‘American Idol’ top 8 review: Nicki Minaj rips Lazaro Arbos; Kree Harrison, Janelle Arthur shine

“American Idol” went Motown this week, but did it deliver the goods? The pressure was definitely on for some of these singers after some disappointing weeks, and just in general the show needed a recovery after coming close to boring us to sleep.

Thankfully, this night was a serious comeback for a few singers (in particular Janelle and Burnell) who really needed to step it up, and while we’re not even going to touch on most of the messy duets / trios that we saw over the course of the show, with one exception: that dreadful trio performance with the guys. Nicki Minaj completely trolled all three of them afterwards, but she was 120% right about most of it (sometimes, people need a dose of harsh reality). As for Burnell throwing Lazaro under the bus? He may have been right, but he’s forgetting two valuable things:

1. Being competitive on this show is not a good look, especially when you are throwing shade on a guy with the inspirational story behind him.

2. All this is going to do is make Lazaro’s fans vote for him more.

Now, let’s get to the performances…

Candice Glover, “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” – What an exceptional way to start this show! The arrangement here was funky and awesome, and her vocal, complete with growl and the range, managed to breathe into what is one of the more tired songs in this show’s history. We’ll say that this was the best rendition of this song on the show ever, but it is not exactly like there was a whole heap of competition for this.

Lazaro Arbos, “For Once In My Life” – We agree with the notion that this was a wise choice for Lazaro to sing, and there’s no doubting that he improved from the disaster that was last week? But was this really enough improvement to make the top 7? If the voting public was judging based on voice alone, we would say no, and him going early in the show may cause Lazaro to be in trouble.

Janelle Arthur, “You Keep Me Hanging On” – This was Janelle’s best performance of the entire season, and to us it’s not even close. We’ve been very hard on her throughout the competition, but this was a little dark, very unique, and a nice arrangement that showed off some artistry. Janelle really made us think that she wants a career beyond the show this week, and that’s something we love to hear.

Devin Velez, “Tracks of My Tears” – Another lovely (but very boring) vocal from Devin, and this will probably be what sends him home. We’ve never really seen a guy on this show that had us frustrated on such a level. We know the guy can sing, but you have to do more than that! You need fun sometimes in this modern era!

Burnell Taylor, “My Cherie Amour” – Cheers to Burnell for singing something something upbeat, and for the “Miami Vice” outfit. Sadly, the arrangement was total cruise ship cheese. though Burnell did a beautiful song with the vocals. He didn’t force anything, kept it pretty simple, and let the song really speak for itself. Sometimes, we prefer that than notes going all over the place.

Angie Miller, “Shop Around” – Great handling of Angie first of all by Jimmy Iovine: he hinted at some of her performances being theatrical in the past, and she listened to our advice and had some fun! Sadly, we didn’t really have a ton of fun along with her. As much as we wanted her to go upbeat, she was just off for the whole song and looked very awkward moving around on stage.

Amber Holcomb, “Lately” – As per usual with Motown themes, it quickly becomes the Stevie Wonder songbook. We’ve heard “Lately” covered a number of times, and while Stefano Langone is still our favorite take on this song, Amber did a mesmerizing job with the vocal. Sadly, we still think that Amber’s biggest issues is that we don’t get enough of a sense of her personality. She’s like the female version of Devin: a great singer who needs to work on the other part.

Kree Harrison, “Don’t Play that Song”  – In following up that dreadful three-guy trio, Kree was our only hope for saving the night and making Nicki wipe that Grumpy Cat look off her face. Luckily, she did that with this song. This is how you rock a mid-tempo song! While Janelle may have won the night, Kree is a close second in our book.

Who was your favorite on “American Idol” this week? If you want to see who we thought needed to step it up this week, be sure to head on over to the link here.

Photo: Fox