American Idol- Top 8

Starting off, I am not sure if they are going down to eight or seven tonight. I guess we will see. I miss the days when only one contestant at a time would go in the Finals, and it was a whole big ordeal, with a "farewell song" devoted to them, and all sorts of drama and manufactured tragedy.

For this episode, I am actually going to "live-blog" it via my DVR. I will watch the performances, and then pause and offer my comments and to construct my ongoing rankings, before the judges speak.

Shania Twain, now blonde, was the mentor tonight. The theme is thankfully not country music, but instead songs from the years the contestants were born. I think it is has been a while since Idol visited this theme. When they first started doing this, I was still younger than some of the contestants. Now, I am around the same age as all of their parents.

 

I still think Idol is trying to fool the viewers by telling the kids to act all shocked when Seacrest announces the guest mentors. They know ahead of time and quite possibly already cut their segments with them the week before.

1. Mia Matthews- "Nobody Needs To Know"

 

Does anyone else think Mia looks like Kendall Jenner? I remember when Crystal Bowersox did this song back on the last Shania Twain night on Idol and people thought the song was too fluff and beneath here. There was definitely a lot of fluff with this pink dress Mia performance.

She took the judges advice and put the guitar down and showed some stage movement tonight but it was extremely cheesy. Mia seemed uncomfortable putting on this kind of performance and it seemed like her vocals also suffered. I am sure the judges will tell her how terrific it was and that "you have a career."

Luke did point out that Mia forgot the lyrics in at least one spot and then Katy started hitting on Mia's boyfriend.

2. Jack Blocker- "Believe"

Not to quibble, but I believe this song is from 1999 and not 1998. Anyways, it was an interesting song choice for a guitar playing type like Jack to take on a Cher dance anthem. This slowed down version sort of sounded like what Adam Lambert did it with it during his Idol audition, and I believe he has sang as well in the years since.

I think people will like what Jack did with the song. He does not have the most expansive vocal range but he made this suite his style well and he appears emotionally connected while telling the story.

3. McKenna Faith Breinholt- "Iris"

Another late 90s tune was next. This week. McKenna was able to meet the mentor in person and was back at the piano. As the song started out, her voice still sounded strained, or as Shania described it, "husky."

As the performance went on though, McKenna really improved and was able to hit the higher notes. She has incredible talent and I thought her last ending riff was really solid.

 

Is young Triston missing from the couches? They showed him earlier sitting next to Will and Triston looked a little out of it and gave a big yawn. Now, it seems like he might no longer be seated there.

4. KAYKO- "Teenage Dirtbag"

This Sam kid is becoming more and more of a cartoon character by the episode. It is like they would have put Ziggy through the live shows, except KAYKO now seems to have a thing for sweaters.

There is a lot to digest here. At the last minute, he backed out of performing an altered version of "Oops.. I Did It Again" for this Wheatus song. It did indeed feel very Y2K. At this point, for better or worse, KAYKO is pretty much the antithesis of the traditional Idol "White Guy With A Guitar." Is he even able to sing a ballad? The defunct website Vote For The Worst would have loved what he is doing this season. Needless to say, his vocals are not going to blow anybody away, but you cannot overlook his performance skills. KAYKO is pretty much in his own lane at this point.

5. Emmy Russell- "All The Small Things"

Another odd song choice, as Emmy takes on Blink-182. At first I thought this might have potential, as Emmy does have a unique tone to her voice. I sort of wonder though if she should have played guitar.

As the performance went on, I liked it less and less. It just seemed sort of reptitive and pointless and once again, Emmy seemed distracted on stage. I was trying to compare it to Mia in thinking which one could have been worse thus far and at least it seems like Mia is committed to trying to succeed more.

Next, it was a pretty nice moment to bring out 2020 winner Just Sam (certainly considering that there are no female African-American singers left this season) to basically have a coronation moment. She looked decent and sounded good singing a Whitney Houston song, as a moderate confetti shower fell at the end. I note that I amusing female pronouns, but Sam no longer does. Welcome to the 2020s. From what I believe I have read in the past, "they" have had a difficult few years. Again, it was good to let Sam have their moment on stage with a live audience. I do not think many people care about the 2020 Presidential nominees who missed their chance to have a normal convention.

