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" With thirteen contestants and five hundred screaming fans looking on, American Idol 8&amp;#039;s live shows kicked off with Ryan Seacrest revealing that two contestants would be voted off in tomorrow&amp;#039;s show. Singing classic Michael Jackson songs, judge Randy warned that any of the contestants stood a chance of being voted off. Here&amp;#039;s what the judges had to say:  Lil Rounds - &amp;#039;The Way You Make Me Feel&amp;#039; Mother of three from Memphis, Lil loves barbecues, music and claims &amp;quot;the day you let go of your dreams is the day you let go of your life&amp;quot;. Randy: &amp;quot;This is the way to kick off Season 8! You just put a whole new spin on it with your bluesy, R&amp;amp;amp;B old soul vibe, you made the song new again. I love this, this is the way to start.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;What you just did, everyone is going to be like, &amp;#039;Uh oh, wow, I need to definitely step that up.&amp;#039; I hope we get to hear you on the radio because you are great and that end note was sick, you just snuck that right in there.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m going to compliment you on your softness, the palette of what you&amp;#039;re wearing, the light make-up! You are a force to be reckoned with. When you hit the falsetto it&amp;#039;s like angels singing, beautiful.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;I thought it was good, I was a little disappointed, I thought it was a lazy song choice. The second half was better than the first half and I hate what you&amp;#039;re wearing. Give me five minutes and I&amp;#039;ll sort you out.&amp;quot;  Scott MacIntye - &amp;#039;Keep The Faith&amp;#039; Blind since birth, Scott learned to love sound and music from an early age and would sneak out of his room at night to play the piano with his sister. Kara: &amp;quot;I am so glad we see you with a piano, it shows the other side of you. Not the most obvious Michael Jackson song, but I liked that it&amp;#039;s your hopeful message that you deliver. Not the most dynamic performance but true to yourself every week.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s magical seeing your instrument at your fingertips, it&amp;#039;s your comfort zone. A lovely performance.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;I hated the song because nobody knows it. There are millions of Michael Jackson songs. It&amp;#039;s fine being artistic, but not on this show. I like you, you&amp;#039;re a good singer, I just didn&amp;#039;t like the song. It did you no favours.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;The song and performance was good. I felt it was all very safe for me. I want more sparks from you, I know you&amp;#039;ve got them.&amp;quot;  Danny Gokey - &amp;#039;P.Y.T (Pretty Young Things)&amp;#039; Danny comes from a very musical family who made him sing his homework each night. Paula: &amp;quot;The true mark of an artist is when you can hear somebody even with your eyes closed and know who they are. I am going out on a limb and say that you&amp;#039;ll be in the finals.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;The vocal was brilliant, you are one heck of a singer. You remind me of Michael McDonnell - a white guy with soul. However, the dancing was hideous, you were overexcited.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m looking to see a different side each week. The dancing and the singing, I loved it all. I felt the dancing wasn&amp;#039;t choreographed, it was passionate and that&amp;#039;s what I liked about it.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;You have so much joy when you step on the stage. You should thank your parents for making you sing your homework.&amp;quot;  Michael Sarver- &amp;#039;You Are Not Alone&amp;#039; Michael had a tough life growing up without a father, but now spends all his time with his daughter when not working on an oil rig. Simon: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re not the best singer in the competition, but you made up for it with passion and heart. You gave it 110%.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m happy that you returned to your R&amp;amp;amp;B roots tonight. So far you are definitely one of the best.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;Tonight showed me you really can sing. The first one was a crowd pleaser, this one showed you could hit the notes. Great job, you are serious every time you get on the stage.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot; You have so many things going for you. You&amp;#039;re likeable and a regular guy with extraordinary talent. You picked a song that was instinctively perfect for you. It gave you room to colour it up.&amp;quot;  Jasmine Murray - &amp;#039;I&amp;#039;ll Be There&amp;#039; 17-year old Jasmine is described by her many siblings as the &amp;quot;life of the family&amp;quot; and is joined at the live shows by her mother. Randy: &amp;quot;I had the pleasure of recording that song with Mariah Carey some years ago, I was thinking you did a pretty good job. I was impressed, it&amp;#039;s a tough song to sing.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;I was surprised by you, I worried if you could do it. I keep thinking a half key down would have been easier. You did it, you sold it, great stage presence.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;You have tremendous composure and poise on the stage. You had some moments that were under at times, but you had brilliant moments too.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;You made a good attempt, nice control at the end. The big note is always going to trouble you. A little robotic at times, you need to lighten up a little and act your age a bit more.&amp;quot;  Kris Allen - &amp;#039;Remember The Time&amp;#039; Married for five months, Kris has struggled to be apart from his new wife but hopes success will make their life more comfortable. Kara: &amp;quot;One thing&amp;#039;s for sure, the girls love you. I&amp;#039;m happy to see you with guitar, it shows a whole other side to you. A few notes were off, but I like you playing and singing. You also help other contestants out.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;Kris, I truly believe that no one knows Michael Jackson&amp;#039;s catalogue better than you. Seeing you with the guitar you are engaging, adorable and sexy. You did a great, great job, congratulations.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;It was interesting, not sure it suited the guitar - made the performance clumsy at times. You&amp;#039;re likeable, not sure I would have brought the wife out so early!