American Idol- Top 10

I watched Monday night's episode on Tuesday, and now it is Thursday and I will try to remember what I wanted to write. Frankly, the Sunday show was better overall.

With performances on successive nights, the contestants were obviously working on both songs throughout the week. The mentoring sessions with Meghan Trainor had to have been filmed before the live Sunday show. The theme for this round was "Billboard Number One Hits" although, it must have been a chart-topper for any Billboard category, instead of the overall "Hot 100." 

1. Abi Carter- "All Too Well"

The previous night, I thought she was incredibly good on an old Elton John song. On Monday, she was the first contestant to pick something from the Taylor Swift songbook, which these days, seems like a smart vote-getting strategy. I really liked her voice on this also, although it was not as good as the night before. Once again, she performed the entire song at the piano. The judges would be surprisingly critical, at least by ABC Idol standards towards a few of these contestants. Usually, everything is sunshine, rainbows, and puppies, no matter what.

2. Will Moseley- "Starting Over"

Will was solid as always, but he is indeed becoming predictable. I did not find this performance as interesting as his others. Everything he does is standing still at a microphone with his guitar and singing in a somewhat low-key way. He is very good at that, but a potential Idol winner should be able to serve something different up from time to time.

Speaking of Idol winners, I was surprised when Seacrest announced that Just Sam would be appearing as a guest performer, and before a live Idol audience for the first time. Just a week ago, I said there was no way they would ever have her on. Maybe somebody was paying attention.

3. Jayna Elise- "Diamonds"

This Sia written Rihanna hit has already been done a lot on Idol. I was thinking that maybe Jayna could have done a Rihanna song like "Disturbia" instead. Afterwards, she said she sang this in tribute to the late Willie Spence, who considered it his signature song. Once again Jayna, while not totally flawless, was close enough to excellent to make me really appreciate her talent and hope she would be sticking around. Last year, she had been eliminated in the Hollywood Rounds, and we also learned that she was part of the KidzBop show back in 2016, which I suppose was long ago enough that these contestants were actually children back then.

4. Mia Matthews- "Over You"

I remember Mia's purple guitar once again but a couple of days later, I always have a hard time recalling exactly how her song went. She is definitely playing to the female country pop niche and is good at that. I just think that some of the other females have more distinctive voices.

5. Roman Collins- "Roar"

His Sunday night performance pleasantly surprised me a bit. I though this attempt at a Katy Perry song (in front of Katy Perry) was just a mess, even though she professed to love it. He started off doing a much slowed down version of the song, while playing piano. Then, he stood up and turned it into a gospel number.That alone made it seem disjointed. However, I cannot get past how when he is not belting or hollering or doing vocal gyrations, he sort of awkwardly speaks the lyrics. I am far from an expert, but I think he just lacks musicality.

6. Jack Blocker- "Blinding Lights"

Jack continues to remind me of a Kris Allen/Phillip Phillips hybrid. Doing an acoustic guitar version of a The Weeknd song is also something that it seems like those two past winners would have attempted. However, I just did not like this as much as I would have hoped. I agree with the comments that the tempo was too slow. It just seemed sort of boring.

7. Emmy Russell- "Lose You To Love Me"

As usual. I like her tone. She may not sing my favorite kind of music, but I can imagine what her album might sound like. Emmy is definitely in her head though and is visibly stressing out on camera every round. In a way, this reminds me of the Marybeth Byrd campaign, but I think Emmy is taking it to an even higher level. Towards the end of this performance, she seemed like she was reacting to something she felt she did wrong. Are people going to be voting for her just because of who her grandmother is?

8. Triston Harper- "Beautiful Crazy"

He dedicated this song to his young girlfriend, whom he Facetimed while she was in Wal-Mart. (I doubt that was a total surprise.) After doing Elvis the night before, Triston went more heavily into his country identity for this performance. There is no doubt he has a good voice, but I think this was not that great of a performance. Like some of the others, it was just a bit on a boring side.

9. Julia Gagnon- "Something In the Orange"

This was another song I do not know. Would it be considered country? Despite some questionable fashion choices, I continue to be extremely impressed by Julia's talent. There seems to be a female singer I say this about every season, who falls just short of the Top 2, if even that. I did enjoy the dynamics and emotion that Julia brought to this performance. Unlike many of the others, she is willing to stretch herself and sing different types of music, although an uptempo performance might be a good idea soon.

10. Kaibrienne- "Wrecking Ball"

She followed an alumni performance by 2008 runner-up David Archuleta. It is always good when he returns to Idol, although the former Utah resident clearly no longer considers himself a member of the LDS Church. Kaibrienne is also from Utah and I do not think she belongs either (although I am not sure.) If I recall correctly, I thought she was decent on this Miley Cyrus song at the beginning and then went way off-key. Or maybe she was way off-key at the beginning and then had some decent moments towards the end. It was one or the other. It would be better if I could "live-blog" these episodes.

11. McKenna Faith Breinholt- "cardigan"

I almost typed the contestants name as "Taylor Swifr" as that is who this song is by. That has to be at least partial strategy. McKenna had been under the weather (assuming not Covid) during the past week and had no interaction with Gene Simmons at all, but had a video interaction with Meghan Trainor. Twenty-four hours later, her voice was perhaps a bit better, but I can still detect that it has hurt her voice a bit. There was some rough moments, but I still like her voice.

12. KAYKO- "Somebody That I Used To Know"

Speaking of sweaters, what was up with the ugly one he was wearing? Also, was he wearing guyliner and trying to go goth? I do not understand that strategy. I was expecting this to be horrible and was wondering if KAYKO might actually run out of luck with the voting. However, he pretty much did what he had to do, and continued presenting himself as someone of a made up character (hence the stage name) to his base of pre-teen and teenage girls. Vocally, it was not as bad as I thought it would be on what was once a huge song about a decade ago. He jumped and stomped all over the stage without an instrument. His voice may suffer because of all his performance theatrics but at least he is trying to make an impact. The judges hyped it up too much however.

 

Two contestants would be leaving.

Rankings:

 

12. Roman Collins

11. Kaibrienne

 

10. Jack Blocker

 9.  Triston Harper

 8.  Emmy Russell

 7.  Mia Matthews

 6.  KAYKO

 5. McKenna Faith Breinholt

 4. Will Moseley

 3.  Abi Carter

 2. Jayna Elise

 1. Julia Gagnon

As mentioned, Sunday was better. On that show, only a couple performances were below average. On Monday, only three or so were what I considered above average. Julia and Jayna were clearly the best of the night and I was hoping neither would face the figurative ax.

Who should have been eliminated: Roman Collins and Kaibrienne

Who I predicted would be eliminated: Roman Collins and Kaibrienne.

Putting my faith in America, at least fully, did not work out

Who was eliminated: Roman Collins and Jayna Elise

Roman deserved to leave the show but Jayna definitely did not. It was presented as Julia being the last one at risk before being told she was safe. She may have been the number one overall vote getter (I highly doubt it though), but it was very noticeable that all the white kids (plus the teenager in the cowboy hat) were safe and three people of color were left. I swear, I am not that "woke" but I always want results based on merit. Again, no issue with Roman being voted off, but Jayna deserved way better.  I will note of course that the winner last year (and heavy frontrunner all season) was a person of color. However, it seems the Idol voting population seems to have a far lower turnout of those who prefer black singers. I cannot say for certain what all of Triston's racial background is (besides Choctaw Indian), but otherwise, there are now zero African-Americans remaining.