Naima Adedapo's elimination leaves Jacob Lusk as the only minority remaining on the show's now Top 9.- Fox photo

American Idol contestant 16-year-old Thia Megia has a nice sweet voice but made the mistake of choosing the Elton John song "Daniel" to sing to her brother. The question now is… who will be the next Idol to be eliminated? - Fox photo

Paul McDonald was in the bottom 3 but got the green light to go through to the Top 9 remaining American Idol contestants - Fox photo

Video Beat Part 1 - AMERICAN IDOL ELIMINATED THAI MEGIA & NAIMA ADEDAPO

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Due to Casey Abrams being saved buy the judges the previous week there was a double elimination this past week to compensate. The guillotine fell on Thia Megia and Naima Adedapo. The good news is that both will tour this summer with the Idol Top 11 - Recommended TV Listings

Wednesday April 06, 2011

TWO MORE DOWN EIGHT TO GO

During the first final 11 competition Casey Abrams was saved by the American Idol judges. The promo ads by the Fox Network stated that Abrams was saved due to his great performance. Nothing could be further from the truth. The judges admire and pitied him by using their one time save so early at the 11th position. Abrams was shocked by their kindness. The problem evolved that this past week two contestants were to be eliminated and the save was gone forever and never to be used again for other contestants that have better voices than Abrams. Our question in a previous a column was, was the save fair?

The victims of the double elimination were 16-year-old Thia Megia and Naima Adedapo who was one of the survivors of the wild card six. The good news is that both will tour this summer with the Idol Top 11. The elimination leaves Jacob Lusk as the only minority remaining on the show's now Top 9.

Megia has a nice sweet voice but made the mistake of choosing the Elton John song "Daniel" to sing to her brother when she was separated from when she was young. Though a talented but young vocalist the now 16-year-old's inexperience started to show it her last performance. She seemed tight and was thinking too much.

Adepapo sang a reggae version of John's "I'm Still Standing." She added some African dance steps in her performance that took away from what is expected in a singing contest. Her venture into ethnicity could have been a turn off for some voters.

In both cases the song choices and renditions were too personal and meant something to them but could have alienated some of the viewing and voting audience. The point is to win votes and sing to the viewing audience that will win them over. In narrowing their audience appeal worked at cross purposes in their effort to go on.

Paul McDonald was the other bottom 3 victim. The soft Rod Stewart song stylist sang "Rocket Man." His voice is too weak to carry that song which requires strength and projection. His laid back soft version was uninspiring.

After Abrams survived to go on and be a part of the Top 9. Interscope's Records Chairman Jimmy Iovine who has a background as a songwriter and producer is Idols in-house mentor to work with the contestants this season on a weekly basis. In his meeting with Abrams in preparation for this weeks show he asked the 20-year-old musician/singer, "Do you know what was wrong about your performance (last week)? Abrams was stunned by the question and had a look as if he was spaced out in the land of DAH. "Everything," Iovine emphatically added.

After the save judge Randy Jackson told Abrams that he didn't need to growl when he sang. That was exactly our critique we previously made that he made too many affects to his voice. It raised the question…. where is the real Casey Abrams voice?

The sweet and sour love from Iovane and Jackson hit home as last week as Abrams sang in his real voice that we've never heard before in his rendition of Elton John's "Your Song". It was a shocking performance. Much to our surprise Abrams has a much better natural voice than we've ever heard as he took judge Randy Jackson's advice and eliminated the growl when he sang. This was the first time that we have heard Abrams true voice and it's not as bad as we previously noted.

The most outstanding performance of the evening came again from Pia Toscano as well as Jacob Lusk. Lauren Alaina and Scott McCreery were close behind both turning outstanding performances. At this point they are the front-runners to be in the final four.

NOTE

Following being eliminated Megia and Adedapo made a guest appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight show. They sang going into and out of the commercial breaks throughout the show. Both seemed happy and not bitter about their elimination.

Part 2 - AMERICAN IDOL'S JAILER SIMON FULLER

# 11 - CASEY ABRAMS SAVED

# 12 - KAREN RODRIGUEZ

# 13 - ASHTHON JONES

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