<p>Only part way through the show, but personally very happy to see Phillip come back into his own. His “Volcano” was special. Hollie’s personal choice song was beyond forgettable. I do think Joshua is great, but I don’t think he has the unique quality that Phillip has. I’m completely ambivalent on Jessica - she has a great voice but she never quite seems herself - often too old, as though she skipped over age 16-29 and went right to over 30. Doesn’t feel right. But her personal choice number was amazing.</p>
<p>New to this thread. I love Phil Phillips. Great season. Sad that Grimm Reed didn’t make it further, but Phillips is pretty awesome. Very original.</p>
<p>Jessica bores me, even though she’s got an incredible voice. Needs seasoning maybe?</p>
<p>Joshua is an amazing voice, but…I don’t know. Second to Phillips.</p>
<p>Holly is talented too. But again, not a standout. She’s young like Jessica, they have room to grow.</p>
<p>I didn’t think anyone had an over the top performance with their “California inspiration” songs. Really enjoyed Phil and Joshua’s duet much more so than Hollie and Jessica’s. The highlight of the night was with Philip, Joshua, and Jessica’s “songs they wish they had written” performances. All were their best efforts of the entire season. I still thought Joshua was the best of the night. For me, I have not been a big Phil Phil fan-- until tonight— and I loved his song choice and arrangement of “Volcano”. I really liked Jessica’s performance, as well, but thought her vocals could have had slightly better tone quality. Poor Hollie, she clearly had the worst performance of the night with a Bonnie Raitt song choice. </p>
<p>Joshua definitely going through and Hollie almost definitely (finally) going home. Kind of a toss-up for me who Josh will be competing against for the top spot.</p>
<p>I hope that Jessica does not win. Instead, I hope she goes to college/conservatory for a BM in voice, and get some real training for the gift that she has been given. Instead, I fear she will continue to scream out her high notes, and ruin her voice. If she had some solid training she would be able to discover some depth and vocal dynamics. She said she was at AI because singing is the only thing she knows. That’s very sad. I think she’d be a better artist if she became a musician with serious training, along with a general education. She’s not the only screaming singer on AI, just the one with the most potential to actually sing well instead of scream. I’m not optimistic, but I can only hope that she doesn’t give up on developing her whole self. Of course, touring is much more fun.</p>
<p>Personally, I would go to see the top 10 The Voice contestants if they were in concert, there is a lot of variety in that group. But Idol this year? Not at all. Last year, maybe, but not these singers. I am really tired of screaming.</p>
<p>Poor Hollie…after two weeks of Judges’ Love, the judges went back to telling her that they didn’t buy her performance. </p>
<p>I liked Phillip Phillip’s Volcano. I’ll have to youtube the song to see what the original sounds like.</p>
<p>Joshua put on a great performance, as usual, but I am getting tired of that James Brown song. The homeless guy on The X Factor sang it, Juliet on The Voice just sang it, now Joshua sings it. Enough already!</p>
<p>Is it finally time for Hollie to go? I’ve predicted her demise more than once, only to see her escape the clutches of elimination like a greased pig at the county fair. I won’t make the mistake of assuming that she’ll be gone tomorrow…</p>
<p>For me, Joshua and Phillip are in the final, followed by Jessica. Hollie did not have a great night, but she has a great personality and should still make it just fine. Jessica, as many have said above, has a gift with her voice, but she has no additional personal style to add to these great songs. She does excellent covers of originals, mimicking everydetail of the original singer. She does need to be seasoned and more formally musically educated before I can appreciate her more.</p>
<p>Joshua’s song was beyond amazing for me (and H). I agree with the judges and Jimmy on the fact that Joshua’s rendition of that song was incredible. I was going to church w/ Joshua again.</p>
<p>DH and I limit ourselves to AI. The other shows may be better, but we just decided one was enough for us. </p>
<p>I think all four are pretty talent and likable and I will feel sad for whomever goes home tonight. </p>
<p>I feel sorry for Holly. The short clip of her singing Bonnie Raitt’s song to Jimmy sounded better than her performance on the show. She lacks the confidence to sing a song simply, to not make it bigger than it needs to be. She would be awesome on broadway. </p>
<p>Snowflake - I agree wholeheartedly about Jessica’s covers! When I was watching her last night I thought even her facial expressions were so much like Jennifer Hudson’s. So - I watched a YouTube of Jennifer Hudson (and now you see why I must limit myself to one show) and indeed there were such similarities. The kid is beyond talented, but I do hope she gets some real training. </p>
<p>Now - in our household DH is a diehard Dylan kind of guy, and I am a unsophisticated Stax/Motown kind of gal. How we ever got married is beyond me. So, of course there is a musical divide in our home. I thought Phillip’s second song was just so moving. I would listen to that over and over if it were released. But I am a Joshua fan through and through and I wish the judges would stop their over the top gushing!!! It turns people off - even people like me who really, really like him. </p>
<p>My prediction - Holly will go home tonight. Her only hope is that she will get the sympathy vote since the judges were soooo hard on her.</p>
<p>Wasn’t able to watch last night because I had a late workshop. Sounds like I should be able to breese through the DVR tonight to catch up quickly before results.</p>
<p>David Cook performs tonight !! Yeah! My most favorite Idol!!!
