Colton Dixon to 'American Idol' voters: 'Don't count me out'

Colton Dixon, up next on "American Idol," sings Skylar Grey's "Love the Way You Lie."

After being challenged by mentor Jimmy Iovine to step it up to pull ahead of Phillip Phillips, he says it's his chance to say to the voters, "don't count me out." I think he's ahead of Phillips, and, unlike him, is interesting every week. But it never hurts to push for more.

It's a slow, controlled start to the song, with that quaver in his voice. The problem is the song isn't that great. He performs it well and keeps you listening, but can only do so much. Then again, all the other contestants may have the same issue. They're limited to singing songs written since 2010.

Jennifer Lopez tells Dixon he always takes every song and makes it his own, adding  adds she wishes it "would have been more of a song," but liked it. Steven Tyler says Dixon could have recorded that live and sent it out, "that's how good it was."

Randy Jackson loves the "subtle performance," and tells Dixon he always pours himself into all his songs.

Then, hams Phillip Phillips and Elise Testone team up on a weirdly compelling version of Gotye's "Somebody That I Used to Know." They're just playing with the lyrics and performance, very much at ease with each other. "I just loved the feel that that song has, and also the feel that you guys brought to it as a duet," says Lopez.

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