American Idol's thirteenth-season finalists Malaya Watson and Jena Irene walked away with the best praise of the night from the show's judges during Wednesday night's Top 8 performance show on Fox.
ADVERTISEMENT
Wednesday night's broadcast featured the Top 8 finalists performing duets with one another in addition to an improved version of their original Idol audition song. While all the contestants stepped up their game from prior weeks, Malaya and Jena stole the show.
Malaya Watson, a 16-year-old student from Southfield, MI, belted out "Ain't No Way" by Aretha Franklin.
Idol Judge Keith Urban gave Malaya a standing ovation, while Jennifer Lopez insisted she's "running away with the competition." Harry Connick Jr. gave Malaya a little advice on what she could work on but was still very impressed with her performance. Malaya showed her obvious growth throughout the competition and demonstrated much more control onstage than usual.
Jena Irene, a 17-year-old from Farmington Hills, MI, performed a much slower version of "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele.
ADVERTISEMENT
The judges admired the fact Jena was always up for taking a risk and found a way to deliver. She also got Keith out of his seat.
Harry was full of compliments, while Jennifer suggested Jena could definitely win the whole competition if she continued to wow the crowd every week going forward. Jennifer said she firmly believed Jena could deliver a knockout performance every time or else she wouldn't have made the comment.
As for the other contestants, Jessica Meuse performed an original song entitled "Blue Eye Lie." Alex Preston also sang one of his own original songs called "Fairy Tales."
C.J. Harris sang "Soul Shine" by the Allman Brothers Band.
Caleb Johnson performed a rock version of Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools."
ADVERTISEMENT
Sam Woolf took the stage with "The Lego House" by Ed Sheeran.
Dexter Roberts performed Brett Eldredge's "One Mississippi."
Jena and Alex also performed a duet of "Just Give Me a Reason" by P!nk and Nate Ruess. Jessica and Caleb sang "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" by Stevie Nicks. Malaya and Sam performed a duet of "Lucky" by Colbie Callaitt and Jason Mraz. C.J. and Dexter sang Darius Rucker's "Alright" for their duet.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski