If you tuned into American Idol last night, you saw Lauren Alaina narrowly escape elimination and a mental breakdown!  Country's aspiring sweetheart let her nerves keep her from making all the right moves and hitting all the right notes in "Unchained Melody" on Wednesday night and she nearly paid the price for it on Thursday night.  But Lauren lives to see another day, but Jacob will not.  Idol's resident gospel/r&b crooner is gone.  So, what's in store for the final four?  Let's check in with our Idol expert, Steve Thompson!

From Steve Thompson:

There was a certain amount of dread in my mind last night simply because Jacob Lusk had inexplicably been saved for three weeks in a row.  Would America continue to be tone deaf?  The answer, thankfully, was no.  Frankly, after hearing his rendition of A House is Not a Home as his send-off song, even his fans might believe his time was done.  If that had been any more over the top it would've reached the other side.

Our final four includes two girls and two guys.  Two country singers, a rock singer, and a bluesy rock singer.  I'd be shocked if our final goes down to the two country singers-- but stranger things have happened. 

For those of you who believe the songs of Carole King was too new a concept, next week's theme is the Songs of Lieber & Stoller.  Really.  Kids, you might need to ask your grandparents about these guys.  Many of Elvis Presley's early hits were composed by Lieber & Stoller.  They had a long successful writing partnership.  If you've seen the musical Smokey Joe's Cafe, those are all Lieber & Stoller songs...

Who will be the mentor?  You'd better sit down, kids...  There's a method to Jimmy Iovine's madness...  Lady Gaga will be the mentor.  Now, I've got to say when I first heard of her a few years ago, I wasn't convinced this would ever happen.  To her credit-- and this is saying something coming from me-- while I'm not a fan, this could be compelling television.  She has proven her capabilities as both a songwriter and a performer and I think there's a wild artistry within her that could help her mentorship.

Continuing in the season 10 tradition, next Thursday Steven Tyler will premiere his new video and Jordin Sparks will take the stage and will show America her new bikini=ready figure (for those of you who didn't see the picture, Jordin must be trying to outdo Jennifer Hudson.)

Tune in next week and we'll see what happens.

@May 5, 2011  Stephen W Thompson

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