Any fears that the Idol NV teen singing contest at the Napa Valley Opera House was becoming a predictable affair were smashed in just two electrifying hours Saturday night.

An eager audience of about 200 clapped, cheered and whistled for the eleven vocalists — nine soloists and a duo — in a wide-ranging program that included show tunes, country music and even a touch of rap.

For the first time in the four competition rounds to date, nearly half the contestants were male — and by the end of the evening, two of them had been named finalists, ensuring that the championship round March 17 won’t be an all-girl event.

Swinging Diaz wins over judges, crowd

The contest’s first home-schooled finalist, 15-year-old Justin Diaz of Napa flashed a smile full of braces and tipped two fingers to his Sinatra-style hat as he launched into “Feeling Good,” from the 1966 Anthony Newley-Leslie Bricusse musical “The Roar of the Greasepaint —the Smell of the Crowd.”

Though drawing some audience giggles with stage moves suggesting a teenaged Rat Packer, Diaz —who normally sings and plays drums at First Christian Church — was clearly in charge of his swinging song from start to finish, with a rich, controlled sound and confident delivery that made audience members forget he was backed up by canned music and not a live big band.

Judge Tom Fuller waited for the audience’s explosive cheers to die down before quipping “It was OK — have you ever heard of this competition called American Idol?”

Fuller wasn’t alone in thinking Diaz should try out for the blockbuster television competition: The audience also chose him as one of their two favorite performers of the evening.

The three-judge panel of Fuller, an arts and events publicist, cantor Bella Bogart of Congregation Beth Sholom and opera director Andrew Seifert chose 15-year-old Eric Quast of Yountville as their second finalist. Quast overcame some unevenness of pitch to get the crowd whooping and clapping along as he sang and danced to Freddy Mercury’s bopping “Crazy Little Thing Called Love,” an enduring #1 hit from 1980 recently covered by Canadian crooner Michael Bublé.

“Your voice is absolutely fabulous, and I love the way you move,” judge Bogart told Quast, a Justin-Siena.

“And all the girls at Justin-Siena swoon,” added Seifert, to shrill cheers from the audience.

The judges had tough choices to make from a performer pool that included other talented boys and some knockout female singers as well.

The ever-inspiring Christina Aguilera may be the true idol of young Napa Valley singers: Again, two young women chose songs from the pop star’s repertoire.

Taylor Peterson, a 14-year-old from American Canyon who drew the evening’s opening slot, dedicated her version of Aguilera’s “Hurt” to her late grandmother.

“A Christina Aguilera song is always really hard, because she’s such a powerful singer,” Fuller said. “You did a great job.”

Chelsea Brock, a 17-year-old from Napa High School, covered Aguilera’s version of the Mack Gordon-Harry Warren chestnut “At Last,” a number associated in the minds of older listeners with soul singers Etta James and Lou Rawls.

“That is the way to come out and take over the stage,” Bogart told Brock, the picture of confidence in a little red dress. “I’ll take a lesson.”

Melissa Loper of Napa, an 18-year-old student athlete at Vintage High who also loves to sing, poured herself into diva Mariah Carey’s ballad “Hero,” earning an earsplitting ovation from her fans and encouraging words from the judges.

“That song earns you high marks,” said Seifert. Bogart added, “I really love the quality of your voice.” Audience members voted Loper their second favorite of the evening.

Two 13-year-olds from Napa, Emma Sabo and Shelby Lanterman, picked show tunes for their turns on stage. Sabo, who attends Harvest Middle School, sweetly sang “What I Did For Love” from “A Chorus Line;” Lanterman, a petite River School student with Broadway dreams, charmed with “I Enjoy Being a Girl” from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Flower Drum Song.”

The judges praised Sabo’s voice and what Bogart called her “dead-on pitch,” “though Fuller urged her to be more commanding in stage — “grab that microphone and have a little more fun.”

Fuller called Lanterman “the new Shirley Temple,” while Seifert said “You did it your way, and it was really, really wonderful.”

Lanterman’s cute-as-a-bug performance followed a very different number from Napa High’s Christopher Michael, a 16-year-old who sang the Jon Bon Jovi lament “Bed of Roses” a cappella.

“I like you,” Fuller said to cheers after Michael’s performance, while Bogart said “I didn’t miss the music at all — your voice has a beautiful tone to it and you could have just kept on singing for as long as you wanted to.”

Seifert, however — with some audience members — was somewhat troubled by the “story” of the Bon Jovi song, with its lyrics about “a bottle of vodka” and “a blonde in my bed.”

“We don’t want the audience to be uncomfortable,” he said delicately.

The evening’s sole touch of country came from MacKenzie Lintz, a slender 13-year-old from Napa with a distinctively rough-edged voice. Singing “Tim McGraw,” by Taylor Swift and Liz Rose, she bopped around onstage as if, Seifert said, “you have your eyes closed in your bedroom, just dancing around.”

Fuller praised the “richness” of Lintz’s tone, which Bogart called a “golden” advantage in a world of same-sounding voices.

Round Four of Idol NV concluded with a first for the contest: an up-to-the-minute R&B number complete with rapper, dancing girls and crowd vocals.

Liberty High School students Marvin Watson, 17, and Kalif Anderson, 15, covered “You,” by Atlanta singer Lloyd and rapper Lil Wayne. (by far the most current song in any round of the Idol NV contest).

The duo’s girlfriends joined them on stage and the energy level was high as Watson crooned, Anderson rapped and a voluble posse of family and friends shouted along in rhythm.

“That was a great way to end the night,” Fuller said.

Bogart told the pair “Your stage presence was awesome, you looked relaxed, you looked cool,” while admitting she found the dancing girls a distraction.

Seifert concurred: “I don’t think you guys need anything else — you’re doing it for them,” he added, to laughter.

After the voting and final applause, Idol NV regulars Renee Isham and her aunt Nancy Johnson declared Round Four the best of the three they’ve attended.

“It was really hard to choose tonight — it was different. I just really liked it,” said Isham, whose top picks tallied with the judges.

“Tonight was my favorite by far,” Johnson said. “I’m glad the boys were popular tonight — they were all very talented.

One more Idol NV competition round remains: The last ten contestants will take the Opera House stage Saturday at 8 p.m., with the evening’s two finalists joining the eight already selected to sing for the title March 17.