American Idol's Top 12 finalists all took the stage with mediocre performances and judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick Jr. just weren't impressed during Wednesday night's performance show on Fox.

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Jennifer admitted to the contestants the judges were being hard on them, but it became increasingly clear over the course of the night they were just being honest. Jennifer, Keith and Harry said they're looking for breakout performances, ones that will wow the audience and bring them out of their chairs. However, the finalists just aren't measuring up to those standards yet.

During Wednesday night's show, the Top 12 thirteenth-season finalists were asked to sing a song that best defines the word "home" for them -- whether it's about their town, a family member or simply what home represents.

Malaya Watson, Dexter Roberts and Caleb Johnson are the only singers who received fairly positive feedback from the judges, while everyone else pretty much got canned. Harry was especially displeased and disappointed with most of the performances.

Jena Irene sang "Suddenly I See" by KT Tunstall.

"I'm not mad about that specific song for you... [but] I think you can loosen up even more. You really can," Keith told her.

"I really wanted to see you be your age and jump... I was waiting for you to bust out. You're 17, you should be climbing all over the ceiling with that song! It was great to see that energy, but I wanted more," Harry said.


Alex Preston performed "I Don't Wanna Be" by Gavin DeGraw.

"As far as the song goes, it wasn't your best vocal performance for me. I felt like the arrangement you did, didn't quite suit the song. For me, I love that song. I'm sorry. [The arrangement] really overtook your vocal and performance. You have to be careful with that balance," Jennifer explained.

"I didn't really like it as much as I've liked some of the other things you've done. It just sounded like... you were a little bit overpowered," Harry noted.

"The word 'instability' kept coming to me within the performance because it was almost like you weren't quite sure about how to be within the arrangement... The song was kind of around you instead of you centering and being in the song. Another thing that gives it away is you start losing your breath at the end of phrases and the pitch starts to drift as well," Keith said.


Jessica Meuse sang "White Flag" by Dido.

"It felt kind of understated and actually a little bit blazay... You were sharp the whole time and I saw something that very rarely happens on American Idol. When anybody hits a high note on that stage, everyone unanimously applauds. It didn't happen this time. And here's why I think," Harry told her.

"You were so off [tune], I think people can honestly hear that and I'm not really sure what's going on. I just felt like you weren't really present throughout the performance."

"I feel like you feel like you're comfortable. It's still not coming off that way unfortunately," Jennifer said. And what we want, at this point... is superstar performances. It was so sharp throughout the whole thing that it was a bit distracting. But at the same time, if you would've been singing with so much more conviction, it would've overpowered that. It just didn't happen today."


Emily Piriz sang "Let's Get Loud" by Jennifer.

"That song is like a big locomotive train going down the tracks. The people were into that song even before you came out, so that's kind of a big crutch you have. You have to match the intensity of the locomotive train otherwise you're just going to be a passenger on the train," Harry told her.

"You need to drive the train. You can't go and huddle up next to the musician. You need to come out here and sing and perform that song. The song, the production, was too big for you tonight."


MK Nobilette performed "Drops of Jupiter" by Train.

"Your vocals are fine, but for me, you need to work on connecting how you look with how you sing. Because right now, I feel like those two things aren't coming together," Keith noted.

"Again, it wasn't a breakout performance. And I feel like at this point in the competition, we really need that from you guys, although I do feel you pushing," Jennifer told MK.

"MK, I still get the feeling that you don't really want to be here. There are glimpses of joy in your performances... practice the things that make you uncomfortable. Work on the things that are hard... Try to sing in tune... and you will improve," Harry said.


C.J. Harris performed "Waiting on the World to Change" by John Mayer.

"All that's missing now, I think for me, is you figuring out a way to make a song more your own. Sometimes I don't know how to do that. You have to figure that out as an artist -- to not just do a straight cover. You have to do something different to the song otherwise it just ends up being a cover... It's like where are you in this? Where is your artistic take in it?" Keith told C.J.


Sam Woolf sang "Just One" by Blind Pilot.

"The thing that keeps coming to mind for me about you is sort of emotional dynamics. There has to be change, not only musical dynamics... but the emotional dynamics -- the growth, the change, the push. I'm starting to feel there's one beat when you sing emotionally and that's all I've really heard since you started the competition. I think you need to try something else," Harry explained.

"Again, we're at the point in the competition where we need to start seeing some more super-wow performances, and there's a certain thing that you do, but at the same time, you have to push outside your comfort zone," Jennifer added.


Ben Briley took the stage with "Turning Home" by Davis Nail.

"I did not connect with it. It felt shouted to me... Everyone in this room is talented but I'm just waiting for a knockout performance and I have not really seen it. I haven't seen it and I don't think everybody disagrees with me. It was okay. It wasn't great! It wasn't great," Harry told Ben.

"In the case of that song there, for me, there was so much focus on the technicality of the notes and the range and everything else, I lost the story. I lost the emotion from you. My advice to you is worry a lot less about the technicality... You could actually lean into the mic, close your eyes and sing, and not move a muscle, and you would hit me way more. Because you've got that kind of voice," Keith explained.


Majesty Rose performed "Fix You" by Coldplay.

"I loved the beginning but I wish you had stayed in that quiet zone. It kind of threw me off," Harry noted.

"You don't always have to go for the big thing... Where you had us was great and then you tried to do something and it didn't quite work out," Jennifer explained.

"I'd be repeating what they said," Keith added.

One of American Idol's Top 12 thirteenth-season finalists will be eliminated during Thursday night's live results show at 8PM ET/PT on Fox.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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