‘American Idol’ review: Kree Harrison, Candice Glover shine within top 10 girls

“American Idol” finally went live on Tuesday night, and despite having a crop of women that is without a doubt stronger than the men, this show actually ended up being a mixed bag. While there were a few people who rose to the occasion, some others stumbled after working so hard to get here. This leaves us with a result show on Thursday that will be hard to predict, as the voters are going to have to decide whether to reward someone based on story or personality, or the sole fact that they can singer their face off.

After we share our take on all of the ten individual performances below, stay tuned for our pick on who is going to end up moving on.

Zoanette Johnson – What in the world was that? We had completely wanted to root for this woman incessantly ever since she started to play the drums like crazy during Hollywood Week, but for whatever reason, she decided to strip away almost everything that made her special at one point. This was just dull, and with her going first on the night, we actually expect her now to be sent home.

Breanna Steer – We’ve compared her to Rihanna in the past, just because the two have similar looks, and we ultimately could see Rihanna having some of the same strengths and weaknesses on this show. You see, Breanna has a pretty good voice, but she seems to be more of a natural performer than just a pure singer. On this competition, when the name of the game is really just doing other people’s songs, it is difficult to stay alive without a knockout voice. Sadly, she was flat for a good junk of this take on “Flaws & All.”

Aubrey Cleland – Look, it’s a ballad! We’re only kidding. The problem with Aubrey is that, lame as it sounds, we really don’t have any idea just what sort of artist she wants to be. If you want people to vote for you, it’s imperative that you have some sort of style that the audience can identify with. We just don’t see that here.

Janelle Arthur – Bold song choice by Janelle of Elvis Presley’s “If I Can Dream”: it’s something that is not traditionally thought of as the sort of thing we would see from a modern-day country crooner. The truth is, though, that Janelle has a very old-school voice. We are not 120% sure that she is exciting enough on stage to really make a big splash in one of music’s most-competitive genres, but she is at least bringing a little more flair and history through her voice that we have traditionally heard over the past few years.

Tenna Torres – We’re not going to lie and pretend like we really wanted Tenna to make it this far: we’ve always found her voice to be a bit whiny, and Mariah Carey would love just about anything she does because she went to her camp years ago. The Faith Hill song was inspired, but the vocals just felt off and all over the place.

Angie Miller – This is what we call a very smart move: Angie, a devout Christian who performs a similar type of music to Colton Dixon, covering one of her songs. This is an instant way to grab onto his fan base moving forward, and given her status as a favorite in this competition already, this could propel her even further than she was already. The only problem we have with Angie is that it’s one ballad after another right now, and she needs to mix it up.

Amber Holcomb – Amber came off a great performance in Las Vegas, and going into this performance the door was wide open for her to take it. There were some duds early on, and with Angie moving down a contemporary Christian route, some other genres of music were ripe for the taking. While we didn’t really dig the ballad at first, Amber added some sweet moments in here where she really showed off some personality in here. This may not guarantee herself a spot in the top 10, but we’re certainly leaning in that direction.

Kree Harrison – It’s possible that the following may come through a biased perspective given that we picked Kree as our favorite over the weekend, but there’s just something so real and honest about what she does. Her vocal on a very difficult Faith song was outstanding, but more than that you could genuinely feel almost every note that she sang, and she told a story with the song.

Adriana Latonio – She’s from Alaska … did you know that? Only kidding! The show just really seemed to aggressively shove Adriana’s heritage down our throats in a way it did not necessarily need to, but despite this dull performance, though, we really would not be stunned if the devoted viewers up in America’s largest state find a way to keep her around.

Candice Glover – Of course, what better way to end a night of almost all ballads with another one? This really has to change, producers! With this being said, Candice picked one of our favorite songs in “Ordinary People” by John Legend. She may have actually sold the song a little bit more than she needed to (hey, she’s happy to be there), but if you really looking to make a show about finding the best singer, she has to be on top of the list.

Ultimately, our picks to advice go as follows: Candice, Kree, Angie, Janelle, and Breanna. We expect to be wrong on the list one.

Who was your favorite on “American Idol” Tuesday night, and do you think that the woman as a whole excited or disappointed you? We want to hear your pick in the poll below, and if you want to see how we ranked the ladies this weekend, you can do so over at the link here.

Photo: Fox