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"Youth was a big theme in last night&amp;apos;s Idol, with Justin Bieber blamed for messing with the curve for aspiring superstars. Now even babies should hope to go platinum! Out trotted 15-year-old Emma Henry, whose shaky version of &amp;quot;True Colors&amp;quot; held some promising Regina Spektorish lilts, but didn&amp;apos;t convince the judges she was ready. In the way of someone who&amp;apos;s definitely not ready, she cried until they gave in. Another 15-year-old, Thea Megia, had it easier. Her strong voice wasn&amp;apos;t nearly as compelling as Emma&amp;apos;s, but it and her &amp;#x201C;movie star name&amp;#x201D; soothed the judges&amp;apos; fears. (Side note: A name that rhymes is a movie star name? Only for Disney Channel movies, right?) To illustrate just how many of this new breed of humans there were, the producers played Taylor Swift&amp;apos;s &amp;#x201C;Fifteen&amp;#x201D; in the background. It was too soft to make out the words, but anyone who knows their Swift knows the song&amp;apos;s message. Fifteen-year-old girls, even ones who swear they won&amp;apos;t get &amp;#x201C;swallowed up&amp;#x201D; by Idol, don&amp;apos;t know anything.\r\nOn that front, Nathaniel Jones was probably the most oblivious, but his unfortunate choices were all part of his charm. A kid brave enough to delve into a misunderstood hobby, Nathaniel took his love of Civil War re-enactments to the judges&amp;apos; room, marching in uniform to present &amp;quot;The Lion Sleeps Tonight,&amp;quot; from The Lion King. It was the opposite of cynical, a boy in a make-believe outfit singing a cartoon meerkat&amp;apos;s anthem. But other for Steven, who is sort of a human Rafiki, all cheekbones and dark eyes and energy, no one seemed to get it. Randy laughed behind his card in a way that seemed meaner than if he&amp;apos;d just been open about it, and Jennifer looked pained about having to say anything at all. Steven meanwhile called the performance &amp;#x201C;outstanding.&amp;#x201D;\r\nAnd while it was only really Steven who made an effort to be nice, the overall mood was generous. Randy did a (fair) Simon impression only once, calling a particularly over-confident contestant&amp;apos;s run &amp;#x201C;a joke.&amp;#x201D; Still, when Chris Medina came on at the end with the tragic story of the accident that left his young fiancee in a wheelchair, the team looked like they wanted to paper him in gold tickets, screw the hassle of hearing him sing. Or maybe it was just us who felt that way. &amp;quot;What if this good person falls flat?&amp;quot; we worried. We don&amp;apos;t know what show we thought we were watching. Everything worked out exactly right. Chris sang beautifully. The judges brought his fiancee in, and she said she knew he&amp;apos;d win it. The question now: will the fifteen-year-olds let him?"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.rollingstone.com/culture/news/american-idol-recap-younger-better-faster-stronger-20110127>