'American Idol' recap: Who did the Idols idolize?

Mar 09, 2011

'American Idol' recap: Who did the Idols idolize?

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For the first night of American Idol's finals competition, the show's "Lucky 13" chose songs by their personal Idols.

Some went with obvious picks. Having been likened last week to Michael Jackson and Diana Ross, respectively, Thia Megia and Ashthon Jones chose songs associated with them and suffered by comparison.

Karen Rodriguez sang Selena's I Could Fall in Love, and Casey Abrams channeled Joe Cocker. The two country singing teens stayed in their wheelhouse, with Lauren Alaina singing Shania Twain's Any Man of Mine and Scotty McCreery doing Garth Brooks' The River: Neither of them sang especially well, but neither one should be in danger.

Others had more surprising inspirations: Metalhead James Durbin picked Paul McCartney's Maybe I'm Amazed, and Paul McDonald chose country-rocker Ryan Adams, then told viewers he hoped they would "get it."

Jacob Lusk and Pia Toscano solidified their positions as two of the best vocal talents on the show by giving performances that had the judges searching for superlatives, while Haley Reinhart and wild-card Stefano Langone had their best performances to date. Naima Adedapo closed the show with a wild reggae version of Rihanna's Umbrella that very well could have gotten her booted had it come early in the show instead in the closing slot.

After their performances, Thia and Karen were clearly worried about the way their songs went over -- and they probably ought to be, though their problems seemed to have as much to do with the arrangements their producers gave them as it did anything the singers brought on themselves. In fact, if this show's any indication, there's now a whole new minefield in the world of Idol: Getting paired with the wrong producer could wind up being as big a setback as having to open the show or singing a Whitney Houston song.

However, Ashthon and Paul should probably should be every bit as concerned as Thia and Karen -- and they brought their problems on themselves.

Here are my rankings for the night:

1. Pia Toscano, All By Myself
2. James Durbin, Maybe I'm Amazed
3. Jacob Lusk, I Believe I Can Fly
4. Casey Abrams, With a Little Help From My Friends
5. Stefano Langone, Lately
6. Haley Reinhart, Blue
7. Naima Adedapo, Umbrella
8. Karen Rodriguez, I Could Love You
9. Thia Megia, Smile
10. Scotty McCreery, The River
    
11. Ashthon Jones, When You Tell Me That You Love Me
12. Lauren Alaina, Any Man of Mine
13. Paul McDonald, Come Pick Me Up

Results Thursday (8 ET/PT, Fox).

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