‘American Idol 15’ review: On Trent Harmon, La’Porsha Renae’s performances (and song controversy)

We feel like it is fairly clear to say that there was a lot of good stuff that happened on Thursday night’s new episode of “American Idol,” but at the same time, there were a few things that got our hair standing on end.

For one, we’re talking a little bit about La’Porsha Renae clearly singing a song that she did not want to do as chosen by Scott Borchetta. It’s certainly an interesting point of contention here. Should she have been forced to sing something about begging a man to stay if she did not share the sentiment? If this was a live theater production or something of the variety, we’d argue that it was a requirement to get into the character of the song and just do it without complaint. The problem is that this is not theater, and America is voting for the person rather than the character. She should be able to at least have some sort of veto power if she feels like a song chosen for her is not the right way to present herself to America.

When it comes to performances themselves, La’Porsha’s non-controversial number (“Glory”) was completely outstanding, and this coupled with Trent’s Justin Timberlake cover were nothing short of the best we’ve seen pretty much all season. We’d go through some of this note-by-note, but the reality here is this: These two are the best singers and the most dynamic personalities of the group. These are the people who should make it through to the finale (though Dalton Rapattoni did have his moments tonight).

Ultimately, though, we know that this will be up to the voters to figure out.

If you missed it, head over here to read what we have to say regarding MacKenzie Bourg’s elimination. Also, sign up over here to score some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)