American Idol- Top 10

Like last week, I watched Monday night's episode late in the evening, and instead of staying up way too late to live-blog the recording, I held off until today, where I will be going off of memory.

One of my first thoughts is that this might be the first weekday installment of ABC's version of Idol's "live coast to coast voting two hour window." If it was problematic on a Sunday night, especially for people out west, imagine how worse it is on a Monday night. They said they had 19 million votes, but I wonder how much that compares to the old days. Are the votes fairly distributed across the country?

The show had been billed as the first ever "Judge's Song Contest" and I did not know exactly what they would mean. They also promised a "twist." As soon as they explained the rules that each judge would pick a song for each contestant and said contestant would then pick one of the three and the person who had the most songs picked would be the "winner", I knew what was next. The winning judge would then "save" the person in the Bottom Two. After all, this had been billed as a Top 10 not a Top 9 show. In any event, this was a very different contest from one on "Seinfeld."

It was  kind of interesting though, as I tried to think about which judge was likely to have picked each song. It is probably not worth me trying to remember my "prediction" for those  when my write-up. Usually, most of the contestants picked a different song than the one I would advised them to. Often, that worked out better for them though.

People seemed very surprised that the 72 year old Lionel Richie did not pick the older suggested but picked a lot of new songs. Perhaps he had his 32 year old girlfriend, who is never mentioned on the show, help him.

This was also a hard episode to rank. The first ten contestants were all good, but not extraordinary and perhaps somewhat tightly bunched together in many places. The last performance of the evening was pretty good indeed though.

1. Nicolina- "Since U Been Gone"

If she did her usual thing, she could have really sounded doing the nominated Adele or Celine Dion songs, but it was probably the right move to do something more uptempo in this somewhat rockerish Kelly Clarkson song.

Nicolina is an extremely talented singer and gave a great performance effort last night. Vocally, it just was not quite as good as it normally is. This song was somewhat out of her comfort range, but it was good for her to give it a shot and it sounded decent enough.

They are really milking the aspect of her being estranged from her mother though. Details as to why have not been given and I think that is probably for the best. I seem to recall that Gabby Barrett had a similar storyline starting out and then her mother was very present in the audience most weeks.

2. Mike Parker- "Chasin' You"

When Luke Bryant announced the wildcard selection of Mike last week, he referenced this song, which seemed odd. Perhaps, there was some foreshadowing? 

This is hard for me to remember because I do not know the song. I thought Mike sounded good, as he always does, but still not anywhere near superstar level. While this could be said of many of the contestants this season, Mike is especially good at talking and bantering with Seacrest and the judges. He seems very at ease in front of cameras.

There was however, a bit of a somewhat weird segment when Mike credited Luke for standing against racism in country music. Was that because Morgan Wallen, the singer of this song was caught using the n word last year?

3. Fritz Hager- "Wonderwall"

I would have recommended he pick one of the other two song choices, but instead he did Oasis and that was probably the right move.

I am never enthralled with Fritz's voice or performance abilities, but his vocals are growing on me. He clearly knows a lot about singing techniques and what kind of artist he wants to be. This was a bit better than I expected again.

4. Christian Guardino- "I'm Not The Only One"

At first, Christian was going to pick a Stevie Wonder selection because he felt he had a lot in common with the visually impaired musical legend. Then, he changed his choice to Sam Smith and that probably worked out better for him.

As is usually the case with a CG (we share initials) vocal, parts of it were very good and parts of it had my ears a little confused. That is what live music is all about in the real world though I suppose. 

Aftewards, Christian briefly referred to Sam as "he" or "him" and I hope there is not any backlash for that because Sam joined the non-binary pronoun crowd a few years back.

5. Noah Thompson- "Heartbreak Warfare"

Noah was given a choice between two John Mayer songs I did not know and "Take Me Home Country Roads" which while countryish, is not really country. It could have gotten him many votes out of West Virginia and he was originally going to go with that, because like me, it is the only one he knew. (I have come to appreciate John Denver's take on the song recently.) Thinking back, Taylor Hicks once did "Country Roads" as a last second song change in Season Five and got the most criticism he got that entire season.

He switched however to one of the Mayer nominations.  Once again, he had to put a country spin on a totally non country song. For the most part, I thought he sounded good, but there was moment of lyrical hesitation at one point and he seemed fairly nervous.

Noah guessed that Katy Perry had picked this song and I was guessing she picked one of the John Mayer songs as well. She said Noah needed to look up her online info and then I realized I had forgotten that she had a romantic history with John Mayer that did not end well, so she had picked John Denver after all. I think Noah and a lot of the viewing audience probably did not catch on to what exactly the awkward moment at the judges' table was all about. Katy should give Noah a pass for not knowing all her exes and instead be upset at both Luke and Lionel.

6. Lady K- "traitor"

I did not like the song choices she was given and I do not think she did either. Ultimately, she went with the young Olivia Rodrigo song I did not know instead of attempting Carrie Underwood once again, or doing the depressing song "Smile" by Nat King Cole, which was once performed by a contestant on Idol and got some of the lowest scores in Idols Finals history. Lady K does seem to have an established resume of singing songs about being angry at men on the show.

She sang it pretty well. It might have worked to her benefit for me that I did not know the song. She has at least the second biggest voice of the season. I think there was also a noticeable lyric flub so I had to take away a couple points for that.

