American Idol 15: Top 8 Recap/Rankings

Disclaimer: All these opinions are clearly subjective  and I am in no way affiliated with American Idol or any other corporation.

First off, I wasn't even sure what to call this. Top 10 (again) or Top 8? The hashtag was #IdolTop8 so I just went with that but I might change it.

"Your" top eight! Not mine, but America's.

We're not even going to talk about that commercial opening sequence at the beginning of the show. Why would we? You're right. Let's not.

I had no idea how the elimination process was going to work when I started recapping the show, so I came into this a little confused. Now I'm disappointed. Really? The judges are going to get the final say? Gianna is certainly going to be in the Bottom 3 so if they save her, you know Idol is fixed. I'm sure it's fixed already but this would just confirm all of my suspicions. These judges are the worst at picking people, did you see the top 14?

DALTON RAPATTONI

"Radioactive"

I still can't get over Dalton going to sleep in his eyeliner. Seriously, what if he wakes up one morning and just can't see? Also, when did American Idol become The X Factor? First that weird judges save thing at the end and now Dalton's set. It's cool but when did Idol start doing this type of stuff? Performance wise, it was everything you expect from Dalton. Pretty alright vocals, a great performance and a lot of eyeliner. I thought it was pretty good, it just seemed like I saw this performance last week. It was very good but it wasn't anything special from him (7/10). Okay, what's that hand thing he does? It looks like he's trying to cast a spell on us. I fully expect for him to join a boy band and be the real life, human answer to The Hex Girls.

LEE JEAN

"Use Somebody"

YES LEE, YOU BETTER SHOW US HOW YOU SHINE BRIGHT WHEN YOU GET COMPARED TO MACKENZIE! YOU ARE NOT ED SHEERAN. YOU ARE NOT MACKENZIE. In all honesty, I wondered what MacKenzie was thinking when he saw the video. Are they trying to come up with some beef for the two of them? Whatever, that's not the point. The point is, I really appreciate Lee trying to branch out and show off his individuality -- which is basically what I suggested he do during my Survivor post. The overall performance wasn't bad. I thought his voice was alright, as always, I think he stepped it up performance wise. Jennifer hit it on the nose when she said he definitely could have hit some of the notes a lot better but I just have to praise the fact that he really tried out something new. After all, something different every week was what birthed the powerhouse that is Haley Reinhart. But we'll see how Lee pans out (6.5/10). ...But like I said, his vocals were a bit all over the place.

I've been a fan of Demi Lovato since As the Bell Rings back in 2007. I've been with her from Camp Rock and Sonny with a Chance to Skyscraper and Heart Attack. She was the first album I ever bought, I think. There was a period a few years ago where I thought she couldn't sing live but she plopped her titties on stage and told me to stay mad when she started performing "Stone Cold" everywhere. Tonight wasn't any type of exception. She was absolutely perfect through and through, I'm really hoping this can help the record gain some steam on Billboard because Demi Lovato deserves it. I cringed when Tristan tried to sing "Confident", though. Key word. Tried. She tried it.

SONIKA VAID
"Since U Been Gone"

Sonika's like the angry girlfriend who isn't angry at all. Everything about her was fierce this week, again, except her face. She looked bored, but who cares? The vocal was absolutely out of this world. She reminded me of the girl from Lemonade Mouth when she sang "She's So Gone." Campaign to get Sonika to sing She's So Gone! Much like Lee, you have to give her props for really trying to take what the judges are saying and let loose. It's not working as fast as she (or I, or the judges) would like, but if she stays on this track she'll be an even bigger force to be reckoned with (8/10). I'm telling you, if she ever finds a way to incorporate some real, actual emotion into her performance she might end up turning this whole competition upside down.

MACKENZIE BOURG
"I Wanna Dance with Somebody"

Okay, so right as he said he was singing this song I got nervous. Obviously. I mean he said it himself, this is one of the strongest up tempo vocals out in the world. I got even more nervous when he said he's not always in that whole "dreary singer songwriter" "I wanna make you cry" mode. This song would actually flourish if it was retooled to the style we've come to know and love by MacKenzie (in fact, it has). But I'll be damned, I actually really liked the arrangement. It weirdly really worked for the song! I wasn't feeling the first half (vocally from MacKenzie), he was a little drowned out by the backup singer during the chorus. Otherwise I thought it wasn't half bad (7.5/10). I felt the same way Harry did at the beginning. It would have been absolutely gorgeous if he took the song and did an acoustic arrangement of it, but once the song started to pick up some steam I thought his rendition of the song was just fine. It wasn't like he sang it exactly in the same arrangement as Whitney.

LA'PORSHA RENAE
"Halo"

I don't expect anyone to understand this but I low key predicted that La'Porsha would sing "Halo". After she did "Diamonds" last week, I got a flashback of Angie Miller's performance in season twelve, which was stunning. Then I started to think of other performances she absolutely killed and "Halo" came to mind. I kid you not, I've been humming it all week. I'm basically a prophet, call me Tiresias. Anyways, I jumped out of my seat a few times at some of her runs. When La'Porsha steps out onto the stage to sing it's a masterclass. Everything about this woman is so powerful, from her voice, to her angelic positioning on stage, to the stares she gives into the camera - it looks like she's staring into my soul. She has a way of making a performance extremely dramatic without turning it into something theatrical and over the top. When the music stopped and she took us to church at that acapella moment, I couldn't hold in my love. That kiss to the camera at the end was everything (9/10). THE one to beat. I also thought I was hearing stuff but she snuck in "Idol I can see your halo" pretty well.