6. Triston Harper- "She's Country"

Triston appears to be just fine when it is his turn to perform. First, we see his mentoring session with Shania. Both have dealt with childhood homelessness It was not mentioned that both have Native American (or Native Canadian) heritage.. It certainly sounds like Triston has had a difficult life, based on the backstory that Idol is putting out there.

This song sure has a lot of words. It seems like Triston knew all of them. His voice held up, even if the performance was a little manic. Triston definitely was out there to work the stage and do some sorta cringy dance moves and facial expressions. In some ways, it feels sort of wrong that he is singing a song like this and performing it the way he is at just 15 years old, but since he comes across as an older type of soul, that will get overlooked. I think he is better at "old school" country than this kind of Jason Aldean drivel, but a lot of Idol voters will love it.

7. Abi Carter- "Clocks"

This was another weird segment. Someone should have maybe told Abi not to mention her mother getting into a car crash while listening to a Shania song on the radio. (Shania's parents were killed in an auto accident.) Abi then began her song surrounded by what looked like a confused group of Idol audience members. I could swear that one of them was Mary Cheney.

Abi definitely took Luke's advice to do something without the piano and to show movement on stage. If anything, she overdid it a bit. This felt sort of like an Alanis Morrisette performance. Vocally, I thought it was pretty good, although I do not like this particular Coldplay song. In a few points, I felt like Abi was trying too hard to "sing loud."

8. Julia Gagnon- "Here I Am"

This is a Bryan Adams song I did not know. Apparently, it is from some sort of animated movie that Julia loved as a kid. I have sort of mixed feelings on this performance. In many regards, she sounded really good, especially on the lower notes. However, it just seemed like the song itself was lacking in melody. As usual. Julia can really belt out the big notes, but it seemed almost a bit over the top this week.

I still think she has the best overall voice this season, but Julia is probably on borrowed time in terms of just how far she will go in this competition.

 9. Will Moseley- "Modern Day Bonnie And Clyde"

I expected Will to be good as he always is. I did not expect it to be this strong of a performance. I do not know the song and it was not exactly anything too different from what Will has been doing. However, he just sounded completely on his game from beginning to end. On songs like this, he has sort of a rock-like appeal that transcends the country genre. At least for the nine who have gone thus far tonight, he is the only one to not have a questionable note at any point in the song. I still feel it is very likely he will be the winner of this season in a few weeks.

10. Kaibrienne- "Here Without You"

I liked this song choice for Kaibrienne. She is very good but not great. I liked the effort and much of the results on this performance, but there is just something about her voice that is a bit too rough. She seems like someone who would be considered a really, really good bar singer, but it is harder to see how she fits in the current music world. I think she has done very well to have gotten this far in the competition.

 

Rankings:

 

10. Emmy Russell

 9.  Mia Matthews

 

8. KAYKO

7. Triston Harper

6. Jack Blocker

5. Kaibrienne

4. Abi Carter

3. Julia Gagnon

2. McKenna Faith Breinholt

1. Will Moseley

 

I have paused the recording to post my rankings and predictions.

Who should be eliminated: Emmy Russell and Mia Matthews

As usual, it is much tougher to predict. I think the country vote might be coming in strongly for both Will and Triston, the two dudes, leaving Mia and Emmy (though the latter is not truly a country singer, but has an obvious family connection) a bit more at risk. That would be the most deserving outcome, although I am sort of worried for Julia at this point.

Who I am predicting will be eliminated: Emmy Russell and Mia Matthews

The announcements are being made. The last three standing are also my Bottom Three, although the person safe will be "in no particular order."

Who was eliminated: Mia Matthews and KAYKO

Very interesting. I have to think that Loretta Lynn fans are what is keeping Emmy alive in this competition. Something tells me that Emmy might have preferred to have been relieved of this burden. I also sense that KAYKO is probably not too upset about leaving. A few weeks ago, I would have thought he would be Top 5 for sure, but he got progressively weirder. Ultimately, he was "blocked" by Jack Blocker, who appealed more to the fans that KAYKO was trying to win over, although the two guys were very different artists over the last few weeks.

My parents will probably be pleased that KAYKO is gone, but upset about Mia. This has to be difficult for her also, but as mentioned, the guitar playing/hat wearing portly males tend to get more votes from the heavily female Idol voting audience than young pretty girls like Mia.

So, heading into Monday night's show, we are down to eight contestants. Five females and three males. Something tells me that at least the next couple two to go will be ladies.