Last night's episode of 'American Idol' was the start of the semi-finals with the top 40 singers of the competition.

Things are a bit different this time around with contestants facing off in a sudden death round. The ladies began in the sudden death round; all 10 sang for the judges, and only five of them were kept on. In the event of a tie, special guest Jimmy Iovine gave his vote on who stays and who goes. So for the next several weeks, 10 singers will perform and only five will continue on until America votes.

With the episodes going deeper into the season, the criticism of the singers are that much more complex. The judges felt that a lot of the singers were emotionally disconnected from the songs they were singing.

Co-signing Keith Urban's thoughts on Brandy Hotard, who sang Travis Tritt's 'Anymore,' Nicki Minaj said with a laugh, "I wish you would get out of my head and stay out of my head, Keith. He took the words out of my mouth. I literally wrote why are you smiling when you're singing 'my tears, my resistance?'" That makes absolutely no sense. That was a pageant delivery of a song, and it did not seem real."

The rap star's final thoughts: Brandy wasn't emotionally connected to the song, thus making her unbelievable as a performer.

If you've been keeping with the show this season, you'll know that Nicki holds no punches in her critiques, so when it was time for her to speak on Shubha Vedula and her rendition of Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way,' she told her the truth.

Keeping it all the way "3 Hunna," as Chief Keef would say, Nicki gave her criticism of the young Shubha to a rain of boos from the audience. "It's so much going on," the 'Pink Friday' rapper said. "And every time since your first audition, whenever I look at what you do, I almost feel like there's a comical thing there. It almost feels like a mash-up between Christina Aguilera and the Gangnam style guy [PSY]." Gangnam style guy, Nicki? Ouch.

Going forward in the show, contestants realize that they all can sing, and that one bad performance can end their 'Idol' journey unlike before. One wrong song choice, one off-key moment and it could most certainly be a wrap.

Tonight, it's the mens' turn in the 10-person sudden death round -- only five will come out alive. Who's going in? Who's coming out? Gotta tune in to see what happens.

Watch ‘American Idol’ Season 12, Episode 11 Recap

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