Taking to the stage in second place on last night’s American Idol, Michael Lynche revealed that he would be singing Michael Jackson’s I Will Be There. Mike admitted that he feels pressured to get into the top three and said that he feels the weight of the night in trying to do it for his hometown.

Celebrity mentor Jamie Foxx got Mike to dance and encouraged him to loosen up, but then refused to give him an artist t shirt, because he hadn’t learned his lyrics yet…..sucked to Michael that day!

Back to his performance…..Big Mike walked down those stairs, and there was the anticipation of that gospel choir standing above him. He blasted out an amazing soul/gospel version that was phrased quite a bit differently to the original. I thought it was an impressive version of the song – great vocals by Mike, and he wasn’t drowned out by the choir.

Judges Comments:

* Randy Jackson: Listen man, I don’t know what’s goin’ on tonight. Once again this song is a cool song made great by the late great Michael Jackson. It’s got this whole gospel influence kinda thing. To me, you’re an R&B dude. I wish you’d chosen an R&B song, and there are so many songs to choose from. It was just all right for me, it didn’t really take off. It started out kinda rough for me.

* Ellen DeGeneres: Well, you can’t really go wrong with the sound of a choir behind you. That really is a great sound. And from one of the all-time classic movies…Free Willy. It’s a weird thing that your goal is to get into the Top 3, your goal should be to win this thing. The goal should be to win the thing. And I feel that you’re consistently good, you always sound good, but I think that it was a little bit predictable.

* Kara DioGuardi: All I could think about tonight was I’m Ready For Love and Women’s Work. Because those were songs where I had goosebumps. I want goosebumps again. I didn’t feel that from you and I know you have more. You played it safe. What you did tonight, you could do in your sleep.

* Simon Cowell: (There’s a lot of mumbling about willies…) At least you gave it 100%, and I kind of felt that you meant it.