American Idol: Top 26- Part 2

There was no live-blogging of Monday's taped episode as I watched a recording of it about 24 hours ago and while I made my rankings (putting each contender in a slot before the judges began speaking), I am going to have to rely on memory to fill in some of the details. For better or worse, probably better, this will be a good deal shorter than Sunday's entry.

1. Elijah McCormick- "Good Vibes"

Elijah has an inspiring story of recovering from a near fatal car accident after his High School graduation. The judges gave him one of the "Platinum Tickets" after his first audition. I seem to recall he was "just ok" in Hollywood and maybe gave a similar performance at the Disney resort in Hawai'i, where Ron DeSantis will definitely never be holding a donors' retreat.

I did not know this song. According to Luke Bryan it was a country tune. It almost seems like a lot of African-American singers in the early voting stages of Idol are picking country songs, thinking it might help them get votes from viewers. It felt a bit weird for Elijah musically. I did not think he was able to excel on it.

2. Paige Anne- "Wrecking Ball"

 

This blurb will be about more than just Paige Anne's chapter on the stage.

This will be a good time to mention that Noah Cyrus, the sister of Miley, was the guest mentor on Monday. I did not know she was even a singer and somehow I blame the 1992 Curse of "Achy Breaky Heart" for getting us to this point.

Paige Anne chose a Miley song and not one by Billy Ray however. We last saw her getting cut in "Final Judgment" even though I thought the young David Archuleta fan might have son her Adele sing-off. She is back on Idol though because someone dropped out for reasons unknown. They did not name whom or give a reason and it appears this particular singer never even was featured at all. Some research showed it was some dude with red hair who just happens to be the son of British actor Malcolm McDowell. He is not the first child of a celebrity to drop out of this season's competition.

I think Paige Anne, or maybe it is just Paige, has a nice voice and sang this some pretty well. She is just 16 so there is also a lot room for growth. Hopefully, she made the most out of her second chance.

The fact that the original Top 26 contestant was never featured at all, probably because he quit before his audition even aired, reminds me that every year Idol either does not show someone else that fans were expecting to see or leave other buzzed about contestants out of the Hollywood Round storyline altogether. There was one country singer who sang an original song at his audition that I thought had a very good chance to go far, but he was never seen or heard from again.

 

I had also read that Avalon Young had auditioned for this season and made it to Hollywood. She was a Finalist back during the final Fox season in 2016 and was remembered for wearing sweaters and not wearing make-up. More recently, she successfully battled  brain cancer and tried to make an Idol comeback at age 28. They never showed her at all though.

Finally, I wanted to mention the backup singers that I saw names of briefly fly by during the closing credits. One of them was named Hathaway but I am not sure if it is not the same woman who was an Idol backup singer years ago and was the daughter of Donny Hathaway. Then there were two others, who look a bit different now, but I am pretty sure are Season 8 semi-finalist Felicia Barton and Season 6 finalist Brandon Rogers. The latter had done at least one random back-up performance several years back.

3. Marybeth Byrd- "Heart Like A Truck"

First of all, I had a hard time believing that Marybeth is this superfan of Noah Cyrus. The local Arkansas radio DJ is somebody who sings country and could go far though she will face heavy competition from others in the genre.

I recall that she sounded fairly decent on this song. I had never heard it before so I would not be able to remember how it goes. I sort of wish her name was Mary Beth Bird and could potentially sing a duet with Big Bird at the Finale. There is currently a candidate for Governor of Washington named Semi Bird.

4. We Ani-  "Edge Of Midnight (Midnight Sky Remix)"

 

I do not know how to type the accent mark over the e in her first name and am not going to try to bother to do so for however long she is on the show.

This was the second Miley Cyrus song done with her younger more tattooed sister as the mentor, though this particular song borrows heavily from Fleetwood Mac's "Edge of Seventeen", which every time it is performed on Idol reminds me of all the "right-wing doves" who are currently very vocal in the Republican Party.

We may not win Idol but I think she might have the most star potential of any singer this season. She has a great singing voice that has a lot of Beyonce in it, and I am not putting the accent mark over her e either.

During her audition, we saw that We speaks in a very high pitched voice but sounds much different when she sings. I thought that was a complete set-up but I might just be cynical. Her speaking voice sounds exactly like the very tall character "Angie" from the early seasons of "Gimme A Break."

In any event, I have been extremely impressed by We and thought she gave a pretty rocking performance in Hawai'i. I believe a lot of voters will also become fans of her supportive father who was in the audience to watch. I will look forward to seeing what she does next.

5. Michael Williams- "Tuesdays"

Michael sort of flew under the radar a bit leading up to this point. It probably helps his cause that he has a strong resemblance to a younger much taller Tom Cruise, presumably without all the baggage.

This is another song I did not know, but he sang it very well, even though it is clear that he might have far from the most powerful voice in the competition. His style reminds me a lot of Richard Marx and perhaps some other '80s or '90s Adult Contemporary singers that I cannot quite pinpoint. I think he would have done better in the early years of Idol than he will do in this era, but who knows?

6. Dawson Wayne- "COPYCAT"

I thought all of Billie Elish's songs were lowercase, but this one is apparently all caps. I sort of shudder whenever one of her songs gets sung on Idol in recent years.

Dawson took a risk here and tried to do very modern and moody and I suppose some people will love it, but it was not for me musically and I really found it subpar. He better hope that a lot of kids are voting for him. He seems a bit awkward and uncomfortable with the whole speaking on television thing.

