American Idol's Top 3 finalist Caleb Johnson struggled to make it through Wednesday night's performance show due to a medical condition, but he still managed to excel and conquer the night.

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At the beginning of last night's episode, a doctor revealed Caleb had little voice left due to bronchitis. Caleb was suffering from a small vocal cord hemorrhage, which is like having a bruise on his vocal cord. After comparing the condition to an athlete running on a bruised ankle, the doctor still cleared Caleb to sing.

Caleb endured three rounds of competition -- mentor Randy Jackson's pick, the judges' pick and each contestant's hometown's pick -- and did his best to belt out three tough rock songs, ultimately succeeding.

Caleb first sang "Never Tear Us Apart" by INXS.

"Great job, man!... That's a great song for Caleb... [Your voice] is a fusion of blues, soul, rock n' roll, gospel -- it's all in there. Man, you've auditioned for Idol a few times. Can you believe [you went] from auditioning several times and never making it to getting to this stage one week from the finale? It's crazy... I could hear the voice [hurting] in certain spots, but you're such a pro, man. You just worked right through it," Keith Urban explained.

"I know you wanted to do so much more with that song, and you can, and we know that you can. But the truth is, you on your worst night are better than people on their best night. So you should be very happy! Pace yourself... that's the smart thing to do, but you know, you have no problems up there. It was still a stellar performance, Jennifer said.

"There's not a whole bunch you can do with that tune, and I thought it was really an interesting choice for you. The only real concern I have Caleb is that you don't hurt yourself tonight," Harry Connick Jr. told the artist. "Don't over-sing and hurt yourself."


Caleb took the stage next with a rendition of "Demons" by Imagine Dragons.

"I'm so feeling for you right now, man, with that voice. But gosh, if you close your eyes, you really wouldn't know that and you're doing such a great job of working through that... I know that feeling of having fragility in the voice and having it not be there. It's our Achilles heel as singers -- this is our whole thing. So what it does to your confidence level is real... It's really scary, but you killed that song!" Keith told him,

"We all know how scary it is, like you thinking, 'Oh, is my voice ever going to come back?! Is it going to be the same again?!' It will be. You'll recover; It will be fine... When you started, you were thinking more about, 'Can I get there?' And afterwards, I kind of was like, 'Just sing the emotion and the words of the song!'... But you did. You started singing the emotion of the song and the lyrics of the song and you hit them effortlessly in the middle, and that's all you have to do tonight," Jennifer explained.

"You've come so far in this competition... Nice job," Harry added.


Caleb's third song, the hit his hometown had selected for him, was "Dazed and Confused" by Led Zeppelin. In that moment, Caleb pulled through with an extremely impressive performance, getting Jennifer up out of her chair to get the audience even more riled up. Keith also gave the singer a standing ovation and could barely speak over the crowd's loud applause and "Caleb" chant.

"If ever there was -- insane, absolutely insane. If ever there was like a complete moment of miraculous healing, that would've been it. I just want to throw stuff!" Keith yelled.

"I'm not a thrower. But if I was a thrower, I would throw. That was a true Idol moment. That was bananas! That was ridiculous!" Jennifer said.

"Yeah, it was awesome, man! It was really great. This show is all about opportunities and performers seeing the opportunity and taking advantage of the opportunity. I love watching you take full advantage. That was absolutely fantastic!" Harry told him.


Idol's Top 2 finalists will be revealed during Thursday night's live results show on Fox. Those two contestants -- either Caleb, Jena Irene or Alex Preston -- will square off in next week's thirteenth-season finale.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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