American Idol eliminated Stefano Langone and determined its Top 6 tenth-season finalists during Thursday night's live results show broadcast on Fox.
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"It started my career man and that's something that's -- You can't put a price on that -- That's everything. So, I'm just so blessed. I came this far, and it's great. It really is. It's great. So, I can't wait to sing right now!" the 21-year-old from Kent, WA told Idol host Ryan Seacrest when asked how the show has changed his life.
"This is the beginning of a new era in my life and I'm ready. I'm ready for it. Words can't express how blessed I am to be here and to just be alive and get to express myself through music. I mean, that's unbelievable and I'm so thankful for that. You dream about this stuff and you see it in the movies, and then to actually be a part of something like this, that's a dream in itself and that's something that I work for everyday," Langone added in a video montage that followed his ouster.
Prior to Langone's exit, Haley Reinhart, a 20-year-old from Wheeling, IL, and Jacob Lusk, a 23-year-old from Compton, CA, were revealed by Seacrest to be the other two members of this week's bottom three vote-getters.
Langone -- whom the judges had initially selected as a "Wild Card" finalist -- had received very positive feedback from Idol judges Jennifer Lopez, Steven Tyler and Randy Jackson following his performance of Ne-Yo's "Closer" on Wednesday's show.
"Yo, yo yo. Wow, Stefano, Stefano... Listen, I thought it was going to be a little -- at first I thought, 'Look. He's going to come out, he's going to do it, it's going to be a little jerky, a little kind of bad karaoke,' but you know what? Dude, you turned me around. You know what? You did a very good job," Jackson told Langone.
"You smoothed it out, and what I loved that you did in the first part of the song was you took your time with the verses. That's what I always want you to do. Jennifer And I talk about this all the time. Take your time. We know you have the power and you're going to slay it in the end with all the big huge notes, but you took your time. I was really proud of you, and you kind of worked the dance steps out a little bit too."
"Stefano, nobody can say you weren't all up in it. I was hoping you'd dance and you did. Good job! Really good man," Tyler said.
"Speaking for the girls in the audience, I thought it was very, very good. You really had your swag going on -- being the only girl on the panel -- I really liked it. I really felt like you picked it up all through here when you came around [our seats]," Lopez added.
"It really felt like a concert. It felt good. It felt like a real performance. If you own the song, it was more you than anything else. I really, really liked it. I thought it was a really, really good job, baby. Good job!"
In addition to Reinhart and Lusk, Casey Abrams, Lauren Alaina, James Durbin, and Scotty McCreery also still remain in the running for American Idol's tenth-season title.
Over 52 million home-viewer votes were cast following Wednesday night's performance show, according to Seacrest.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