7. Hannah Nicolaisen- "Glitter In The Air"

Pink (or P!nk) has a bunch of crowd pleasing songs but I find this one to be very boring. It even looked like some of the young kids right at the front of the stage were ready to doze off by the end.

This is unfortunate for Hannah, the former collegiate volleyball star, who might have a chance to ride the new trend of MAGA world wanting to support female athletes. She just seemed a bit off vocally and missed some notes. Afterwards, we learned she was battling illness. That is some bad timing and bad luck when you really only have one chance to impress the country. Maybe she will get some sympathy votes for that. We did also learn that she recently got engaged to an even taller person and the show seemed to focus a lot on that relationship the dude who is now her fiance.

8. Megan Danielle- "The Chain"

Megan joins Elise Kristine and Paige Anne and and Marian Faith perhaps We Ani as singers who have two first names as their stage name. There might even be others. She is the one who advanced over Paige Anne during the Adele sing-off.

This was yet another country song I did not know, but based on this, I think Megan deserves to be there. She has a distinct rasp to her voice that works to her advantage. I cannot really remember much else about the song than that. The Georgia resident seems to come from a very religious background. The Idol folks may try to glam her up for future rounds.

9. Malik Heard- "Ain't It Fun"

For this performance, Malik seemed to do something a bit different than he had done during the auditions. By wearing a fishnet tank top and some unusual pants, he definitely was making an appeal to the LGBT vote.

Apparently, he was on the "The Voice" back in 2016 and was on Team Christina before she must have cut him. I checked out a couple brief clips and I think he sounded better back then than he did for this performance. It was not a horrible vocal, but it seems like he might be a poor man's Usher, to continue bringing up past Voice coaches. Doing a Paramore song also seemed a bit risky,

10. Olivia Soli- "Emotions"

At least this was a song I knew, so it is easier to remember. A lot of people may also remember the redhead singer for the dress she wore. I recall now that her mother looked like she might have been one of the Real Housewives of Orange County.  More or less, Olivia was credible doing Mariah Carey, but in the music world, it is perhaps a fine line between singing in arenas and being a very good performer at a lounge or on a cruise ship. 

I noted that she did not attempt to copy Mariah's whistle tone notes on this song. One contestant from Sunday night would have jumped at the chance.

11. Colin Stough- "Midnight Train To Memphis"

The only midnight train I am familiar with musically is the one that was supposed to go to Georgia but perhaps got re-routed, just as the city lost out on the Democrat National Convention to Chicago.

I had been impressed with the singing of 18 year old Colin up until this point, even though it is not my type of music. I thought he might be someone to go far, especially coming from the Idol factory of Amory, Mississippi. He has a much more pronounced accent than Zachariah Smith, who sounds like he might actually have grown up in Indiana. In fact, it can be a bit difficult to decipher words when Colin is speaking.

Frankly, I expected more from this performance. While he was I believe the only contestant to play a guitar on this episode, he seemed to be going through the motions vocally and it was not his best showing. It was not atrocious by any means, but it sounds like something you could hear at a lot of live music places across America.

12. Tyson Venegas- "It Will Rain"

Another Platinum Ticket winner, I think Tyson would have been someone cast on "Glee" back when that was on the air. 

I actually liked this performance more than the judges did, although I agree he was maybe a bit inconsistent while he was slapping hands with the crowd. He has a very nice tone to his voice though and I think he is someone who can probably be successful singing a lot of different kinds of songs. It probably smart to take on Bruno Mars, a fellow Filipino. Unlike Mars though, Tyson is actually from Canada. A lot of young girls (and grandmas) will want to vote for him I think.

13. Nutsa- "Paris (Ooh La La)"

This performance is the one most people will remember. Some will have loved it, some will have hated it. I am kind of in the middle but lean towards continuing to think that Nutsa has a great, powerful voice and I hope she sticks around.

A lot of people are talking about Katy Perry getting (slightly) booed by the crowd for saying Nutsa should forgo wearing sequins for her next performance. I have no issue with the sequins if that is her thing but wonder what she was trying to accomplish with her hair.

I thought this was another odd song choice and we saw a clip of Nutsa singing it back when she was 13, presumably in her native Georgia (the former Soviet Republic, not the state.) Back then, Harry Connick Jr., would have told her she was too young to sing that song, like he did when a young female covered it back during one of his seasons as an Idol judge.

Nutsa has the potential to be one of the more polarizing contestants in years. While Idol has recently brought some Canadians into the mix, she is legitimately the first contestant from overseas. The bottom line is that she has some pipes though although this was maybe not her best performance vocally. It was also perhaps the most risque choreography ever done by a female in a voting round. Nutsa dropped it low several times and ended in an all out contortionist back bend. Before coming to America, presumably just to be on Idol, she was singing in Dubai, and that leads me to think that Nutsa probably has a lot of stories she could tell, but will not be able to do so on national television.

 

Rankings:

 

13. Dawson Wayne

12. Hannah  Nicolaisen

11. Colin Stough

10. Malik Heard

 9. Elijah McCormick

 8. Olivia Stoli

 7. Paige Anne

 6. Marybeth Byrd

 5. Megan Danielle

 4. Nutsa

 3. Michael Williams

 2. Tyson Venegas

 1.  We Ani

Predictions are tough for this one. I will not actually be shocked if any of them wind up part of the bottom three.

To make a prediction though, I will go with Dawson and Hannah being eliminated. Elijah may be in danger, especially for performing first on a two hour show, but his backstory might help him stay in the competition. I will pick Olivia as the one to not make it.