American Idol Season 14 Top 8 Females

Live blog for the final show from Motown

1. Tyanna Jones- "Rockin' Robin"

I had her leading the pack last week, so I am not surprised she is continuing. It's not like I would buy this song or listen to it on the radio, but Tyanna sang it extremely well, and made it seem almost effortless. She is just very, very good, especially compared to the weird version of this song that Megan Joy once did on Idol.

2. Loren Lott- "I Wanna Be Where You Are"

She makes a very dramatic beeline to the stage. Let's hope the actress is still able to sing in tune. This is the second straight Michael Jackson song to start off the night, but I do not think I have ever heard this one before. She is a good performer on stage, but her vocals were inconsistent. I thought Loren sounded a lot better on the verses, than she did on the chorus, which felt a bit screamy. She loves to scream in general. Give her a gig in a horror flick.

3. Maddie Walker-"I'll Be There"

I did not think she should have gone thru, but I predicted she would. Yet another early Jackson 5 era song. I have to say though, that Maddie did better than I expected. I thought she sang this ballad a lot more effectively than the ditzy country song she did last week. There were certainly some issues with it, and I think she probably went sharp in trying to get out the high notes, but her take on the verses was pretty nice.

4. Joey Cook- "Shop Around"

I should have expected that like the case with the guys, the person I had ranked lowest would advance and mess up a prediction. America just wants to see the weird stuff I guess.

Well, at least this was far less of a joke than the performance she gave last week. This actually had some moments where I can understand why people may be into it. I imagine that the judges are about to rave over her, once I un-pause the recording. However, I may never be able to really "get" her style and that is going to effect the way she sounds to me. It might also help if she could avoid the over the top, but clearly planned "freak outs" until the band at least completely stops playing.

5. Sarina- Joi Crowe- "You Really Got a Hold On Me"

She definitely deserved to go through, but I wonder if these contestants know that their name is about to be called right before it is, because of the shot of how Jax was seeming to give Sarina a pep talk right before she got the official word, as if she knew she was about to go up and sing.

Out of all the contestants, SJC seemed to take the most acoustic take on any of these Motown songs, accompanied by just a guitar player. I thought it was another pretty strong vocal although maybe some notes were a bit off. I was trying to gage if J.Lo (during the one of 2,000 reaction shots of her during any episode) was making a face because the vocals were off the rails a bit or if it was because Sarina-Joi was doing well. Would J.Lo even really know the difference?

Why do I suspect Shi might have to be put under restraints when she gets very bad news within the next half hour? Possibly Jax as well?

6. Adanna Duru- "Hello"

It is shaping up to be a very good night, and good Season 14 for the African-American contestants. It's definitely been hard to argue with the ones that have gone through, including Adanna. Her performance tonight was interesting, and sort of featured both her strengths and weaknesses from last week. It remains to be seen how she might do on an up-beat song, but she sounded pretty good for the most part on this 1980s Lionel Richie hit. She continued her trend of starting off soft and slow and then seeming to kick it into another gear. That partially worked tonight but if she keeps up at that, it may become overly predictable.

7. Jax- "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

Ok, first of all, Jax is wearing The Dress! I don't know why I suddenly feel like I am part of E's Fashion Police, but I just think it's awesome that she is wearing the black and blue/white and gold pop culture phenomena dress that tore America apart during the last week of February! I seriously want to vote for her just for that. They will be talking about The Dress one year in the future when V-H1 does "I Love 2015."

Her arrangement and presentation felt very similar to what we earlier saw Joey do. They are both quirky, stylized singers, but I think Jax would be more likely to have success after the show.  This was not a horrible performance, but I do not know how much more of her singing I can take for more than 90 seconds at a time. These judges will be idiots if they do not mention The Dress.

They seemed to favor Joey to Jax. That is interesting. Seacrest at least noticed The Dress. For the record, it was clearly white and gold when I first saw it online, but then, it started changing colors the more I heard about it. Pretty freaky. Jax is quite weird too.

One spot left. It really has to be Lovey, right? My parents will be upset if its not Alexis Gomez I am sure.

Well, they will be happy. Alexis was shaking like she knew she was about to go up to sing. I pause the DVR and Katherine's expression is pretty unfortunate.

To make it official:

Who should have been eliminated: Joey Cook, Shannon Berthiaume, Maddie Walker, Shi Scott
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Joey Cook, Shannon Berthiaume, Shi Scott, Katherine Winston
Who was eliminated: Shannon Berthiaume, Shi Scott, Katherine Winston, Lovey James

Somehow Riley Bria and Lovey James met the same fate. Perhaps, they were too blond. That's even worse news for Hillary Clinton.

Yeah, these girls left on stage are pretty pissed at Alexis right now.

8. Alexis Gomez- "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch)"

None of the girls played instruments tonight. Ok, I am surprised at how much I disliked this performance. Alexis did not sound good and looked even weirder. Put your damn shoes on girl. This seemed like a Saturday Night Live sketch of a singer. At least Joey's comic persona is somewhat more interesting.

Rankings:

8. Alexis Gomez
7. Joey Cook

6. Loren Lott
5. Jax
4. Maddie Walker
3. Adanna Duru
2. Sarina-Joi Crowe
1. Tyanna Jones

Who will not get to sing on the big Hollywood stage next week (barring a "twist?') It is a good question. There are about as many African-American women in this final eight to be The Real Housewives of Atlanta, so it's maybe a numbers game in regards to the black vote. I would like to see Alexis and Joey both leave but think that it might very well be Loren and Adanna. I will formally go with a prediction of Loren and Alexis going home.