Ever since the announcement was made regarding the inclusion of only the contestants who reach the Top 5 instead of the entire team who made it to the Top 10, the American Idol Season 14 race has become tighter than ever. Apart from the feedback the Idol hopefuls receive from the judges, it becomes increasingly clear just how every contestant's move is intensely scrutinized by the public especially with this season's new feature, the Idol Twitter Save.
For this week's performances, the contestants are instructed to pick songs that are classified as "arena songs." While most of the numbers wowed the crowd and the Idol judges, the fact still remains that one of the hopefuls will be sent home. As Ryan Seacrest announced the contestants who are "safe," two contenders were left to battle it out to get in the highly coveted fifth and last spot this season: Rayvon Owen and Quentin Alexander.
In what could be perceived as an effort to maximize his own vocal strengths, Owen chose Sam Smith's I'm Not The Only One as his first number and went for Fleetwood Mac's Go Your Own Way for his second performance. Meanwhile, Alexander opted to sing Light My Fire by The Doors and Shake It Out by Florence + The Machine.
"What's good about you, Quentin, is that you're your own guy," remarked judge Keith Urban, referring to Alexander's first powerhouse performance for the night. "You swim in your own direction. You know plankton can't swim against the current? You're so not plankton," the country singer added. As for his second choice, the judges and the audience agreed that it was one of his most amazing numbers this season. "When you think about people going on tour and wanting to go watch somebody, I want to go watch you," commented Jennifer Lopez.
At the end of the night, however, the positive comments from the judges failed to eventually save Alexander from elimination as Owen once again proved that he is truly a social media favorite. Hence, he will be one of the five Idol hopefuls along with Clark Beckham, Jax Cole, Nick Fradiani, and Tyanna Jones, to perform in the American Idol tour following the conclusion of this season
However, some fans of the show feel that the result was influenced by other factors apart from the contestants' performances. While Owen is no longer a stranger to the danger zone side of the show, Alexander is speculated to have been on the bottom two partly due to his questionable behavior last week when he acted "disrespectful" not only to the judges but also to the entire competition. Although he attempted to clarify his position and blamed his emotions for his outburst, a lot of viewers might have been turned off by his demeanor.
