‘American Idol’ Burning Questions: Why Can’t Lazaro Remember the Lyrics? Isn’t Heart’s ‘What About Love’ a Ballad?

Wednesday’s American Idol performance show — with its “no ballads” stipulation — left some season 12 finalists between a rock and a hard place. Making the competition even more challenging: physical injuries sustained by some, an unrequited crush for one and yet another instance of a contestant forgetting the lyrics. Wondering how it all played out? Read on for the answers to this week’s burning questions…

Lazaro Arbos fumbles lyrics for a second week in a row, this time to Queen’s “Crazy Little Thing Called Love.” Is it related to his stutter or is something else going on? “I don’t know, Lazaro told The Hollywood Reporter after the show. “I have never had this problem of forgetting words. Not even when I first came on, and that was when I was more nervous, but I had the words. I am not sure where this is coming from.” Chalk it up to nerves, he added.

How exactly did Candice Glover break her toe? “I ran into the door,” she revealed in the press tent, where the singer had to take a seat so she could get off her feet. “We were doing a prank on Lazaro, and thought it would be funny to tell him the house is on fire. I was in the process of running and I broke my right pinky toe. It’s funny when you think about it.” Fortunately, it didn’t require a visit to the hospital. “They had a doctor on set. Now it just has to heal on its own. The doctor said, ‘Definitely before the finale, it will be healed.’ I was, like, ‘So, am I going to limp on every performance?’”

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Whose idea was it to shred Amber Holcomb’s jeans to pieces? “The stylist — she gets my swag,” said Amber. “If I tell her something, she just grabs stuff and it’s usually a match made in heaven. That was the best outfit I have ever worn this whole season.” But despite the appearance, it wasn’t so easy to put them on. “I had to stand there while she put one hole through, then another,” Amber explained.

Isn’t Heart’s “What About Love” a ballad? “That was a top discussion,” says the hopeful who sang it — Amber Holcomb. “I feel like it falls under the same feel as ‘We Are The Champions.’ Then it has all this drum and guitar … for me, it was a rock song.” Hmmm… the jury might still be out on that one.

What hurt more for Kree Harrison: her pinched nerve or the sky-high heels she wore? “Definitely a pinched nerve over the heels,” the Idol frontrunner — and admitted lifelong “hugger” — told THR. How did the injury come about? “I don’t really know,” she said. “I went to the physical therapist thinking it would help the pressure, and it made it ten times worse because I didn’t know I had a pinched nerve. So, yeah, I just barely got through that [performance], but I had fun. The adrenaline took over.”

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Why was Angie Miller the only finalist to choose a song from the current century? “There was a lot of classic rock choices, but not many” contemporary options, she explained. “[Evanescence’s ‘Bring Me to Life’] was one modern song where I thought, ‘That’s it, I’m doing that.’” Considering Idol’s older audience, in a way, steering away from the classics is a risk. But Angie insists she’s not that calculated. “I don’t want to think about who I should be pleasing,” she added. “I just want to do what I’m comfortable with and what I love … and I love that song, I already knew it, and it clicked.” As it turns out, Angie’s dad is a massive Evanescence fan. “Hewas so happy, and he was here,” she said smiling ear to ear.  

Was Burnell Taylor at all embarrassed that his crush on Amber was revealed? “No, I knew it was going to come out one day,” he said with barely a blush. It seems many of us read Burnell all wrong. Even the judges who said he seemed “uncomfortable” on rock night. Asked to quantify his comfort level on a scale of one to ten, Burnell first said eight, then nine, and finally 10. “It was the first time that I actually had fun and didn’t worry about my notes being perfect,” he said. “I’m proud of myself because it took a lot for me to do that.”

What’s the question contestants get asked the most? “What the judges are like,” Janelle Arthur answered, adding that another misconception is that “people think I have a lot of time, when I don’t even know what day it is half the time.” But she knows one thing: the following night — a Thursday — Carrie Underwood is performing. “I can’t wait. I don’t know what I am going to say. I think she is absolutely incredible and I don’t even know how she hits half the notes she hits, I admire her for that.”

Twitter: @Idol_Worship