It surprised everyone that Lionel Richie picked this song. Katy asked him if there was a "teenage girl trapped in your body" which might have triggered some folks on the right to decide not to vote for Lady K. No, Lionel just has a girlfriend young enough to be his granddaughter. 

7. HunterGirl- "9 to 5"

HG had two Dolly Parton songs to pick from and one from the artists formerly known as the Dixie Chicks who picked the wrong Republican President to demonize nearly a generation too early.

I think it was smart to pick the almost universally known uptempo Dolly song over the less known ballad. HunterGirl has already done country ballads. Like the original artist, she originates from East Tennessee though and risked people thinking she sounded too much like Dolly.

Instead, HunterGirl tried to change up the song in a few ways and seemed to have fun interacting with the backup singers and putting on more of a show than she may have before. It is hard to compare to the original, since it was so well-known, but all things considered, she pulled it off.

8. Leah Marlene- "Make Me Feel Your Love"

I thought she should have done "First Cut Is The Deepest" but instead went with Bob Dylan, which has been redone by many artists and done a lot on shows like Idol.

Leah's vocals were a lot better than the previous night in my view. It was a good performance but still, when she is playing guitar, I think she gets too loud and leaves out a sense of melody. When she sang without her guitar the one time, I thought it excellent. 

9.  Tristen Gressett- "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

Tristen had his choice between a Queen ballad (more Adam Lambert comparisons though?), which I think he should have done to show off his vocals more, as he is the only contestant who had been eschewing ballads or "Paint It Black" which is considered a bluesier and more rockish Rolling Stones song than the one he did pick.

For some odd reason, this is the song that had been featured the most at Donald Trump rallies since 2015. The subliminal reasons involved would perhaps fill another blog, but those anti-Trump folks in the know probably recoiled, perhaps subconsciously from this song, even as the Stones tried to get Trump to stop using it. (Poor Laura Branigan is not with us to sue over "Gloria.")

Performance wise, this was pretty mesmerizing again. It is hard to take your eyes off Tristan and whatever he is going to do on stage. Perhaps, he got a little Cameron Whitcombish and was too frantic in his movements though.

Vocally, I thought it started off strong and then and the energy picked up, the vocals fell way off. Large parts of it were out of tune although I give Tristen credit for arranging the song to fit his style more. He should have gone with one of the other two though. I guess I can't always get what I want either.

10. Emyrson Flora- "lovely"

I thought she should have gone with Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors", but ultimately decided on another lowercase billie eilish song (not to be confused with Lady K's lowercase Olivia Rodrigo song.)

Needless to say, I did not know this song and I can barely remember how it goes while writing this now, but I did think Emyrson sounded really good and that it had to at least been as strong of a vocal as the original. There are some stronger frontrunners this season, but there is a bit of an interest dark horse aspect to young Emyrson's run that will be worth paying attention to.

11. Jay- "Lilac Wine"

At first, Jay was as flummoxed as I was by his song options. One was a safe Jackson 5 ballad oldie. He had already done a J5 tune and another was a very uptempo Usher song that felt like a disaster waiting to happen.

The third choice was a Jeff Buckley song that neither her nor I had ever heard of. He probably looked it up though and for his sake, it was a good thing he went with it. This was definitely a "moment."

The song was enough of a ballad to have Jay show off his vocals and he did some extremely impressive things with his voice. Older voters (hi Mom) are likely to have especially liked it. While this song is not from a musical, it did sort of give a "Summertime" Fantasia vibe from Idol lore  Lionel Richie declared it one of the "greatest performances" he had ever seen in his life.

By picking this song, Jay helped Katy come from behind and tie Luke for the win with 4 selections picked each. Lionel was one behind with 3. 

Rankings (based on ears only not "eyeballs" as Lionel suggested many consume music with.. would he say that to Stevie Wonder?)

11. Tristen Gressett

10. Mike Parker

 

9. Noah Thompson

8. Christian Guardino

7. Leah Marlene

6. Fritz Hager

5. Lady K

4. Nicolina

3. HunterGirl

2. Emyrson Flora

1. Jay

 

Who should have been the Bottom Two:Tristen Gressett and Mike Parker

I did not want to see Tristen leave the show, but he did have the worst vocals of the night and this is supposed to be a meritocracy.

Who was the Bottom Two: Tristen Gressett and Lady K

So, perhaps a split vote from Alabama doomed them both to the Bottom Two? This is the first time that Lady K has formally been in danger, so I wonder if many of her previous voters shifted over to Jay last night.

Who should have been saved: Lady K

Who I predicted would be saved: Lady K

Who was saved: Lady K

So, Tristen was gone in 11th place and there was a nice moment of Lady K hugging him and yelling "Alabama!", the home state of both. It is always nice to see how far we have come as a country as they are two very different people with different musical styles from the same state.

Good luck to Tristen and his mother. I think he should have picked some better outfits than the glittery blouses.

During his original audition, it first seemed like Tristen was going to be a joke contestant, but he was actually good, and the High School senior continued to get better. He could probably have his own show in Vegas already doing cover songs.

The Idol viewing public is diverse and more fickle though. For viewers older than myself, he probably came across as "weird" and "putting on an act" and for viewers younger than myself, who may be more into weirdness, he just was not "cool" enough. 

The most popular contestants among the youth these days are the dudes that are awkward and somewhat aloof and non-chalant, such as Alejandro. Tristen might have sometimes been awkward but in more of the overly eager and heavily emoting sense.