Click Here for More Articles on AMERICAN IDOL...

IDOL WATCH: The Top 7 Perform Recent Hits!

IDOL WATCH: The Top 7 Perform Recent Hits! This week on Ammmerican Idol, it's...well, usually Idol will officially announce the themes a few days before the show airs, but this week they didn't. So is it a super special, wonderful theme that will blow us right off our feet? Nope, but it is "Songs from this Decade," which limits the remaining seven to songs from the last two years and is usually one of my favorite episodes of the season.

Akon is the guest judge this week; in other news, Tommy Hilfiger's check to the Idol producers must have cleared, because he's back to dispense more advice for the contestants to ignore.

Kellie Pickler's "Didn't You Know How Much I Loved You" will kick things off from Skylar. I know that it's her usual fare - a country song with a big chorus - but for some reason it seemed more on-pitch and I really liked it this week. "That was a perfect way to start the show," J-Lo says.

Colton Dixon is up next with "Love the Way You Lie." As much as I hate to say it because what they've shown of Colton's personality just seems a little too...deliberate, he always picks unique covers of songs and sings them well. This one is no exception and he brings back the piano to deliver a solid performance.

Not content to have an hour filled with performances that keep the show moving at an interesting pace, the show is once again expanding to two hours with pointless duets. First up are Phillip Phillips and Elise with Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." It's actually very good, but seriously - why, Idol?

Jessica tackles "Stuttering" by Jazmine Sullivan. One of my favorite things about Jessica is that she has a powerful voice, but she really sounds like she's oversinging this one. To be fair, I don't know how the song is supposed to sound - I've never heard it - but this one fell flat for me. The judges, however, love it.

Joshua, who just celebrated his 20th birthday, gets a video message from Fantasia before his performance of Bruno Mars' "Runaway Baby." It's a song that's right up his alley, but whoever's in charge of the visuals included a go-go dancer and disco background, which is just weird. The judges agree that Joshua sounds good, though.

Page 2 >>