“American Idol” continued its live coast- to-coast show on Monday, May 5. The Top 8 contestants were Breanna Nix, Gabby Samone, John Foster, Josh King, Jamal Roberts, Mattie Pruitt, Slater Nalley, and Thunderstorm Artis.

For Judges Song Contest Night, Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryan each picked a song for the contestants to choose, the artist then picked one of the songs to sing and after guessing which judge picked the song, earning the judge a point. The judge with the most songs picked wins, and that winning judge gets to save one of the two contestants with the lowest vote.

The tally of the night was Lionel and Luke who were tied with three wins a piece, while Carrie only had two. It was a playful sore spot for Carrie, who was surprised, answering jokingly, “I don’t lose on ‘American Idol,’ but she stated that in the end, she didn’t have to choose who would go home.

At the end of the evening, Josh King and Mattie Pruitt were in the bottom and the judges decided to save Mattie to round out the Top 7 contestants to carry on in the competition. The contestants also performed in group numbers with songs that the Judges’ have recorded.

Speaking with TVMusic Network in a roundtable interview after the show, Lionel explained how he chose the songs for the contestants to perform in the past 7 years on the show for the judges contest.

“It’s a Vibe, it becomes a vibe. What would Josh vibe with, or Jamal. When I wrote “Stuck On You” I was vibing a James Taylor song. You know, you kind of think that way. So when you imagine or reimagine what these kids are going to be. I mean for Gabby has got to be a Mariah [Carey] or Whitney [Houston] song. All you have to do is just kind of lob it in and then she’ll take care of the rest of it. You follow me, it’s a vibe. I mean, I know that sounds strange, but as a producer in the business for a while, you kind of know what songs fit that artist, and that’s your job”.

“So pretty good tonight, me and Luke, of course, Carrie was upset. I don’t know why…when we told Carrie our track record, she didn’t even feel sorry for us. We said we’ve never won it our whole life in these 8 years, she didn’t feel sorry for us at all.” (Ex judge Katy Perry has been the winner of the Judges’ Song Contests in previous seasons).

AMERICAN IDOL – “812 (Top 14 Reveal)” – The Top 14 are revealed as the finalists return to the stage with powerful, emotional live performances from Hollywood. MONDAY, APRIL 21 (8:00-10:01 p.m. EDT) on ABC. (Disney/Eric McCandless)
GABBY SAMONE, JAMAL ROBERTS, JOSH KING

As for his thoughts on Jamal, Gabby and Josh performing “Dancing on the Ceiling,” he didn’t know that they were going to sing it.

“I gotta tell you, I was shocked,” he said. “Let me put this together. Jamal doing “Dancing on the Ceiling.” I don’t think so. But he put some chocolate on that bad boy. He put some Basso. He has some basco all down here. Hershey’s all over the corner.”

“Listen. The love of it was that they interpreted the way I thought they were going to do it. They put their personalities on my song. And I must admit, they hit some notes that Lionel Richie ain’t going to hit…That’s all it is. So I appreciate the fact that they took dancing on the ceiling and made it, I mean it was killer.”

“American Idol” continues next week with Disney Night” celebrating Mother’s Day with special guest Lin-Manuel Miranda. The Top 7 travel to Disneyland Resort and light up the stage with Disney classics as America votes live for the five moving forward in the competition.

“American Idol” airs Sundays and Mondays on ABC.