Jacob Lusk Duets With Himself on Tonight’s ‘American Idol’

Jacob Lusk tackled 'No Air,' a duet by Season 6 winner Jordin Sparks and pop superstar Chris Brown for his modern song. Tonight's dual-song episode has the contestants singing a modern song and a song from other eras.  Let's face it – singing both parts of a duet is a risk and a challenge, since the songs are written specifically for two voices. Clearly, Lusk was going for it and trying to show off for the judges.

The problem, however, is that Lusk is lacking identity. Jennifer Lopez noted that Lusk's song choices are so different each week and warned him to cultivate his decisions and pick songs that truly represent who Jacob Lusk is as a performer, since we are still wondering what drives him to deliver those soulful performances.

Randy Jackson dissented slightly. He reminded Lusk that he has one of the strongest voices to ever appear on the show, but he was dissatisfied with Lusk going pop, when he is the R&B "church kid," a la Luther Vandross. "I don't think anybody on this stage should be singing duet parts. It made the whole thing kinda corny for me,"  Jackson declared.

The judges stressed that Lusk needs to show them (and us) who he is. Lusk said that he needs to be relevant and be able to perform all genres, but Jackson said his voice is bigger than those of Sparks and of Brown. That's a big compliment, and now Lusk needs to take those words to heart.

Harness your talents and send them down the right path, Jacob!

Watch Jacob Lusk Perform 'No Air' on 'American Idol'