&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;I love the guitar, interesting song choice. It was kind of cool, very Jason Mraz-y. Well done, baby!&amp;quot;  Allison Iraheta - &amp;#039;Give In To Me&amp;#039; Hailing from El Salvador, 16-year-old Allison started singing from the age of five in her local shopping mall. Paula: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re a rock star up there, you look like you&amp;#039;ve been doing it since you were two. Keep doing what you&amp;#039;re doing. Stay authentic and we&amp;#039;ll see a lot more of you.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;A good performance, we know who you are. We know what sort of artist you want to be. You need to lighten up a bit. At sixteen, that confidence and voice is very good.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;I always say, &amp;#039;If you got it, you got it&amp;#039;, and you have. You can sing anything, I think you are one to watch in this whole thing.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;Keep being a rocker girl, you distinguish yourself like that. When you go up high, it&amp;#039;s like the walls are going to come in.&amp;quot;  Anoop Desai - &amp;#039;Beat It&amp;#039; Described by his parents as spoilt, single child Anoop learned about his Indian heritage from an early age and wants to live the American Dream. Paula: &amp;quot;When you pick a song, it&amp;#039;s your gift to show the world what you got. I think that song is untouchable, and anything else sounds karaoke to me. Sorry.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;I thought it was horrible. There was no aggression, it was all too lightweight and karaoke. It looked stupid, it was like somebody trying and failing to be like Michael Jackson. I regret putting you in the Top 13 on the basis of that.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;It was just the wrong choice, very karaoke. You have got more than that, it didn&amp;#039;t work for me.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;The biggest problem is that you can sing and we saw no variation tonight. You didn&amp;#039;t go up or do any riffs. I felt disconnected to you for the first time.&amp;quot;  Jorge Nunez- &amp;#039;Never Can Say Goodbye&amp;#039; Jorge comes from Puerto Rico and has a &amp;quot;happy and loud&amp;quot; family. His family suffered greatly with the recent passing of his grandfather. Randy: &amp;quot;There were a couple pitch points there in the beginning, I would have chosen something more challenging.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;One of the most emotionally connected on the show, but I didn&amp;#039;t feel that tonight. Could have seen you with &amp;#039;She&amp;#039;s Out Of My Life&amp;#039;.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;I have mad love for you, you know that. America has to remember the brilliant vocalist you are, because you deserve to be on this stage. But that was not the right song for you.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;It was corny and you were out of your depth. The arrangement was absolutely awful and so old fashioned. I couldn&amp;#039;t wait for it end.&amp;quot;  Megan Joy Corkrey- &amp;#039;Rockin&amp;#039; Robin&amp;#039; Recently divorced and with a young son, Megan hopes to be more successful than her early attempts at joining the school choir. Kara: &amp;quot;You have a way of putting you signature to everything you touch. It wasn&amp;#039;t an overwhelming vocal, but you injected personality. Need to show range and falsetto in the future.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;I love the quirky and unique tone to your voice. Picked the right song, but I felt disconnected. Didn&amp;#039;t hear the sound we love until the end. You&amp;#039;re gorgeous, I want America to notice your vocal beside your beauty.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;What a stupid song choice. I&amp;#039;m sorry but it was. The vocal wasn&amp;#039;t good, the dancing was verging on ridiculous and the whole performance was clumsy and awkward. If it was the first time anyone had seen this person, they would think we&amp;#039;d all gone nuts.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;The song choice didn&amp;#039;t allow you to really be Megan.&amp;quot;  Adam Lambert - &amp;#039;Black Or White&amp;#039; Adam moved to Hollywood keep to launch a singing career but struggled to find success. He describes this opportunity as &amp;quot;the big dream&amp;quot;. Paula: &amp;quot;Adam, never in the history of American Idol have we ever seen someone so comfortable and seasoned on the stage. My eyes were transfixed on your innate ability to know who you are as an artist and marry fashion and music. You have the whole package going on. You will make it all the way to the final.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;That was in a totally different league to everything we heard tonight. Whether it&amp;#039;s your stage experience before, to make Michael Jackson work you have to be over the top. It was original and the vocal was terrific. People will start to talk about you.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;Since day one you have seemed the most current. You could make a record and sail straight to the top of the charts. You got it, got it!&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;You hit notes I didn&amp;#039;t know existed. All I can say is, I hope MJ is watching this tonight.&amp;quot;  Matt Giraud - &amp;#039;Human Nature&amp;#039; Matt&amp;#039;s father has always had a strong influence over his life and describes himself as &amp;quot;his biggest fan&amp;quot;. Randy: &amp;quot;That was a really good performance. Couple of pitch problems. You had a Robin Gibb/Justin Timberlake thing jumping off.&amp;quot; Kara: &amp;quot;You are a talented guy, I hope we&amp;#039;ll see you for many many weeks.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;You are talented, sexy, amazing, authentic. I&amp;#039;m blown away.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;Very good, it was difficult following Adam. Like meat and potatoes, it was a good solid performance.&amp;quot;  Alexis Grace - &amp;#039;Dirty Diana&amp;#039; Alexis found her inspiration growing up in bluesy Memphis. She has a baby daughter who struggles to be apart from. Kara: &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re a naughty girl, and I liked it.&amp;quot; Paula: &amp;quot;Naughty and sexy too, watch your singing.&amp;quot; Simon: &amp;quot;Very over the top and probably not as good as you thought it was.&amp;quot; Randy: &amp;quot;I thought it was good, not great, but I liked the attitude.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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