"My job is to make these people feel everything I'm doing, and I don't care what it takes, I'm going to do it. Show us how you feel." Urban believes it's a confidence issue. … You have to do something to make it even more heightened as a performer. "There's a difference between the sort of heightened performance and what's going on in your brain. Connick says he's going to be perfectly frank: He's glad she's got two more songs, because she knows she can do better. Lopez feels like Meuse felt the song but said it didn't complement her vocal style and felt too low for her at the start. Connick doesn't even clap when she's done.
#Youtube american idol finale 2014 full#
Holding her guitar at center stage by herself - unlike, say, Caleb Johnson, who often gets a full band surrounding him - and she sounds like she's struggling. She never fully connects, either vocally or physically. Randy Jackson tells her if she gets this song right, she could tear the roof off the place, but she gets off to a rough start, like she's having trouble finding the key in her lower register. Jessica Meuse, Since U Been Gone (Kelly Clarkson). He'll need to find a few more if he's playing a full set. Urban calls it a "Caleb Slayer." Lopez says she always feel like she's at a rock concert when she watches Johnson perform: "The bottom line is Caleb is ready for prime time." Connick says it's fantastic, but notes that he has a go-to vocal lick that works when he's just singing one or two songs a night. Johnson stays true to the original, working the crowd hard as he sings, and he gets the benefit of pyro at the end. Johnson does a pretty good Bon Jovi, but he's no Blake Lewis, who had one of the most creative covers of this song during Season 6. "This is your competition." Grade: B+Ĭaleb Johnson, You Give Love a Bad Name (Bon Jovi). Jena says she was held back by her high heels. "I actually really loved it." Connick calls her performance a "10 out of 10," vocally, but he also saw a disconnect between the sound of the music and the way she looked. "It was a very commanding performance to me," she says. Lopez, on the other hand, felt like it was a controlled performance. Urban says she's a killer singer with a great range, but he didn't feel like there was a full, committed release within the song, and he didn't see the moves that matched the vocal performance.
#Youtube american idol finale 2014 update#
Sure, the band helped, but her Heartbreaker was a more convincing update than Johnson's. Turns out that, with a given performance, on a given night, Jena Irene can be as good a rock singer as Johnson, which might spell trouble for him. "I want you to think about that as you're choosing your songs," she says. Lopez says he needs to be thinking about whether each performance will be helping him win the competition. Urban still wants to hear more weight and more command of the phrasing. Connick acknowledges how much the audience likes him, he supposes because "you spend so much time deconstructing these pieces of music and re-assembling them your own way." He digs it. Definitely the most imaginative performance of the first set. Preston, though, continues to shake up his songs, giving Too Close a simmering, bluesy funk. Johnson gave essentially a karaoke performance of Bon Jovi's You Give Love a Bad Name (albeit a very good karaoke performance). But Jena Irene's Can't Help Falling in Love definitely took the night, though it was followed closely by Caleb Johnson's Maybe I'm Amazed.Īlex Preston, Too Close (Alex Clare). Since Wednesday's show was split into mini-themes, I've ranked the performances according to rounds. The bus tour is being expanded, as well, and Seacrest promised some kind of "game-changing" twist to the audition format that will be revealed at a later date. Plus, it looks like all three judges will return: The audition stops include all three cities the judges call home: New Orleans, New York and Nashville. First of all, that means there's definitely going to be a Season 14. While Caleb Johnson has looked like the front-runner for most of the season, Jena Irene had an incredibly strong night that included what might very well have been a game-changing performance with a most unlikely song - Elvis Presley's Can't Help Falling in Love.Īlso, Seacrest announced audition cities for Season 14. "Unfortunately, this group is going to have to break up." To fill two hours with just four singers, each of them had to work up three songs each: One for a "Break-Ups" segment, one for "Dedications" and one for "Make-Up Songs." "Tonight, we pay tribute to all things love," Ryan Seacrest said at the top of the show. Big performances, big news and one of the strangest metaphors American Idol has heard in its 13 seasons: The final four tried to step up their games Wednesday, as each of the remaining singers competed for the hometown trip that's a highlight for the top three finalists each season.