So, Harry started singing and I went to pee. It was on my DVR and I didn't rewind the parts I missed. But, hey, he looked like he was having a good time so cool. I am SO excited for his talk show, though, he's such a character and a cool guy so I'll check it out when it comes out in the fall!

TRENT HARMON

"When a Man Loves a Woman"

I don't see what the big deal with Trent's facial expressions are. It's probably my favorite thing about him. Now, I'm a little biased because I absolutely love this song and thought it was perfect for his voice. His voice is so powerful and the fact that he's so good at conveying his emotion really uplifted the whole performance. His sort of nasally tone actually really worked for me in this performance, especially when he hit that extremely, extremely high note in his falsetto. I looked away and shuddered (in the best way possible, of course), there were eargasms everywhere, if I'm being honest. I agree with JLO, I love it. I love it. I love it. I'm not sure if this was a one off performance, but I think this performance might have made me a Trent Harmon fan. We'll see next week (8.5/10). "You won't love it when he doesn't have a voice in ten years." Low key, somewhere, Harry was shading the hell out of Mariah Carey.

TRISTAN MCINTOSH

"Go Rest High on That Mountain"

WHAT?! BRUH, DID I JUST GET PUNK'D?! WAIT?! First off, Tristan over Avalon or Olivia? I had Olivia's name in bold because I was sure she was making it through out of the last four that were there. And second off, good decisions? Tristan. Honey. You thought you were making decisions that were positively affecting you in the competition? Where? Not this competition. It sort of proves how she just really isn't ready yet. She doesn't know her own voice and she broke down in tears when Scott said he didn't like her song choice. But...um, huh? ...Scott should be making all of her musical decisions for the rest of the time she's on the show. This performance was far from perfect, her vocals were very (very) shaky but even then, it was the best I've ever heard her sound. This was kind of like her "Take Me to the King" (Malaya Watson, Season 13) moment of the season. Unfortunately, I believe that will buy her a few more weeks when there are much better people in the competition (6.5/10).  Yeah, I said it was the best she'd ever sounded. That doesn't mean it was good.

THE SING OFF:

AVALON YOUNG

"Earned It"

You ARE cool. You DO have swag. America fucked up. Avalon being such an individual and the type of girl society doesn't expect her to be is what landed her here, I think. There has been a lot of talk about her appearance lately and that's the one thing I can't stand about these singing competitions. On The Voice, it's about the voice (but only for the first audition), then appearance and all of those things are taken into consideration. I can't believe the focus is whether or not she has makeup on or not when she is this wicked talented. It's ridiculous. I though she absolutely killed that performance. Her voice is absolutely amazing, and she was absolutely in her zone tonight (8.5/10). This proves what I said before, she's a clear talent but she is extremely underrated.

OLIVIA ROX

"Trouble"

After last weeks killer performance, I can't believe she's in the bottom three. Overall, I thought the performance was just fine. Had she been able to prepare a song that would have been her "save me" song. If this makes sense, it was good song for this stage in the competition but not this "part" of the competition. If she had made it through, this would have been a game changing performance. Her voice was absolutely stellar, her falsetto and her runs at the end were amazing. I just don't think it worked as a song trying to convince the judges to keep her in the competition (8/10). This is why I don't like the show being confined to one night because if she had a song that was tailored to show the judges they have to keep her then she probably would have been the one to be saved.

GIANNA ISABELLA

"If I Ain't Got You"

Gianna's at it once again. What else can I say? She sounded alright. There's a voice in there, just not that much control. She has a potentially massive voice but doesn't really have an idea of what she's supposed to do with it. The judges were being pretty generous (5.5/10). I'll miss her personality (a little bit), but that's pretty much it.




RESULTS:
Avalon was saved, Olivia & Gianna were eliminated. In the grand scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal that Olivia went home this early. This top ten is actually pretty strong so after Tristan goes home, it's going to be hard to start narrowing down who should go home when.

RANKINGS:

10. Gianna Isabella (5.5/10) (Last week's position: #10//+0)
09. Lee Jean (6.5/10) (Last week's position: #8//-1)
08. Tristan McIntosh (6.5/10) (Last week's position: #9//+1)
07. Dalton Rapattoni (7/10) (Last week's position: #4//-3)
06. Mackenzie Bourg (7.5/10) (Last week's position: #6//+0)
05. Olivia Rox (8/10) (Last week's position: #5//+0)
04. Sonika Vaid (8/10) (Last week's position: #2//-2)
03. Trent Harmon (8.5/10) (Last week's position: #3//+0)
02. Avalon Young (8.5/10) (Last week's position: #7//+5)
01. La'Porsha Renae (9/10) (Last week's position: #1//+0)

It's interesting how (save for a few) the rankings are almost identical to last week. I wasn't surprised that Avalon killed it this week after a lackluster performance, I expected Sonika to do a little better and I can't say I'm shocked that Dalton made it a little lower on my list so quickly. The top ten is pretty strong, so it'll be interesting to see which way the wind blows next week.

Who I Send Home:
Tristan or Lee

Who America Sends Home:
Avalon (I hope not) or Lee