American Idol 2011 results May 19: Haley Reinhart eliminated, Il Volo and Nicole Scherzinger sing

Say goodbye to the growl.

Polarizing contestant Haley Reinhart was eliminated from "American Idol" Thursday night. Teen country singers Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina will compete in next week's finale.

After learning she'd been eliminated, Haley repeated her performance of ""Bennie and the Jets."

Weigh in: Did the right singer go home?

I wasn't exactly thrilled about the outcome.

While Scotty and Lauren were arguably more consistent than Haley, she seemed to bring more excitement and versatility to the competition than either of the remaining singers.

I have no major problems with Scotty or Lauren. I just wish our finale had a little more musical diversity.

Ultimately, I think Haley's personality was the biggest factor contributing to her "Idol" demise. People perceived her as arrogant, and talking back to the judges last week didn't do much to counter that perception.

Anyway, it's time to move on.

Next week's all-teen, all-country finale should be interesting. Scotty seems to have this thing in the bag. Agree?

Over 95 million votes were cast this week, host Ryan Seacrest said. Thursday's viewers saw footage from contestants' hometown visits.

Nicole Scherzinger and 50 Cent performed on the results show, as well as Italian trio Il Volo. Haven't heard of Il Volo? They're like the Italian Jonas Brothers. I'm only half kidding. Check this out:

This story was originally published May 19, 2011 at 6:43 PM with the headline "American Idol 2011 results May 19: Haley Reinhart eliminated, Il Volo and Nicole Scherzinger sing."