‘American Idol XIV’ review: Joey Cook, Quentin Alexander, Clark Beckham, Jax perform Billboard hits

It is Billboard Hot 100 Week Wednesday on “American Idol,” and the challenge here is to figure out a way to make these particular songs current, given that they are tracks that so many people have heard at least a couple of billion times over the course of their lives. We like the choices that at least a few people made, but more than that, we dug some of the interpretations. Take a look at some of our quick-takes on some of these below.

Jax, “Poker Face” – While the arrangement was a little similar to everything she’s done so far, this was still a sleek, fascinating performance of the song that was entertaining from start to finish.

Nick Fradiani, “Teenage Dream” – While we did not love every facet of the arrangement here (he could’ve hit more notes), we do really dig that he took a risk with a song many certainly did not expect to come from him. Great passion behind the lyrics first and foremost.

Quentin Alexander, “Latch” – Wow! Quentin went uptempo, and even though he is probably one of the weaker technical singers left, he is so great at creating a vibe and an experience that we don’t mind so much. We had more fun with this than any other performance from him.

Joey Cook, “Wrecking Ball” – The inconsistency from Joey continues. This was a song that could have benefited from a new arrangement, mostly because this song sounded weird with the way in which she went about singing the chorus.

Clark Beckham, “Make It Rain” – We’ve ranked Clark #1 the past two weeks in our rankings, and after watching this, we had a further understanding as to why. The guy is just a great singer through and through!

Tyanna Jones, “Stay” – The final before the results portion of the show, and this was beautiful. Tyanna’s best of the show so far. It was soaring, spectacular, and perfectly set. She is going to be around for a while.

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