Reviews on Joshua's Performances Tonight

Solo Performance


Joshua Ledet - The vocal gymnast chose Simply Red’s ‘If You Don’t Know Me By Now.’ He turned it into a torch song, beautifully so. He also has that Prince thing going on. He held back and then let loose. Another powerhouse!

Joshua Ledet's feeling the pressure of the competition. "Last week, my emotions came out on stage because I was missing my family," he says. After all, he's the baby of a big family.

He's singing If You Don't Know Me By Now, a Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes hit remade by Simply Red in the '80s. "The song he chose is really, really good for him," Gwen Stefani says.

"Every note of that song he sang, I'm with him 100 percent," Jimmy Iovine says.

Joshua, of course, is more Teddy Pendergrass than Mick Hucknall. Songs like this were created by singers who came out of similar musical backgrounds as Joshua, so he's right in his comfort zone. Even when he goes for a heavens-high falsetto note, then skydives off it back into his gospel shout. Another killer performance.

He's got Jennifer quoting Scripture: "Ask and ye shall receive. We asked for a powerhouse performance, and that's what we got." She likes how he held back at the start. "It was spectacular."

"How can someone sing like you at your age?" Steven wonders aloud to the 19-year-old. "What a perfect, beautiful song. ... It wasn't too much over the top, and it was way over the top."

"It's very rare that I want to stand up from beginning to end," Randy says. "That's how great that song was."

Tonight on ‘American Idol,’ soul man Joshua Ledet was challenged to sing a song from the ’80s, and even though the 19-year-old powerhouse wasn’t even alive in this era, he nailed Simply Red’s cover of ’If You Don’t Know Me by Now,’ which was a hit for the English band back in 1989.

Ledet admitted to being “spoiled” by his family back at home, but he seemed all man and not a bit mama’s boy tonight during his incredibly performance.

Ledet received some words of advice from mentors Gwen Stefani and Tony Kanal of No Doubt before his performance. After watching Ledet sing, Stefani said, “He obviously has incredible vocal gymnastics. It’s insane what he can do with his voice, but sometimes I think it can be too much.”

After toning it down a bit at certain points, Ledet graced the stage in a pin-striped blazer, looking like a true gentleman as he completely owned the song with his larger-than-life vocals. While he showed off his amazing vocal abilities, Ledet kept restrained in certain parts rather than becoming too exaggerated on the whole.

After he received a standing ovation, Ledet was met with huge praises from the judges. We wholeheartedly agreed with J. Lo when she said, “We asked for a powerhouse performance and that’s what we got. Joshua you know what I love so much, in the beginning you came out, but you held back … It was spectacular.” We also felt the same sentiments as Randy Jackson when he told Ledet, “It’s very rare [in a performance] that I want to stand up from beginning to end.”

Duet with Jessica Sanchez

Jessica Sanchez tackles Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin on the same night. And she and Joshua Ledet have all the chemistry that Colton Dixon and Skylar Laine didn't have earlier. They're singing to each other even when they're not looking at each other. It's the kind of duet that makes both singers look better. Forget the judged performances: This may be the best number of the night. Sure hope they sing it on the tour.

Standing ovation - and well deserved.

Randy also worked on this song. "This is one of the greatest performances I've seen on this show," he says. "You guys are ready."

Jennifer calls it a "dream pairing" and wonders if they might be in the finale together. (Wouldn't that be something?)

Steven says the performance "defies judging."