“American Idol”: Casey and JLo, sitting in a tree

• Courtesy of FOX!

This is one of those shows where they have way too much time (an hour and a half for seven performances) so they started out with a rendition of Pink’s “So What” sung by all the losers who haven’t made it this far. It was terrible. Finally, 13 minutes in, they get to the real contestants who were allowed to sing any song recorded in the 21st century.

The Good -
Haley Reinhart — “Rolling in the Deep” by Adele
Ack! I’m thrilled Haley is singing this song, because as I’ve stated in previous weeks, she’s finally found her real voice and has started picking songs that have more of a jazzy feel. This is perfect for her. And oh my lawd, y’all, she NAILED IT! She kept her hair whipping and growling to almost nonexistent and focused solely on singing and feeling the lyrics. Obvi, the judges completely downplayed the awesomeness that just happened and while they said it was great overall, they nitpicked the crap out of it. We know what that means… she’s probably going to be in the bottom three this week.

Casey Abrams — “Harder to Breathe” by Maroon 5
Aaaaaand serial killer Casey is back! I love that guy! The producers of the show went with the fire and brimstone video background, which only added to the creepiness, and holy God this is awesome. His voice was spot on and his Jack Black persona was in the house. Then he completely violated JLo’s personal space by singing at her from about 2 millimeters away from her nose AND THEN HE KISSED HER! I can’t even begin to explain the balls this guy has. THEN SteTy completely forgot this is a PG rated show. We heard him say, “Piss people off,” but then the producers got their hands on the bleep button and held it there for a good 25 seconds. JLo was going nuts, RDog was going nuts, the producers were totally going nuts, I’m sure, all while checking the terms of SteTy’s contract to see if they could get rid of him. This is what “American Idol” should be like every week.

Stefano Langone — “Closer” by Neyo
Mmmmmmm, I love this song. It’s a sexy song and coming from a tasty human being, it’s sure to rock my face off. Well it looks like someone has been taking lessons from the Ursher school of dancing and singing to the ladies at the same time. For the first time ever, he took his time with the lyrics. In fact, he made sweet sweet love to the lyrics. JLo completely bought into it, too, and she’s totally blushing. Pull it together, JLo!!! I know. I’m having a hard time doing that, myself.