American Idol Season 12: Girl's Week Recap

Nicki Minaj: Talk to the Hand

It is the girls turn to invade the center stage at Hollywood week of the American Idol. In the a capella round, earlier favorites like Rachel Halle, named as the happiest contestant in American Idol Season 12, country girl Janelle Arthur and powerhouse singer Candice Glover showed their singing prowess. However, Megan Miller, whom we remember as the girl in crutches during the audition round, was the first casualty of the day.

Candice Glover and Megan Miller Performs

All in all, 72 contestants including Isabelle, Kez Ban and Briana Oakley move forward to the next round.

Other than testing the contestant's metal in working with others, the group rounds were a source of entertainment. Most of them don't thrive well with other personalities. There is also the issue of song choice. You are not picking for yourself but for others in the group. That is a source of conflict to others. And most of the groups pick songs they are not familiar with. Thus they tend to forget the lyrics. Many were enterprising enough and wrote the lyrics on their hands and arms.

The Swagettes Perform in Hollywood

After the round, 47 were left to move on to the solo round wherein they be ask to perform one song from a list of 20 or perform an original composition they made.

First was Angela Miller who made a bold move and perform her own composition entitled "Set Me Free". Keith and the rest of the judges were blown away with the song and Angela's performance. 

Angela Miller Performance in the Solo Round 

Angela pass with flying color sending her a solid spot in the next round. Currently, she is one of the strongest contender in the competition and she is one to watch out for.

Watch out for the "girls on fire", Candice Glover and Zoaneth Johnson and country girl Janelle Arthurs. 

Also, someone to watch out for is Jett Hermano whose performances were not yet shown all through out. 

Others who were able to gave stellar performances and pass this round were Shubha Vedula, Juliana Shahayed, Melinda Ademi, Kree Harrison

Some were not fortunate enough to move forward. Kez Ban tried to sing one of her own originals and it turned out to be her last. Other standouts who got cut this round were Ashley Feliciano, and Briana Oakley.

Twenty four girls remain after the end of the solo round thus more cuts has to be done. Randy asked Lauren Minx, Holly Marie Miller and Ariel Sprague to step forward and they were the ones to go. He then asked Stephanie Schimel to sing again. After that, Rachelle Halle was ask to sing with the band again.

After that, Stephanie was asked to go thus Rachel completes the top 20 girls.

The guys were then ushered to the center stage. Adam Sanders were asked to sing again, followed by Josh Holiday.

After much deliberations, Nicki announced that they are letting go of Peter Gareth, Marvin Calderon, Devan Jones, Kenny Harrison, Will White, Tony Foster, David Leathers Jr and Adam Sanders.

So the list of top 20 guys is finally sealed.

Next week is the dreaded sudden death. The contestants will sing one song in front of the judges and a live audience.