'American Idol': Colton Dixon, unlucky No. 7

"American Idol" season 11 results night has provided viewers with some very surprising results over the past few weeks.

I was pretty sure that Jessica Sanchez would be safe after two solid performances and her previous week’s shocking last place finish and expected save by the judges.

While Colton Dixon didn’t deliver outstanding performances on Wednesday – his choice of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” was out-of-character and his rendition of  Earth, Wind & Fire’s “September” rendered the tune unrecognizable to those of us who love the song – I thought that his fan base would save him regardless. I was wrong!

It seems ironic that Dixon’s last song was “September,” when you ponder that in Latin, septem means seven (September was the seventh month of the Roman calendar in the BC days of yore) and he placed seventh in the competition.

While I did predict two of the bottom three (Hollie Cavanagh and Elise Testone), I had erroneously predicted that Joshua Ledet would be the one going home, as I’m unimpressed with his overpraised performances that consistently get standing ovations from judges Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and Randy Jackson.

The odds are 4:2, stacked in favor of a female victor for season 11.

While it’s getting harder and harder to predict who will survive each week after overall strong performances from all, it’s looking pretty good for Phillip Phillips and Skylar Laine, who own the stage when the are performing and are sure of who they are and the kind of performer that they aspire to be. 

Here’s my 5-year-old granddaughter Alex’s POV for this week:  She noticed that Hollie Cavanagh changed up her rendition of Adele’s “Rolling In the Deep” and commented that Colton Dixon sang a rock and roll version of Gaga’s “Bad Romance.”

After her favorite Elise Testone’s performance of Alicia Keys’ “No One,” she told her mother that she wanted the phone so she could vote for her girl . . . and mom Tracey promised to do that for her.

Alex, echoing J.Lo’s comment to Testone after her performance, said, “you gave me goosies!”

When she saw Kris Allen on last night’s show, she said, “hey, that’s Kris….he beat Adam Lambert ... I like him a little now. (Lambert was her fave of season 9, but now you’ve got to be a girl to win her over.)

She wasn’t impressed with Kris’ performance, saying, “we don’t know this song.”

When it was evident that the bottom three had two of her girls in jeopardy, she nonchalantly said, “I think that Colton is going home.” 

She clapped her hands and said, “I’m happy” when all was said and done.

According to the official news release from Fox, Queen’s Roger Taylor and Brian May will sing with the finalists in a group number next week. In addition, Katy Perry and season 10’s Stefano Langone will perform on results night next Thursday.