American Idol: Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina Are Headed to the Finale

I know a lot of people are shocked and upset at last night’s American Idol elimination of Haley Reinhart. I am not one of those people.

I thought that Haley was coming into her own and peaking when she needed to, which I love, because she provided a couple fantastic Idol moments. However, it was obvious from the beginning of the season that Idol was looking for a younger singer to appeal to a younger demographic just based on the contestants that were getting through from the beginning like Jacee Badeaux and Brett Loewenstern. That said, I am definitely not surprised at Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina both moving on to the finale. (Also, just based on the hometown footage alone, I felt like Haley’s package was put together as if it was an afterthought and as a major hint that she was going to be eliminated. Not cool, Idol.)

Wednesday night’s show was pretty good. All three of the contestants kind of had mini-moments.

I thought Scotty made a smart decision singing Lonestar’s “Amazed” as his personal song choice. He showed that he could handle a big contemporary country hit. Plus, who doesn’t just love that song? I thought “She Believes in Me” was an old fashioned and lame song choice from the judges, but Scotty did what he could with it.

I really liked Lauren’s performance of “If I Die Young” by Band Perry, which Jimmy Iovine picked for her to sing. We finally saw some true emotion from her! It was one of my favorite moments of the night.

Haley had three really great songs, but I felt like the only one she completely pulled off was “What Is And What Should Never Be” by Led Zeppelin. She sounded amazing and just rocked it out. I love that her little stumble up the stairs didn’t throw her off at all.

With “Rhiannon,” I thought she sounded like she was mumbling part of the first verse. I didn’t think she really connected with that song well at all, because she was just trying to remember the words. It actually really made me miss Didi Benami’s performance from last season.

I really had hoped “You Oughta Know” would be an absolute showstopper, but I felt like it fell flat. I think she tried to kind of mimic Alanis Morissette’s phrasing, when she should have just sung the song in her true voice.

Overall, she had a decent night. All three contestants had a decent night. If you saw my live-blog, I actually thought it would be Scotty and Haley moving on to the finale.

I wasn’t a fan of Lauren’s first song at all. I thought she that if she was going with Faith Hill, she should have sung “The Way You Love Me.” Like I already mentioned, I loved “If I Die Young,” and I thought “I Hope You Dance” was alright, but looking back on her overall season, I didn’t feel like Lauren had lived up to her initial potential.

That said, I do hope both Scotty and Lauren pick great songs for next week and really just sing their little teenage hearts out for us. I think depending on their song choices, this could be a really great finale next week. Idol’s never had an all-country finale, and even though I’m not a huge country music fan, I’m excited to see them sing it out. (Unpopular opinion, I know!)

So let’s hear it! What did you think about last night’s results? Who are you rooting for to be the next American Idol?

Photo credit: Michael Becker/FOX