Jlo performs tonight! Boo…</p>
<p>I have been predicting that Holly would go home for the past several weeks now, but somehow she has that Teflon coating that keeps her there well beyond her time!</p>
<p>Final will probably be Jessica and Josh. I agree that Jessica’s voice is absolutely gorgeous, but she has no style. We can’t figure out exactly who she wants to be. She is a chameleon, just imitating the style of whatever song she sings. I don’t know who she is.</p>
<p>Phillip is great, he is around still because he is cute. </p>
<p>Interesting to see if a female would win. Hasn’t it been quite a few years since a female won? Jordin Sparks was last?</p>
<p>I am guilty of almost never rooting for a girl. Not sure exactly why. Just think my musical taste runs more male oriented. </p>
<p>Jessica is like a karaoke machine to me. Spits the song out with much of the same tone, inflection, etc. of the original artist with not a lot of personal flavor to her performances. This I believe is one of the faults of having teens on the show - not always - but often they just don’t have the maturity to take the music past the original artist performance.</p>
<p>This is when I miss Simon (amoung other times). I think he would have told Jessica long ago to figure out her own style instead of mimicking the original artist.</p>
<p>The original video is done with guitar, solo cello and single female singer. Phillip didn’t stray too far from the original on this one. It was obscure enough that no one knew it.</p>
<p>I downloaded last week’s American Idol CD from iTunes (you can buy all the songs used that week by the contestants). I bought it specifically for the Hollie songs…too bad it was the week that Phillip Phillips phoned in his performances. :(</p>
<p>"We can’t figure out exactly who she wants to be. She is a chameleon, just imitating the style of whatever song she sings. I don’t know who she is. "</p>
<p>I don’t get this. Joshua sounds the same on every song, but no one complains. I think people are just tougher on the girls!</p>
<p>I wonder how many “unknown” highly-trained singers would advise that Jessica quit the business and get an education. Then she’d have to start all over as a nobody. Seems like she could get training while taking advantage of her publicity “head-start” to me. It’s so difficult to believe she’s only 16!</p>
<p>That’s because he sounds like Joshua. We’d complain if he sounded like a BeeGee on one song, Josh Groban on another, Steven Tyler on a third song.</p>
<p>The one who sounds the same to me is Phillip Phillips. The guy has a very small range. If he can write his own songs, he’ll go a lot farther than if he has to find others’ songs to record.</p>
<p>Agreed that Philip also sounds the same. I do wish that one requirement for the show would be that one night each of them perform an original song. then you would get a feel for who they are.</p>
<p>Glad to see that the final three makes some sense. </p>
<p>I’m still placing my bets on Joshua to win.</p>
<p>Beyond that, we all have our different favorites. Any of them could be deserving of the win, but I am in the camp that thinks it is too soon for Jessica. She needs to find her own style and I will defer to the knowledgeable ones who say that she needs some training to care for and protect that voice.</p>
<p>I could go to her “home coming” in Chula Vista - very near to me - but I think I’ll leave that to the screaming hordes, lol. I’m guessing they’ll do it at Otay Ranch Town Center; I saw the mayor interviewed several weeks ago saying they were doing contingency planning about where it should be etc. Who knew? Important stuff these mayors have to attend to :).</p>
<p>I was a huge fan of Jessica’s when I first heard her audition on the Midway in San Diego. As the weeks progressed, I just didn’t see much growth in her, she was kind of inconsistent, and she even needed that judge’s save a few weeks ago or we wouldn’t even be having this conversation right now. I was actually really sad to see Hollie go home and wouldn’t have been as sad to see Jessica go home instead.</p>
<p>I like the “duet boys” as the last two standing.</p>
<p>I don’t love Jessica. She has a big voice but doesn’t seem to have much personality or maybe it’s just too immaturity. Sometimes her body language onstage (when she’s not singing) is almost childlike but then she is still somewhat of a child. Scotty McCreary wasn’t much older than Jessica when he won last year but he seemed more self possessed and comfortable onstage than she which is surprising since she has apparently been performing ever since she could walk.</p>
<p>I’m pulling for Phillip Phillips even though the judges seem to have already annointed Joshua.<br>
Truthfully, I think Phillip’s style in more marketable than Josh’s style. Not many young people would be enamored with Joshua’s gospel throwback style.</p>
<p>I don’t know how PP could be more marketable than selling a song or two. I can’t imagine listening to an entire album (or DVD nowadays, I guess) of his three note range, sounding the same. I swear, I never remember a single song after he sings it. Joshua really seems like a throwback to me, of the Motown days. And I think there could be a market for that still. Plus, he can probably sing just about anything.</p>