‘American Idol’ Singer MacKenzie Bourg Ready To “Go To Work”

Bourg sang Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” in the show’s first round, which featured the singers dedicating songs to their hometowns.

MacKenzie Bourg, Lafayette, La.

Trent Harmon, of Amory, Mississippi, Dalton Rapattoni of Dallas, Texas, and La’Porsha Renae of McComb, Mississippi, were announced Thursday as the contenders. The former’s “Dancing In The Dark” is #152, while the latter’s “Stay With Me” is #448. This left Porsha La’Renae and MacKenzie Bourg in the bottom two.

Bourg’s “Hallelujah”, which marked his final performance prior to the elimination announcement, is now #89 on the U.S. chart. On Thursday night’s episode (Fox, 8PM ET), Harmon will sing Justin Timberlake’s “Drink You Away“. It was an emotional journey for the remaining contestants and one that echoed through in their performances. La’Porsha reassures her fans, “My afro is still there”. Last weekend, American Idol filmed Trent and La’Porsha in MS for the “homecoming” episode, which aired last night.

Of course, the best Hometown performance had to be La’Porsha’s version of John Legend’s “Glory” that brought the house down with its sheer power.

But we’ve still got two hours of time to kill, so get ready for hometown visits, special guests, a whopping three performances by each singer and a whole hell of a lot of filler. He paid tribute to the folks back home with “Calling You“, by Blue October. Harry Connick Jr., complimented Renae on her constant “elegance and grace” and said she was “critique proof”.

Keith gives her a standing ovation and praises the strength and purity of her gift, and he feels like he was just baptized.

Trent is clearly following in the Chris Stapleton soul-country mold, which is a great lane for him to find himself in. It’s a song Borchetta picked and the first time the pop star has ever granted permission for one of his songs to be used on Idol. She said that something just clicked, and Rapattoni seems to have realized the gravity of the fact that he is in the final three. The Tears for Fears “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” cover, on the other hand, was a little off (as Jennifer Lopez noted).

The judges asked La’Porsha to sing the popular hit “Hello” by Adele in the hopes she’d make it her own.