An odd selection for an “American Idol” theme given the songwriter’s style, Carole King night nonetheless proved to be fruitful for the two most unexpected finalists.
Already the perceived frontrunners, James Durbin and Scotty McCreery took their dominance to the next level by “owning” their respective solo performances.
For Durbin, it meant having a “moment” on the classic “Will You Love Me Tomorrow.” The well-received performance opened with a stunning a capella portion and then built into a soft, rock-driven number that had stylistic hints of British Invasion and retro soul. Randy Jackson, in particular, loved the performance and declared that Durbin might have set himself on the track to win the entire competition with Wednesday’s performance.
Durbin had shown he can sing sensitive songs of the era in previous performances, but his comfort zone has clearly been defined as hair metal and rock–this was not that by any means.
McCreery, meanwhile, turned “You’ve Got a Friend” into a powerful country ballad, combining his signature twang and deep voice with higher, more tender notes. Though the performance exposed the teen- and middle-America-friendly McCreery as the most limited vocalist in the competition from a technical standpoint, it also solidified the extent to which he can use his voice to make even a famous song sound unique.
Headline Planet’s full recap and analysis, due Thursday morning, will evaluate the full extent of performances, which also included three duets (Haley Reinhart-Casey Abrams, Scotty-Lauren Alaina, James-Jacob Lusk).
As of press time, Google Trends was not listing any contestant-specific buzz for the Wednesday performance show. As of 11:30PM EDT, the only “Idol”-related trending topic was Carole King, which sat at number four.
