American Idol axed Angela "Angie" Miller during Thursday night's live results show broadcast on Fox, deciding the twelfth season's two finale finalists.
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Angie -- a 19-year-old from Beverly, MA who has been considered the competition's frontrunner since the finals began -- was ousted from the competition after receiving the fewest number of home-viewer votes following Wednesday night's performance show.
Angie's elimination set up a Kree Harrison, a 22-year-old from Nashville, TN, versus Candice Glover, a 23-year-old from St. Helena Island, SC, showdown in next week's finale.
"When I was sitting in that huge stadium, like it's crazy that I'm here right now. I always loved that a show like this could take someone who never thought they had a chance and make their dreams come true," Angie said in a video montage after she was eliminated.
While singing her goodbye song, Angie could barely maintain her composure. At times, she broke down crying during the song and apologized to the audience.
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During Wednesday night's performance show, Jimmy Iovine picked a song for each contestant to sing during the night's first round of competition. Angie took the stage with a rendition of "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" by Elton John, and Jimmy said she had won the round.
"I picked these three songs to challenge them, and obviously they did," Jimmy explained. "Kree was very good. She did a good job interpreting the lyrics, not as good as I wanted her to. Angie did a really stellar job -- should've played the piano, didn't. I think that was a mistake, but emotionally, I think she got it. And Candice... She did a great job, missed a couple of moments to me. So I have to give that round to Angie."
Idol judges Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj, Keith Urban, and Randy Jackson were overall pretty enthusiastic about Angie's performance but thought it was somewhat lacking emotion.
"I felt that this was one of the best performances I've seen you do... I really enjoyed the performance. I thought it was really good, Angie," Mariah said.
"I would've been happy with you actually holding back even a little more. That's just me. You've got range Angie, range for days, and there's a beautiful thing in the top register of your voice. But all I would say is don't underestimate the power of -- you could break people's hearts singing really gently too, you really can. That would've been the perfect song to do that -- not to say that I wasn't emotionally affected, because I was... But your voice is spectacular," Keith explained.
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"The thing is, there have been performances that you've done that have hit me in the heart and I literally go home and watch it over and over when you hit that emotion, you know? This was a stellar vocal, but I do kind of agree it didn't hit me emotionally like I would've wanted it to, but it doesn't take away from the fact that you are clearly bringing it to win this compeition," Nicki said.
For the second round, "The Judges' Picks," Angie came through with an excellent performance of "Try" by P!nk.
"Twice in the night, no piano! You're like, 'I'm going out on the edge and I'm going to break out of my comfort zone.' For me, you've never looked as comfortable performing without your piano as you did in that moment," Keith said.
"Our judges, we made a great choice... That song fit you like a glove. You sounded amazing on it. You were so comfortable!... This girl is trying to win it, Mariah. This girl is in it to win it! She's in it to win it!" Randy exclaimed.
"You enjoyed being there but there's also a confidence you have... I totally agree with the fact that you performed like never before, and maybe it was this song has more of a rock feeling and you were up in your upper register earlier on in the song and you were just moving freely. I just felt like, 'Wow, she's really found her place at home and it's on the stage," Mariah explained.
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Round Three was "Idol Production's Picks." Angie was given "Maybe" by Emile Sande to sing and she performed it while playing the piano.
"Listen man, you sang your heart out right there... I actually love all the performances. I think tonight, you became a complete performer. I love that!" Randy noted.
"You sustained in your belting register for a long time and I felt like you really were feeling the song. The emotion was there... I just really felt like you were you and you were there and you were present. I really have nothing negative at all to say about that performance... All I'll say is that I think you did an amazing job with a song that's not that easy for people to sing," Mariah explained.
"Oh my goodness. You've come full circle now. You've become what we've been preaching about for weeks upon weeks upon weeks. If nothing else, my God, your growth has surpassed my expectations, miss lady. You are out of your head. You are not pageanty. You are feeling it. You're not staring into the camera like a zombie. You're emotionally connecting every time now and as long as you feel it, we're going to feel it. Congratulations!" Nicki told her.
About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski