Sunday night (Apr. 28) offered up a night fit for royalty on American Idol—rock royalty, that is, as the remaining Top 8 contestants were tasked with covering songs from classic heroes Queen's well-known catalog. Fittingly, the hopefuls were mentored by none less than the current Queen frontman, Adam Lambert, who's done the duty since 2011 and is himself an Idol alum (he was runner-up in Season 8).

Fan favorite Laine Hardy, who has won over hearts by injecting a bit (well, a lot) of Louisiana grit and a whole bunch of Elvis Presley-like swagger into his performances—he even managed to make an innocuous Disney tune sexy—came to the plate this evening with his usual assurance.

He also brought yet another unusual song selection (last week's aforementioned Disney song was 1973's not-exactly-top-catalog "Oo De Lally," from Robin Hood). A safe guess for Hardy's style would be something like Queen's rockabilly swingin' "Crazy Little Thing Called Love," but Hardy instead tried his hand at the bombastic and campy "Fat Bottomed Girls."

This is not a particularly easy song to carry, as it's honestly kind of a ridiculous number that few except the singular Freddie Mercury could pull off.

As it turned out, Hardy admitted he felt a little shy about doing the song. Lambert hopped in as mentor extraordinaire and took care of things, telling him, "Freddie was shy. But you would never know it watching him on stage. If you don't make this room a party, it's not going to work."

Still needing a bit more, Lambert prodded him further. "Have fun. Just pretend you're hanging out with your friends and joking around. Swing your guitar back, grab the mic, and say, 'I'm going to sing to these people out here.' You're, like, a rock star, right?"

Did Hardy end up make the rockin' world go round and convince the audience he is a bad boy as the lyrics suggest? Well, based on the screams from the audience, it sure sounded like it. He looked pretty good, too, dressed in a suit adorned with emerald sequins and striding about on a stage blasting plumes of Co2 flames.

The whole effect overwhelmed the judges. "Katy's giddy over here," shouted judge Luke Bryan, to which judge Perry agreed, squealing, "I love this song!"

Judge Lionel Richie approved as well, advising Hardy to simply fake it if he ever felt unconfident on stage.

"Fake it until you make it, and then shake and bake it," agreed Perry. 

He made it into the Top 6, handily, so we'll be looking forward to some shaking and baking next week.

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