'American Idol' Contestants on March 23, 2011 Sing Motown

Fox, Wednesday, March 23, 2011, 8 PM (ET) "American Idol" on Wednesday featured Motown music, with all performers bringing their "A" game. While all were good, the competition is so intense that we may as well cut right to the chase and pick those who were good, but their "A" game this night was an "A" minus.

With malice towards none, I would have to select the following 3 performers as the weakest this night: Thia Magia, the young Asian singer, had a slight lyric faux pas; Stefano's power ballad didn't win any praise from the judges, who felt he had not "connected" with the material, and Haley Reinhart, despite the "bluesy" tone in her voice, is still likely to be in the bottom three.

Here were the standout performers this night: James Durbin, Naima Adepapo and Casey Abrams. I limited my remark(s) to the top three (as with trying to select the lowest three). Certainly Pia Toscano was perfection, as always, but the judges (and the audience) are beginning to tire of a non-stop diet of ballads. Paul McDonald was good tonight, although, at times, he sings as though he is a cartoon character. Lauren Alaina and Jacob Lusk turned in their usual competent performances. (The judges seemed more thrilled with Jacob than with Lauren). Scotty the C&W singer managed to turn a Motown song country, and it wouldn't matter, anyway, with the many fans of country music who will vote for him.

Casey Abrams

Casey performed "I Heard It Through the Grapevine," a Marvin Gaye tune from 1967. He was wearing a suit with an untucked red shirt (no tie). Violins backed him. Steven Tyler declared Casey to be 'a perfect mix of crazy out-of-control ego. You're beautiful. I loved it." Jennifer Lopez commented that Casey knows who he is and that there is nobody out there like him. Randy Jackson said, "You can only do you, and that you is great." Casey should be safe.

Thia Magia

Thia selected "Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas, which was a welcome change from the sleepy ballads. She looked nice in a short dress with a black bodice and a pink ruffled top. Jennifer Lopez said, "It's great to see you let loose like that." Randy said, "This new thing is a good thing." He applauded her willingness to take chances. Steven Tyler said, "Great. "I'm good with it." Thia had a slight bauble in her delivery of the lyrics. I would not call her performance one of the night's stronger ones.

Jacob Lusk

Jacob sang a Marvin Gaye/Tammy Terrell 1968 song, "You're All I Need to Get By." He was wearing a white coat, a pink striped tie, white shoes and black pants. Since the song was not as well known to the audience, I did not like it as well as other performances by Jacob, but he is always good. Randy said, "Oh my God. Other best." He commented on how Jacob took his time and said there was nothing wrong with his performance. Steven Tyler liked the way Jacob "held it back. Milked it." Jennifer Lopez commented, "You made us beg for those notes. It was crazy."

Lauren Alaina

Lauren selected "You Keep Me Hangin' On,' am up tempo Diana Ross number. She had straightened her hair, was wearing a long dress and, as Jennifer Lopez commented, "So much attitude. A really good job." Steven Tyler commented, "I don't think you listen to anybody about anything, and I like that about you." Randy Jackson said, "She's got her swagger on high, Dude."

Stefano Langone

Stefano selected Lionel Richie's "Hello." Immediately, I question(ed) this choice. It's slow and logy. In rehearsal, in fact, one of the producers said, "It looked like you were sleeping there for a second," because Stefano's eyes were closed. His handlers were commenting on this issue involving the David Cook season (it was David Archuleta who was always told to open his eyes), and cautioned Stefano to open his eyes so he could "connect" with the song's lyrics and with the judges. There were criticisms of Stefano by J-Lo, Randy and Steven Tyler, all of them pointing out that he did not seem to connect with the material, although J-Lo added, "I love you, anyway." (That makes one of us.)

