Alexis Grace, who belted out a soulful rendition of Aretha Franklin's "Never Loved a Man" that earned her comparisons to a former "Idol" champ, Kelly Clarkson. Then Danny Gokey closed the night with a take on Mariah Carey's "Hero" that had the studio audience — and the judges — cheering wildly. Ricky Braddy and Michael Sarver also received high marks for their versions of Leon Russell's "A Song for You" and Gavin DeGraw's "I Don't Wanna Be."You can file the performances by Casey Carlson, Stevie Wright and Stephen Fowler under "disastrous." Carlson, the button-cute former bikini model, winked her way through a karaoke-fied version of the Police's "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," a performance that left "Idol" judges agape. Wright, a 17-year-old with a husky set of pipes, decided to go "younger," taking on Taylor Swift's "You Belong to Me" and failing spectacularly.
Everyone else was somewhere in between. Normally dramatic Tatiana Del Toro unveiled her demure side with a controlled version of Whitney Houston's "Saving All My Love for You," a decision that left judges praising her pipes but questioning her identity as an artist. Brent Keith tried to remain loyal to his country roots by singing James Aldean's "Hicktown," a performance the judges deemed "forgettable."
