‘American Idol’ Season 12, Episode 12 Recap: Semifinals Continue With the Guys

Picking up where the ladies ladies left off on Wednesday, 10 more guys were up to face-off in the sudden death round.

They did have a tough act to follow, as the girls were the stronger talent pool. Based on last night's episode, things aren't looking too great for the male contestants this year considering the judges favored the vocals of just one singer out of the 10.

Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson, Keith Urban and Nicki Minaj felt there were more performers attempting to put on a show rather than actually sing; as this is a singing competition, five of the guys paid the price for focusing less on their vocal stylings.

Nicki let Jada Davila know about this after his performance of Adele's 'Rumor Has It.' "First of all, no matter what happens here on out, you are a superstar performer," she told him. "That's No. 1. No. 2, you're absolutely right, everybody came to see a show and you give a show every single time. The only thing I didn't like Jada, and I'm keeping it real, your vocal wasn't good today, how I normally remember it. It was a little phone voice, whiny."

This cost Jada, as he was one of the contestants let go.

We did get to see music mogul Jimmy Iovine in action last night. In the event of a tie, Jimmy is to come in and decide if a contestant goes on to the next round or gets cut. Such was the case with Paul Jolley after singing 'Idol' judge Keith Urban's 'Tonight I'm Gonna Cry.' Didn't Paul ever hear that sucking up never pays off? We get the fact you wanted to score brownie points here, man, but brown-nosing is not the way to go.

"What I think I saw tonight was a good singer with the wrong song," the head of Interscope Records told Jolley. "Why I felt it was the wrong song is I felt I was watching Paul sing a Keith Urban song while auditioning for the 'Phantom of the Opera;' you over sang it." Tough criticism aside, Jolley got Jimmy's blessing and made it through to the next round.

The guys who made it to the next round of sudden death know they have to focus more on their vocals next week if they want to stay on the 'Idol' boat. If they put performance ahead of vocals, they'll get tossed overboard like Jada.

They're lucky though; they have a week to pick the right song as 10 more girls are up next Wednesday. Which girls are going on Wednesday? Will we see Jimmy Iovine break another tie? Find out the answers to these questions and more next week here at TheDrop.fm.

Watch ‘American Idol’ Season 12, Episode 12 Recap