L-R: Adam Lambert, Wade Cota — ABC/Eric McCandlessThey will, they will, rock you! American Idol’s top eight took on some classic Queen songs Sunday night with the help of eighth season runner-up and current Queen frontman Adam Lambert.
But not all of the contestants will get to rock on for another week. Walker Burroughs and Alyssa Raghu were sent home after the nationwide vote and the judges decided not to use their one save of the season to keep either of them in the competition.
That means the top six contestants are: Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Laci Kaye Booth, Madison VanDenburg, Laine Hardy, Alejandro Aranda and Wade Cota.
As for the performances, the night’s standouts included Laci, who gave an intimate performance of “Love of My Life” and impressed the judges, not only with her smoky voice, but with her ability to sell the emotion of the song, and Jeremiah, who belted “Who Wants to Live Forever” in front of his parents watching him in the audience for the first time.
Madison had her “diva moment” with “The Show Must Go On,” but Katy Perry told her to go even further next time and deliver some stomps and hair flips. Laine, meanwhile, was able to get the audience to “party with Hardy” by channeling his inner rockstar on “Fat Bottomed Girls.”
The rest of the solo performances included: Walker showing off some stage presence for “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”; Alejandro putting his own spin on “Under Pressure”; Wade singing “We Are the Champions,” but flubbing one of the lyrics; and Alyssa belting “Somebody to Love.”
The all-Queen setlist was broken up by some movie-themed duets. Laci and Laine were perfectly paired to sing Johnny Cash and June Carter‘s “Jackson” from Walk the Line, prompting Katy to speculate there was some romantic going on between them behind the scenes. Laci and Laine just blushed and smiled, but didn’t confirm or deny.
The judges also loved the pairing of Alejandro and Walker on Simon and Garfunkel’s “Mrs. Robinson” from The Graduate. “Your voices are like two peas in a pod,” Katy said of their acoustic duet.
The other duets included the unlikely match-up of Wade and Alyssa on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” from the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack and the powerhouse pairing of Madison and Jeremiah on “A Million Dreams” from The Greatest Showman.
American Idol airs next Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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