Haley Reinhart

Haley sang "You Really Got A Hold On Me" by Smokey Robinson and the Miracles. She was wearing what were termed "hot pants" in the sixties (black) with a white jacket and very, very high black heels with straps. She sang while descending the staircase and I feared for her safety. Once she reached the stage below the steps, she wandered around in the high, high heels (also known as "F*** me shoes."). Randy commented that her singing had started rough, but had become "okay" by the middle ("Okay" is not going to be good enough with these contestants.) Steven Tyler called her rendition "Really good," and commented on "the Joplin thing." J-Lo said she had "effortless control" and "the most soul of the girls" (singling out Jacob among the men). Despite this, I see this Wheeling, Illinois native as being in the bottom three again. On the bright side, this week, she didn't smear bright red lipstick all over her face.

Scotty McReery

Scotty took 1968's "For Once In My Life" by Stevie Wonder and, with producer Jimmy Johnson's help, managed to turn it into a C&W song, very nearly. Steven Tyler called it "beautiful," commenting that he had taken a big chance. Jennifer Lopez and Randy, while agreeing that this was not Scotty's strongest performance night, agreed that, "When you go down for those low notes, you tweak everybody." Scotty will have all country fans everywhere voting for him every week, no matter what, so his continued presence on the show shouldn't be an issue this week.

Pia Toscano

Pia sang "All In Love Is Fair." On the bright side, she did a great job, as usual, and her black dress with a plunging back was gorgeous. The strings backing her helped her do another soaring ballad. But the fact is that soaring ballads are getting to be "same old/same old," as the judges plainly told her. Randy put it this way: "Ballad. Ballad. Ballad." Man cannot live by ballads alone, and neither can Pia, but her great voice and her beauty should carry her through so that she can (finally) pick an up-tempo number, for a change. Jennifer Lopez said, "We need to know that other dynamic is there," and commented that she could have a career like Celine Dion's. Steven Tyler said, "You are the closest star in this 'American Idol' universe. It's just beautiful." I think her song was also a bad choice. It isn't that well known, was not up-tempo, and was from "Inner Visions," Stevie Wonder's 1973 album. Better to have selected something from Diana Ross' sixties catalogue that was up-tempo. (I wonder how Pia would have done on a rocking version of "Stop! In the Name of Love" with clever choreography. It would have been a treat to watch.)

Paul McDonald

Paul selected Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "Tracks of My Tears." Randy commented on his "distinctive, different, unique" sound, which he called "Rod Stewart-y in places." Jennifer Lopez really liked it "when you sing tender. At the very end." Steven Tyler said, "I love it. It's just great." Paul accompanied himself on guitar and didn't do his dancing shtick. Jennifer Lopez said, "You may be the most seasoned performer we have. You're the complete package. All you need is a good producer and there you go." After he had performed, Ryan Seacrest made a bad joke about the "cougar" vote that Paul's great smile might earn.

Naima Adepopo

Naima selected "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas and put on quite a show. One thing you can say about Naima: she's not boring. She was wearing a two-piece outfit in blue/gray with bell-bottoms and her performance was suffused with energy. I'm always glad she is at least trying to work dancing into her presentation. Steven Tyler called her, "E to the Z oh Tweedly Dee." He said, "once again, we see that you ate the stage." Jennifer Lopez said, "You're an exciting performer. I have to admit you gave me my first goose bumps of the night," saying that Naima had "that thing." Randy Jackson said, 'Finally, tonight, all of Naima showed up. Everything worked out. Everything was very smart." She sounded good, too. A nice job by Naima.

James Durbin

James selected "Livin' for the City," a Stevie Wonder song, with Bob Babbitt from the original Funk Brothers band on guitar. He was the essence of cool tonight. At the end of an exciting performance that saw James prowling the stage like Mick Jagger in his prime, Ryan Seacrest made the facetious comment, "I think the problem for you is that you're not comfortable in front of a crowd." Jennifer Lopez began her comments with, "Oh my God!" and went on from there to say, "You are serious business up there. It's just an incredible thing to watch." Steven Tyler, in a somewhat politically incorrect series of comments said, "It takes a little bit of being crazy. That song was perfect for you. You mailed it. Only Randy was booed by the crowd when he tempered his praise by saying that James had not started out as strongly as he finished. He redeemed himself by saying, "Unbelievable," and "It's all good." James still needs to get those sunglasses to hide his frequent squint and signify the instant cool he is conveying onstage.

Good jobs by everyone tonight.