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"American Idol&amp;#039;s Top 8 boys performed for the final time last night before the ninth season&amp;#039;s Top 12 hopefuls are decided. Here&amp;#039;s what the judges had to say:   Lee DeWyze - &amp;#039;Fireflies&amp;#039; by Owl City  Randy: Calls it a &amp;quot;strange song choice&amp;quot; but loves that he made it his own and made it work, even though it&amp;#039;s a soft song for a big voice like his.  Ellen: Likes that he made it rock, and says that the couple of pitch problems in the performance won&amp;#039;t matter because people like him. Kara: Says he looked confident and that&amp;#039;s what they have been waiting for. &amp;quot;There is a star bubbling there,&amp;quot; she adds. &amp;quot;I think you actually made the song a better song with your interpretation.&amp;quot; Simon: Doesn&amp;#039;t think there is &amp;quot;anything to rave about&amp;quot; and that he is better than that song. However, says that he has noticed his progress and thinks he has a good chance of making Top 12   Alex Lambert - &amp;#039;Trouble&amp;#039; by Ray LaMontagne Randy: Thinks it was a good song choice, but he could have done a little more with it. &amp;quot;You could have made it a bit slower,&amp;quot; he adds. &amp;quot;It was a little too fast for me.&amp;quot; Ellen: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re becoming a mushy banana,&amp;quot; she jokes. &amp;quot;You are ripening so fast!&amp;quot; Thinks he gets better every week and loves his innocence, telling him: &amp;quot;You need more confidence but don&amp;#039;t become cocky!&amp;quot; Kara: Thinks he is still &amp;quot;stiff and not in it&amp;quot;, and that the only thing standing in the way of his victory is him.  Simon: Agrees and suggests he relax and have a good time on stage. &amp;quot;Imagine Randy in a bikini or something,&amp;quot; he jokes. &amp;quot;You have to stop staring down that lens... let yourself go.&amp;quot;   Tim Urban - &amp;#039;Hallelujah&amp;#039; by Leonard Cohen Randy: Says he &amp;quot;walked in some pretty big shoes&amp;quot; trying that song and that he did a &amp;quot;pretty good job&amp;quot; with it.  Ellen: Admits she was worried when she learned that was his song choice, but shows her support by jumping on to the stage and giving him a hug. &amp;quot;That was fantastic! You sounded so good!&amp;quot; Kara: Thought he might have been going home a couple of weeks ago, but she now thinks he is &amp;quot;kind of in it&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;That was an honest interpretation,&amp;quot; she adds. &amp;quot;You were feeling it and I could feel that from you.&amp;quot; Simon: Jokes that he feels responsible for the performance because he gave him a confidence boost last week. Calls it a &amp;quot;smart&amp;quot; song choice, and the &amp;quot;strongest performance&amp;quot; he has given in the show.   Andrew Garcia - &amp;#039;Genie In A Bottle&amp;#039; by Christina Aguilera Randy: Brands it an &amp;quot;interesting song choice&amp;quot;, saying: &amp;quot;It was a good idea, but it didn&amp;#039;t quite work for me.&amp;quot; Says he made it seem like the whole song was just three notes.  Ellen: Thinks it was a great song choice, but jokes that the &amp;quot;genie came out of the bottle too late&amp;quot; because he only really surprised them at the end.  Kara: Says he&amp;#039;s in a hard position because he peaked so early with his Paula Abdul track. Appreciates what he did, but thinks he was &amp;quot;fighting with the rhythm of the guitar&amp;quot;. Simon: Agrees and says it seemed a &amp;quot;little bit desperate&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;overthought&amp;quot;. &amp;quot;This is a tricky one,&amp;quot; he adds. &amp;quot;You have a good voice and you&amp;#039;re a cool guy, but you&amp;#039;re kind of still going backwards at the moment.&amp;quot;   Casey James - &amp;#039;You&amp;#039;ll Think Of Me&amp;#039; by Keith Urban Randy: Calls it a &amp;quot;safe choice&amp;quot; and advises him not to pull away from the vocals, and try something edgier. Ellen: Disagrees and says it was great. Notices that he is most comfortable sitting on a stool playing his guitar.  Kara: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m kind of back on the Casey train,&amp;quot; she says, branding it better than last week. Still thinks there is a spark missing, but calls it a &amp;quot;move in the right direction&amp;quot;.  Simon: Describes it as &amp;quot;second best&amp;quot;, saying it wasn&amp;#039;t as good as they want, but it was better than last week. However, he concedes that he sounded great.    Aaron Kelly - &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;m Already There&amp;#039; by Lonestar Randy: Calls it a &amp;quot;job well done&amp;quot;, saying that he needs to work on his lower notes but he was blown away by his &amp;quot;power zone&amp;quot; in the middle of the song.  Ellen: Is amazed that he is just 16, saying he has the confidence of someone much older. However, she thinks it might have been &amp;quot;too much song&amp;quot; for him, because it &amp;quot;wasn&amp;#039;t terrific&amp;quot;.  Kara: Praises him for coming out every week and giving it his all, but doesn&amp;#039;t think the song was relevant to his life because it&amp;#039;s about a man calling home to talk to his kids.  Simon: Calls Kara&amp;#039;s comment &amp;quot;complete and utter rubbish&amp;quot;, saying she can&amp;#039;t get literal about his age. Thinks it was the right type of song to do compared to last week, and although it wasn&amp;#039;t a great vocal, it did show emotion.    Todrick Hall - &amp;#039;Somebody To Love&amp;#039; by Queen Randy: &amp;quot;Todrick is back!&amp;quot; he shouts, saying he has proved he can really sing and why he is in the competition. &amp;quot;That is one of the best vocals by a man I have heard all night and over the last couple of weeks!&amp;quot; Ellen: Calls him a &amp;quot;brave young man&amp;quot; to take on that song, and thinks he almost made it like a gospel song.  Kara: &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t listen to that and say it wasn&amp;#039;t good singing,&amp;quot; she says, but notes it was so dramatic she didn&amp;#039;t know whether to laugh or love it.  Simon: Thinks it was good in parts, and what he has done tonight is show them that he is a Broadway singer. Calls it a good song choice and suggests it might have got him into the Top 12.   Michael Lynche - &amp;#039;This Woman&amp;#039;s Work&amp;#039; by Kate Bush Randy: &amp;quot;Really, really, really?! he says. &amp;quot;This is crazy! It was dope, unbelievable!&amp;quot; Adds that he was left speechless by the last note.  Ellen Brands the performance &amp;quot;so beautiful&amp;quot; and thinks it seems like the show has only just begun, suggesting that he has established himself as the one to beat.  Kara: Is teary-eyed as she tells him she has &amp;quot;never cried after hearing something like that&amp;quot;. Calls him amazing and says she can &amp;quot;feel&amp;quot; the song and the emotion behind it. Simon: Comforts Kara, before saying: &amp;quot;This was so needed tonight... You come out with an incredibly difficult song to sing and you 100% nailed it - not just the best performance of the night, it&amp;#039;s the best performance we&amp;#039;ve had of all these live shows so far.&amp;quot; American Idol continues on Fox tonight All Pictures: Copyright: Fox "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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