‘American Idol’: Naima & Thia Voted Off, Fantasia Performs

Robbie Daw | April 1, 2011 6:03 am

Just in case you didn’t get the memo from Ryan Seacrest, last night’s elimination round of American Idol was to have two contestants voted off. And the episode didn’t disappoint—well, unless you were fans of either Naima Adedapo or Thia Megia. One surprise, however, came when the usual group performance was ditched in favor of the Top 11 contestants splitting into duet partners, trios and quartets. Read on! The first duet came from Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina, who took on Idol alum Carrie Underwood and Randy Travis’ “I Told You So.” The country-leaning pair sitting and making googly eyes at each other while singing the  heart-tugging ballad was far more entertaining than watching Jacob Lusk and Naima Adedapo‘s awkward dancing while delivering their rendition of Ashford & Simpson’s “Solid.” Naima was the first one to land in the Bottom Three.

Next up was Thia, Pia Toscano and Haley Reinhart‘s karaoke-lite version of Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.” Sorry, girls, but it was pretty cheesy. But if it’s any comfort, we’ve yet to hear Katy herself deliver a truly great live performance of her hit.

Thia was shuffled off to join Naima in the Bottom Three before James Durbin, Paul McDonald, Casey Abrams and Stefano Langone took the stage with their respective instruments and banged out the best performance of the evening, a cover of Paul McCartney & Wings’ “Band On The Run.” Afterwards, Paul wound up filling out the Bottom Three, which wasn’t really a shock to us, given his wobbly turn on “Rocket Man” Wednesday night.

Before the results were given, Season 3 winner Fantasia returned to the Idol stage to dish up her Back To Me single “Collard Greens & Cornbread.”

And after the Black Eyed Peas’ performance of “Just Can’t Get Enough” the other week, will.i.am returned to rap on Rio soundtrack jam “Hot Wings (I Wanna Party)” with Jamie Foxx.

In the end, Paul wound up safe, while Thia and Naima got the axe. If we had our way, Stefano would have been tossed out instead of reggae-loving Naima, but such is the way of the cruel American Idol machine.

What did you think of last night’s results?