Well the Magrane train came to a halt last week and we’re now down to ten finalists who were put to the test with the Billy Joel catalogue tonight. However, the most shocking moment of the night would have to be Erika Van Pelt’s hair. I’m not sure if she was channeling Pat Benetar or Liza Minnelli on that one but, according to twitter, most people seemed to think that the new look worked for her. The judges agreed and, aside from the fact that Van Pelt’s performance lacked character, also thought her rendition of Joel’s New York State of Mind went over pretty well.

Does anyone remember Billy Joel’s version of Shameless? Probably not. I had to look this one up for myself, and apparently it was released on Joel’s 1989 album, Storm Front, and only reached number forty in the charts. Luckily our resident honky-tonk sweetheart, Skyler Laine, was able to borrow heavily from Garth Brooks’ much more popular cover. Both DeAndre Brackensick and Heejun Han proved they were out of their league tonight despite their attempts to work the crowd. Phillip Phillips stuck it to fashion mentor Tommy Hilfiger tonight by completely disregarding his wardrobe tips, which, in the end, earned him some points with the judges. Come to think of it, did anyone tonight follow Tommy’s advice?  

After last week’s performance of When a Man Loves a Woman, I was expecting Joshua Ledet to come busting out of the gate with another hot, gospel infused number like River of Dreams but instead he served up the ballad She’s Got a Way a little on the cold side. A word of advice Joshua, add crawfish to your backstage rider. Hollie Cavanagh tried to shake up her too-cute-for-words image tonight by trading in the old lady dresses for a pair of white slacks and a sequence top but was pitchy enough throughout her performance of Honesty for the judges to notice.

       After picking one of the most obscure songs possible last week, Colton Dixon’s song choice tonight, Piano Man, is probably one of the most recognizable Joel tunes ever recorded. According to the judges, Dixon made the tune his own but does Piano Man really need to be emofied? Jessica Sanchez managed to control her vibrato long enough for Jlo to state that her rendition of Everybody Has A Dream was a defining moment for her in this competition. Finally, unless Joshua Ledet steps it up next week, I believe we might have a front runner in Elise Testone. The judges were on their feet after her heartfelt performance of Vienna. Randy mentioned that this song was Elise’s “moment” in this competition and Jlo said that she could finally see Elise’s personality for the first time. My prediction for the bottom two tomorrow, Heejun and DeAndre. But then again, didn’t someone write somewhere that only the good die young?  We’ll see.