Recap: Strength and Struggle with American Idol Top 10 Boys

On Wednesday night, just 24 hours after the girls performed, the top 10 guys on American Idol pulled out the big guns to fight for a chance to remain in the singing competition for at least one more week.

In total, the show’s new roster will consist of 10 contestants as five males and five females get eliminated during Thursday’s results show – fate completely decided by viewers’ votes.

This week, the girls beat the boys by a long shot. For nearly the first three-quarters of Wednesday’s show, the performances were just so-so. Thankfully there weren’t any bloody awful performances from the guys (mostly) but there were surely a couple that left me scratching my head.

Soulful contestant Curtis Fench, Jr. easily had the best performance of the night, bringing each judge to their feet with a southern gospel version of R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly”. Moments after his performance, his name soared up the list of Twitter’s worldwide trending topics, likely a sign that his performance earned a universal stamp of approval.

Perhaps, you could say that Burnell Taylor singing “I’m Here” by Idol alum Fantasia earned him a ribbon for second place. Devin Velez follows close behind with Perry Como’s “Somos Novios (It’s Impossible),” crooning partially in English and partially in Spanish just as he did last week with Beyoncé’s “Listen”.

Charlie Askew’s peculiar rendition of “Mama” by Genesis got him ripped apart by the judges, moving him to tears as they delivered their critiques.

Judging by this week’s performances…

Who’s (probably) safe? Burnell Taylor, Devin Velez, Lazaro Arbos, Nick Boddington, and Curtis Finch, Jr.

Going home: Elijah Liu, Charlie Askew, Cortez Shaw, Paul Jolley, and Vincent Powell.

Watch the best performances:

Curtis Finch, Jr. – “I Believe I Can Fly”

Devin Velez – “Somos Novios (It’s Impossible)”

Burnell Taylor – “I’m Here”

Tags: American Idol, Recap, Television, Videos