American Idol Results Show--May 2

[ponytail]

The remaining 4 girls are all vieing for the 3 hometown visits. They begin the evening with a performance of Crazy in Love from the Great Gatsby and then we move on to the Ford Fiesta mission which is a Music Design Mash-Up. The girls have a hand in designing 2 Ford Fiesta cars--Pop and Country, and Rock and Soul.

Jimmy gives us his take on the girls' performances last night.
Angie wasn't great but not bad enough to send home.
Amber's first song sounded karaoke but she crushed it with her second one.
Candice--If I was Bruno Mars, I'd go write a song for Candice right now, head and shoulders above the rest.
Kree hasn't lived up to her full potential.

Season 7's David Cook debuts his new single 'Laying Me Low'. (I forgot how good he is). We find he has been doing charity work for Race for Hope--cancer research.

Will i. am sings Bang Bang from the Great Gatsby (I am definitely going to have to see that show this summer.)

We catch up with Constantine (one of my faves) and find out he has been doing a lot of Broadway--Rock of Ages, Jekyll and Hyde, up for a Tony.

Harry Connick, Jr. sings his new song Every Man Should Know. Tonight's Tweets show that 56% of America think he was a good mentor.

Keiran dim the lights. In no particular order--
First person getting a hometown visit is Angie
Second is Candice
With over 81 million combined votes
3rd person safe is Kree

Amber Holcomb is sent home in a tearful farewell.

[Merry Prankster]

I was surprised to see Amber go.  I guess the unpopularity bug came back to bite her.  Does it really matter?  Candace re-established her complete dominance and unless the Prankster is assigned to count the votes, she should sing her way to the crown.  What a voice!

I did not know until this week regarding Candace's gospel roots.  With a voice like that I should have guessed.   It reminds me of a story (but doesn't everything?).

In the early 80s (is that taught as Ancient History in elementary school?) a group of us went to New Orleans for the Jazz Festival.  In those days far fewer cities held such hootenannys and The Big Easy's was among the best.  There were all kinds of music---all variations of jazz, rock, folk, country, bluegrass, etc.  On the first day of the Festival one of the guys in the group (Joe) collared me and dragged me into the Gospel Tent.  At the time I had little interest in gospel music but Joe had me in a choke hold so I decided to listen for a little while.  Boy, am I glad I did!

Apparently, gospel groups had come to the Festival from every black church in every small and medium-sized town in the South.  One after another, these gospel choirs would get on stage and belt out hymn after hymn.  They had everybody in the tent, including me, rockin' and rollin' for hours on end.  It was unbelievable!

Anyway, each choir usually featured two soloists.  One would be a Thelma Houston-type (if you've never heard her sing it's your loss).  Alto register with the power and punch of a high quality church pipe organ.  The other would be a soprano with a beautiful voice.

I'll never forget two of the sopranos.  Two different choirs, two different girls.  These girls were little, skinny, pre-pubescent.  Then they would open their mouths and blow away the entire crowd with their voices.  They each sang with a voice that sounded like a cross between Whitney Houston and Celine Dion.  Absolutely Heavenly.

Candace reminds me of a cross between Thelma Houston and these girls.  She can't get as high as these girls did but she gets close.  She isn't Aretha but she isn't bad.