IDOL WATCH: The Top 4 Perform!

It's down to the final four on American Idol, and tonight's themes were "California Dreamin'" (which features songs about California or were performed by Californians) and the even vaguer "Songs You Wish You Wrote." With the choices so varied, who brought down the house and who'll be headed back to theirs? Find out now!

Ryan does his usual dramatic intro, assuring us that "It's a true test. Of endurance. This week. We've got TWO rounds of competition." You mean like the ones that have been going on for the past month or so? You don't say.

Phil Phillips is in the top slot this week, kicking things off with "Have You Ever Seen the Rain" by Creedence Clearwater Revival. To be honest, Phil's kind of boring me lately, although he seems SUPER popular with the live audience and doesn't sound half bad. "The vocal quality that you used for that was perfect for that song," J-Lo says.

Hollie chooses Journey's "Faithfully." I'm pretty surprised that Hollie stuck around last week - I thought for sure it would be the end of the road for her over Skylar - but I do like her even though she delivers a shaky performance for her first song. "You did them proud," Randy, who's wearing a pink picnic blanket as a suit, says of Journey (for once, it doesn't seem like he's name dropping - he played bass guitar for the band's "Raised on Radio" album).

"You Raise Me Up" is the challenge faced by Joshua. It loosely fits the category, since Josh Groban is from California, but whatever - I think they would've allowed a song for this theme even if the artist's brother's girlfriend's uncle's cousin lived in California. Joshua's been one of the strongest on certain nights, but this isn't one of them. It sounds boring the first half and too over-the-top the second, but the judges love it…I think. "You were afraid of the plane, you are the plane," Steven says.

Jessica's song is Etta James' "Steal Away." As always, got a huge voice that she puts into every corner of the song, but she never seems to pick the right one and she's falling into the pitfall of sounding pretty similar every week. "Your vocals are ridiculous. That girl right there can sing the phone book," Randy tells her.

Ugh, duets. Joshua and Phil sing Maroon 5's "This Love." I suppose it's slightly better than the trios. Slightly. Jessica and Hollie sing the Bangles' "Eternal Flame." Luckily, the duet performances are back-to-back, so it's like ripping off a band-aid. Jessica and Hollie perform on giant swings, and during their critique Phil and Joshua sneak back on the stage and sit on the swings, which actually gets increasingly amusing the more that the judges try to ignore it).

They air a new, longer trailer for the new Rock of Ages movie, due in theaters June 15 - if it caught your eye, check out more of BroadwayWorld's Rock of Ages coverage here!

We get around to the second round of performances with Phil taken on "Volcano" by Damien Rice. I don't know the song, but this version of it is acoustic with simple harmonies and that's definitely where I like Phil's performances best. It's a vast improvement over his first outing. "For me, after watching the show for many many years, and being here for two years, that was one of the most poignant moments." J-Lo says. "It was really, really lovely."

Hollie goes predictable (in a good way) for "I Can't Make You Love Me." I think it really hurts her that she has to chop the song up into two distinct parts in order to make it fit in the allotted time slot. That's a song that really needs the build-up. Still, it's not bad - I just wish that she could have had the whole song because that's one she could've knocked out of the park. "To me it was really the song," Randy says. "It gave you nowhere to go."

James Brown's "It's a Man's Man's Man's World" is Joshua's second pick. I can see it vocally, but I'm not sure if Joshua has a tenth of James Brown's performance power. He surprises me, though, and brings more confidence than to any of his performances thus far and does really well with it. The crowd and the audience both go wild. "I've never heard anything like that in my life!" Steven says.

Jessica chooses DREAMGIRLS' "And I Am Telling You (I'm Not Going)" to close the show. No, she's no Jennifer Holliday or Jennifer Hudson, but I feel like I've put up with weeks of melodramatic performances just for her to sing this - and she absolutely kills it, with or without regard to the fact that she's sixteen. "With a performance like that, there's nothing to say," J-Lo says (she goes on to talk for another solid minute, but you know).

FYI: If you were wondering why Steven, Ryan and Randy were wearing "6" pins, they're for the "Got Your Six" campaign, which officially launches tomorrow in support of veterans. Tomorrow on Idol, Jennifer Lopez performs, plus we get down to the final three constants!

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