American Idol: We're Down to 7

This is the week where the judges each choose a song for the contestants and the contestants pick which song they want to sing. Katy Perry won the night, I have to admit she is great at choosing songs suited to the contestants strengths. 

Here are my highlights-- 

The tribute to Mandisa by Melinda Doolittle, Danny Gokey, and Colton Dixon was amazing. They sang a song called Shackles that Mandisa has performed many times. It was so beautiful to see how her spirit will live on and how so many people from the American Idol community looked up to her. 

Will Moseley sang Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash-- this was the perfect choice for him. He sounds like he's been doing this forever. This is totally his wheelhouse and the type of music he should be recording. 

Kaibrienne really connected with her song choice, Traitor by Olivia Rodrigo, she was a little pitchy but I think that's the breathiness of her voice. The emotion was all there so I would say she "won" this week. She brought it all back and together by the end. 

McKenna missed this week with her song choice and her performance, I didn't love this. The song was not even notable for me. 

Jack Blocker sang You Are Always on My Mind by Willie Nelson, good song choice for Jack but I found his performance a little bit boring. There wasn't anything memorable about it. 

Abi Carter was probably my favorite performance of the night with Bring Me to Life by Evanescence-- This was so passionate and dramatic. She was a total pro up there and brought this performance to life. 

Julia Gagnon sang Over the Rainbow by Judy Garland-- this was the right choice for her at the right time, she totally needed this. I have not been a big fan of hers in general, she should have gone home weeks ago, but this was a strong performance. I am happy for her and hope she can turn it around. 

Triston Harper sang Sand in my Boots by Morgan Wallen-- I did not love this choice for him, but I love Triston, he has so much confidence and he has remained true to himself throughout this competition and that says a lot with him being so young. He is in such a good place right now. 

Emmy Russell sang Coal Miner's Daughter by her grandmother Loretta Lynn-- Emmy was my other fave performance of the night. This was stunning, she sang it in a completely different way than her grandmother did, and it completely worked and spoke to who she is as an artist.  I could not have loved this more. 

At the end of the night it was Kaibrienne who was sent home. It came down to her and McKenna and the judges chose McKenna to move forward. I think McKenna and Jack should have been the bottom two.