The Music of Detroit is the theme this week and there's an intro from Smokey Robinson who provided the guidance for the last 8 contenders.
Candice gets a bundle of compliments from Jimmy and Smokey during rehearsals. She does her take on I Heard I Through The Grapevine. Some take it was too. One of the best versions I've heard! Superb. This girl is ready to record now. She is showing herself as a clear potential winner of this thing - in normal conditions, Of course, there's the Country vote to handle yet.
Kree and Janelle do a joint version of Madonna's Like A Prayer. Pretty nice and commercial. Randy and Nicky give Kree all the compliments and Janelle gets all the criticism from those two. Mariah takes ger time and actually makes the best observations, recognising that Janelle has something that appeals to the crowd even if Kree may have the better technicalities. There was a point at the end where Janelle's arm went up - that said it all for me. I wonder how they're all going to fit in duos or whatever?
Lazaro gets told to go out and do what he feels comfortable with by both Jimmy and Smokey. He picks For Once In My Life by Stevie Wonder. It's another from his album of well-rehearsed numbers and whilst he doesn't actually go anywhere with the song, it is one of his better performances. He could even survive with that. Which does beg the question Who goes?
Janelle now, on her own. You Keep Me Hangin' On could be good or it could go wrong. It's been done by so many people from The Supremes to Vanilla Fudge! She knows this well and had been working on her own version since age 14! And that was very very good. Mariah says that was her at her finest and anything the others had said had just been proved wrong! Super arrangement and quite brave, bringing out the darker side of the track which The Supremes missed. She even gets an 'in it to win it' from Randy.
Deven brings the beautiful Tracks Of My Tears to the stage. What a mess. He shouldn't have bothered and it's even worse when the master is right there trying to be polite and considerate. I would actually say that Lazaro deserves to stay this week - provided it's Deven that goes. This guy has been just disappointing in the Live Shows.
Amber, Candice and Angie do The Supremes I'm Going To Make You Love Me. Good job, especially Amber who just suits this era so well.
Burnell does My Cherie Amour. It should work well for him. My Cher Free Amour emerges at one point and it gets a little tedious - all at the same phrasing volume. He seems to remember to ease back at the la -l -la bit but then he's off again. Still the best guy by a mile but that still only puts him 6th.
Angie is doing Shop Around. Hope it works for her. This isn't a song for proper pronunciation or best diction, as Jimmy tells her. It didn't work well. She wanted to show another side to her but I don't think we need to see it and Mariah gives her good advice. She could have easily romped home this week with any number of Motown classics. Nicky gets it spot on too.
Ryan reminds us that Amber is trying to get out of the bottom three. Odd remark as the votes start all over each week. She does Lately and should do that well. She puts a lot in and does certainly do that well. Excellent reviews from the judges so something very wrong if she is still struggling tomorrow.
The three boys tried a Four Tops performance. Luckily, Deven rescued them as only he seemed to have a clue about what was going on! Hilarious and Nicky tells them off big time. Justifiably too.
Finally, Kree has the spot and the chance to seal the deal with the last spot and a good idea of what she needs to do to stay in. Aretha Franklin's Don't Play That Song was an excellent choice and everyone loved it.
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