American Idol has lost another contestant and determined its Top 6 thirteenth-season finalists.
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Dexter Roberts, a 22-year-old from Fayette, AL, became the seventh finalist sent home from American Idol's thirteenth season after he received the fewest home viewer votes cast following Wednesday night's performance show, which featured the Top 7 finalists performing songs they had selected for one another in a brand new theme dubbed "Competitors' Pick."
"This opportunity of American Idol has changed my life in so many ways because just a few months ago, I was working two, three jobs. I wouldn't trade this experience for nothing, you know, because this is awesome," Dexter said in a video montage that played following his ouster.
Dexter tried his best to get through his final performance of "Lucky Man" by Montgomery Gentry.
Dexter's elimination could not have been prevented because Idol judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. already used their one save of the season on Sam Woolf a couple of weeks ago.
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Dexter landed in the week's bottom two vote-getters alongside Jessica Meuse, a 23-year-old student from Slapout, AL.
The country singer performed a pleasant rendition of "Muckalee Creek Water" by Luke Bryan on Wednesday's performance show, however, the judges heavily criticized how he lacked individuality and creativity.
"That's cool. I like that song. All I would say is be careful when you do songs that have such an intensity to them but the melody is kind of down... It's easy to start over-singing because the adrenaline's there but the melody is keeping you down... Just be aware of that. Don't let the adrenaline pull you out of the key," Keith told Dexter.
"I like this for you. I really did. I'm used to the kind of happy, anthemy Dexter... This had a little bit of a darker quality to it, a nice edge. This song showed us a different side of you and I actually liked it... You did a good job with it, [but] what I think I would say to you and all the rest of the contestants at this point, again, is we're getting down to the wire. These performances need to be spectacular. We had this conversation earlier on in the competition," Jennifer explained.
"We all felt you guys weren't stepping up, and then you kind of did. Now, we're at a new level. Now, we're towards the end. We're about to get into the Top 5 any minute now. Every time you guys come out here, you got to think about that. The room has got to rattle. It's got to shake! I feel like you guys need to push yourselves. You need to push yourselves vocally and you need to push yourselves [with] the band and how you're performing -- every single time."
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"We know that you can sing this kind of tune really well, but again, I have to say that you didn't really do anything different from the original vocal. You could take that vocal out and plug your vocal in," Harry said.
"There's not a whole lot of melody there. That's not the type of tune that it is. So you're limiting yourself to basically singing the exact same thing that's on the record. I just want to hear you sing other things than singing along with the radio, and you can do it, because we've heard you do it before."
American Idol's six remaining finalists are as follows: Jessica, C.J. Harris, Sam Woolf, Jena Irene, Caleb Johnson, and Alex Preston.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski