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Lil Rounds fires up Simon on ‘American Idol’

Lil Rounds was the only woman to garner serious praise from Simon Cowell, and all but lock up a place in the "American Idol" finals, on a night that featured strong performances from Jorge Nunez, Scott McIntyre, Ju'Not Joyner.
/ Source: msnbc.com contributor

The three semifinal rounds of “American Idol” have been dominated by the men thus far, and Tuesday’s show was another in a series of episodes where the men were memorable and the women were forgettable.

With one exception.

Lil Rounds closed the show with a dominating performance of Mary J. Blige’s “Be Without You.” She sang with confidence and authority, nailing the vocals of an artist whose songs usually lead to disaster when “Idol” hopefuls try them.

“I’m going to keep this very brief — brilliant,” Simon Cowell said. “I think you have great, great prospects in this competition.”

The rest of the judges agreed, though Paula Abdul chose to go the dumb pun route and said, “I have a sneaking suspicion that we’ll see you for many more lil’ rounds.”

Lil Rounds is a sure bet to move onto the final 12.

The rest of the stars of the night, however, were the guys. Scott MacIntyre started off as a feel-good story, the blind contestant overcoming obstacles to make it to Hollywood. But he emerged as one of the audience favorites, and did nothing to hurt himself singing “Mandolin Rain” by Bruce Hornsby.

The judges clearly like him, too, enough that they brushed over any vocal imperfections to praise his passion and his potential. “I want America to see you play and sing, because that’s when they’re really going to see Scott. I hope they give you that chance,” Kara DioGuardi said.

“I think you’re starting to believe in yourself,” Simon said. “In a sea of forgettable people tonight, you’re the one I’m going to remember.”

Also getting copious praise from the judges was Jorge Nuñez. The Puerto Rican has been working with a dialect coach because the judges commented on his accent when he auditioned. It’s anyone’s guess why the show would hold auditions in San Juan if they were concerned about accents, and that was the last thing on anyone’s mind after Nuñez sang Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me.”

Now that the accent is mostly gone when he sings, Simon noted that “we were wrong to you to say that you shouldn’t sing with an accent … you’re actually a very good singer.”

Kara followed by saying he was born to sing, which caused Nuñez to break down in tears of happiness. It was a lovefest on stage, which has to help his chances.

The contenders Ju’Not Joyner sang a stripped-down version of The Plain White Ts “Hey There Delilah” that both surprised and impressed the judges, but he was most memorable for a TMI moment when he revealed he had a cortisone shot in his rear end before the show to help his voice after having issues with asthma. No word on whether the gang from “House” did the procedure to keep it in the Fox family. He did well enough to draw attention, even without his little son in the audience.

There are many places in pop culture where being compared to Clay Aiken is an insult. Fortunately for Von Smith, “American Idol” is not among them. His take on Marvin Gaye was uncharacteristically understated, coming from a guy who screamed his way out of both his audition and the Hollywood round, and he clearly exceeded the expectations of the judges, who compared him to the season two runner-up.

Felicia Barton was the beneficiary of Joanna Pacitti’s disqualification, getting a second chance after originally being cut at the final stage. She did well enough with “No One” by Alicia Keys, and Paula told her, “I’m happy we brought you back, and I hope we bring you back next week.” However, that was before most of the favorites sang, and she was eclipsed by those who followed.

It seemed as though the judges wanted to like Kristen McNamara, but they also wanted her to sing Kelly Clarkson instead of Tracy Chapman. Because she didn’t, the judges were confused about who she was and what kind of an artist she wanted to be. Though she said in the post-performance interview that she envisioned herself as a Clarkson-type of artist, the song choice will probably come back to bite her in the voting.

Kendall Beard did not have that song choice problem, as the country girl went all-in on Nashville by picking Martina McBride’s “This One’s For the Girls.” The vocals weren’t great, but it was a lot of fun and so was she, and if nothing else she made herself into a wild-card candidate, along with Barton and McNamara.

Thanks for participating High-school student Taylor Vaifanua was criticized for being generic, which was apparent when the judges used her performance to discuss the importance of going to the mall. That came courtesy of Kara, who told her “You’ve got talent, but I want more of your personality ... What’s it like to go shopping with Taylor?”

That prompted the persnickety Simon to wonder who cared about shopping habits, and Ryan Seacrest to remark, “Simon, that’s where you can buy clothes from this decade.”

In the meantime, Vaifanua was crying and smiling, saying that she was just happy to be there. That’s good, because after tomorrow she probably won’t be.

Arianna Afsar was determined to prove she was more than “cute as a button,” which is what the judges all said about her when she auditioned. But she made a mistake with ABBA’s “The Winner Takes It All,” in an arrangement that sounded like it was a funeral dirge. It was was all over the place, and sadly the song title is likely to be ironic, as Afsar probably won’t be one of the top three this week.

Alex Wagner-Trugman’s best chance is if voters value personality over singing. He was funny in the pre-performance interview with Ryan, and was unintentionally funny onstage when he kicked over the microphone stand. But though he put on a very good show, his vocals on Elton John’s “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” didn’t match the other men.

The judges haven’t known what to make of Nathaniel Marshall all season, and that was true again on Wednesday. He became the first to ever sing “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Meat Loaf on “Idol,” and he’s probably the first who ever considered it.

Simon fixated on Marshall’s headband, which admittedly looked like something out of the early 1980s, but Marshall did a nice job of rebranding himself as the fun contestant instead of the king of drama and breakdowns. 

“Right now you’re the guy I want to go to karaoke with — that’s my karaoke buddy right there,” Kara said.

Fitting that even one of the men who wasn’t a front-runner came away with a date.

Craig Berman is a writer in Washington, D.C.

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