lot of sense. Jennifer reveals that America wants the &amp;quot;real deal&amp;quot;, and that&amp;#039;s what the judges want to see, too. What Harry has to say about New Orleans is special because New Orleans is great - he owes everything to his city. 20:05The judges are on hand and looking good today (when I say &amp;quot;the judges&amp;quot; are looking good, please keep in mind I always only mean Jennifer). She&amp;#039;s got a white and black mini-dress on and her hair is all up and wild and she&amp;#039;s just so damn perfect all the time, isn&amp;#039;t she? Keith is dressed like... Keith, and Harry is in all black. Despite the fact that he&amp;#039;s older, Harry always strikes me as someone who wishes he was as effortlessly cool as Michael Buble. Not working. I just think of Dr. Leo from Will and Grace! 20:00Right, who&amp;#039;s ready for some (most likely) overly cheesy performances dedicated to our contestants&amp;#039; hometowns? I hope you raised your hand, as you&amp;#039;ve got a long two hours ahead of you otherwise! "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/tv/american-idol/review/a555743/american-idol-top-12-perform-live-blog/>