Lionel Richie went with vibes when he decided to save Rae on the Monday, April 6 edition of American Idol. She had found herself in the bottom two alongside Ese Findling following the judges' song contest.
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Following the episode, Lionel spoke with a group of reporters to explain his decision to choose Rae.
"I feel so good about winning, let me make that clear. At one point, I was doing so well that it got embarrassing because it's like, what about the rest of my judges? So that's No. 1, " Richie said, via People. "Secondly, which made it kind of strange for me, was I now had to select this person... So I picked vibe. I picked attitude, I picked stage presence, I chose vibe over everything else."
During his own conversation with reporters, judge Luke Bryan agreed with the decision that Lionel had made, calling it a "good decision."
"It was a good decision," Bryan said. via People. "Rae has been really solid singing all year. I think if she had any bump on the road it was because she really didn't know any of the songs and was rushing but she has been solid every round."
Rae's Success Was Bittersweet
One thing we often overlook when watching these shows is the relationship the contestants build behind the scenes. They might be competing against each other, but they're also the only ones who can relate to the situations they find themselves in.
Following Lionel's decision to save Rae, she admitted that she's happy to be progressing to the next round, but the victory came at a cost.
"Jesse is my closest friend here," Rae said. "It was just all running through my head. This has been a long period of my life. But I just miss Jesse and he's destined for amazing things. He's so young and so talented and I'm excited to see his career blow up."
With just 11 contestants remaining, Rae will have to put any sentimentality to the back of her mind. After all, Jesse wasn't the only contestant to be sent home on Monday. He joined Julián Kalel and Jake Thistle.
Next week will give Rae an opportunity to pick a song of her choice, so long as it's from one of this year's Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees, it will be fun to see what she and the other contestants choose.
