[silent_jonny]

Sings a Tina Turner song. "What's Love Got To Do With It." But the arrangement stinks. It's slowed waaay down, trying to be soulful.

Just waiting for it to end.

Randy: It's like a great song doesn't need a different wild arrangement. I didn't love this at all. Just sing the song. Don't change it. Just sing it.

Ellen: I won't say just sing. Sing and dance! If you're a performer, use that. Not the right song. Not current. I want you here. I don't think that song helped you get any votes.

Kara: When you started moving, it got better. I don't get it. What happened to Todrick? Where did that Todrick go?

Simon: This is not working out at all for you. (Calls it a theme park performance. He's right.) Very corny. No relevance. I don't know what's going through your head at the moment, but you're getting this completely and utterly wrong. Sorry.

Todrick: I thought they wanted us to change songs and make it our own.

Randy: But it's too much. Too out there.

Todrick has a point. If the idols sing a song as-is, the judges complain they're not taking risks. If they DO take risks and change the song, the judges complain again.

[SunnyUsa]

he doesn’t seem to be into the ladies....am I right?

[skateman]

Todrick has a point. If the idols sing a song as-is, the judges complain they're not taking risks. If they DO take risks and change the song, the judges complain again.

Great point! Why don't they just admit who they are in the tank for and drop all the pretense?

[kevkrom]

Todrick has a point. If the idols sing a song as-is, the judges complain they're not taking risks. If they DO take risks and change the song, the judges complain again.

The contestants should ignore the judges, except when they're right. ;)

Channeling Simon for a second here, the two main things he's looking for from any contestant are:

1. Uniqueness (but in a marketable way)
2. Relevance to modern music buyers

If you do a "sound-alike" performance, you're neither, plus you tend to draw unfavorable comparisons to the original artist (especially since it's your live version vs. their nicely smoothed out studio version).

Okay, so that means that you've got to put your own "spin" on the song. BUT, this introduces another problem -- if you're going to take on a well-known song and change it up, you have to OWN it up on that stage, or you just wind up looking silly, much like Todrick has looked the last couple of weeks.