Why is zoanette still on american idol

Suddenly, the night really ramped up, and it started with the year-old Cleland. Honestly, she flew under the radar for much of the season for me before now, and I'm left wondering how -- she's got a great voice for ballads, singing the heck out of the Beyonce song while maintaining great control and not allowing the song to get away from her. Lots of potential here. I love this Grace Potter and the Nocturnals song. Love, love, love it.

So I was appropriately excited when I heard Rachel Hale start into it. The result? Actually fairly good. Hale sang with a confidence we hadn't really seen yet from her, and while not on point on every note, really picked it up with a solid ending when the song itself started moving.

I could definitely stand seeing more of this from her. Steer, like Cleland, kind of came out of nowhere for me; she wasn't featured prevalently in the preceding shows. Wednesday night was a great introduction to the Louisiana native, who sang the vengeful Jazmine Sullivan tune with such conviction that she had Keith Urban convinced she might really mess up his car.

Great vocal, with some slight Rihanna vibes in there for me. The night's other country lady played it remarkably safe with this Lady Antebellum tune -- or, if she wasn't playing it safe, she sure sounded like it, and the song choice didn't help, because the song doesn't really go anywhere vocally it's better as a duet or even a trio.

Plus, while I've liked her twang in the past, it almost sounded overstated, too much. But even without a great showing, the judges made it evident they love her, so there's that. Every week, Zoanette Johnson does something else to just utterly blow my mind and leave me at the edge of my seat wanting more. Guys, she sang the opening song of "The Lion King. Really big. Johnson's still as weird as she was, but she's keeping better control of her vocal, so it's not just a hit here and a miss there.

As usual with her, this is the performance we'll still be talking about in a week. So, 10 singers, five spots. Who went through? The latter was tough to stick in there; after all, I thought Hale and Clack both outperformed her, and I really liked Chahayed's artistry.

But once I saw how much the judges liked Arthur despite a poor showing, and at the moment they brought her and Hale as the final two looking for one spot, you just knew how it was going to go. And I was right. The 10 guys who haven't sang yet battle for five spots tonight -- and by battle, I mean sing, although something out of "Gladiator" would be cool. Or "The Lion King.

Prior to the reveal of the top 20 girls, a few were sent home aside from Kez Ban that, in most cases, weren't too prevalent in the competition, so their eliminations weren't incredibly shocking. But the girls weren't the only ones with cuts to be made. After teasing the moment a week ago, the 28 remaining boys in the competition were finally whittled down to Steal Your Girl" Leathers.

Before you ask: yes, I am incredibly salty about the latter going home. Speaking of next week: Vegas, baby! The contestants head to Las Vegas, where dreams are broken and the shrimp cocktails flow freely. Backed by a studio audience, it's going to be similar to the live shows in Los Angeles.

Search term. Billboard Pro Subscribe Sign In. Top Artists. Top Charts. Hot Songs. Billboard Top Videos. Top Articles. By Kevin Rutherford. Copied to clipboard. That spirit that you have is the spirit of the lion, the champion. There were indeed a lot of people wondering what the judges were thinking — but perhaps not as many who were wondering what Randy himself was saying Wednesday.

Mariah Carey completed the love fest. Johnson is over-the-top in every respect, and how she was portrayed over the first two months was designed to make her seem like a lovable loon rather than a serious singer. That changed on Wednesday -- sort of. Arthur had to survive a surprisingly average performance to win the last spot, while Juliana Chahayed has to be cursing the fates that had her singing this week instead of last week. Melinda Ademi was also good enough to advance on a different day, but not amongst this group.

Based on their performances since January, Arthur and Glover are both stronger candidates to win than Johnson.