American Idol- Top 7

The Monday night episode was pretty entertaining. There were a lot of strong performances, although the solos were understandably better than the duets/group performances. I watched a recording of the show late on Monday and now on Wednesday, I will do my best to offer commentary based on what I am able to remember.

Who was the mentor? Let me think for a second...oh yeah, they did not have one. It was the judges' song contest, which they have been doing for three years now. The contestants are given three songs to choose from, and must pick one. Afterward, the judge who got the most songs picked is the "winner" and can save someone from the Bottom Two for elimination. It seems like Katy Perry wins every year. Perhaps that is just a coincidence. This is her last season of Idol.

Additionally, the kids teamed up in twos and in one case in fours, to sing a song from one of the three judges. Since KAYKO and Mia were eliminated just the night before, there has to be some scrambling involved to arrange all of this, and likely not much rehearsal time. As I always have determined, I had no choice but to judge these as well, since the audience is watching and voting, while it is still going on. It gets somewhat tricky because they mix these group numbers up with the solos and thus someone will sing twice before another contestant gets to go once. The only fair thing to do is to consider the first time they sing to be "Round 1" and the second time as "Round 2." I rank both rounds and then at the end, I put together a cumulative ranking. In order to break ties, I put more emphasis on the solo performances. I feel like my rankings always seem to shake out how they should.

Let us begin-

1. Will Moseley- "Folsom Prison Blues"

This was absolutely the right song for him to pick. I had mentioned that it was hard to envision him doing something really uptempo, but this seemed to qualify. Will sounded confident and even moved all around the studio while still playing guitar. It was a whole lot better than the time Paul McDonald attempted to perform the song on Idol several years ago.

2. Kaibrienne- "traitor"

For this performance, Kaibrienne chose to go with a lower-case Olivia Rodrigo song. To me, all of that artist's angry songs sound the same. I recall believing that it was probably Kaibrienne's strongest vocal performance thus far this season. She seems to do the Olivia Rodrigo "wronged-girl" vibe very well.

3. Emmy Russell and Jack Blocker- "Hello"

There Idol goes, changing things up again, as the two duet on what is perhaps Lionel Richie's biggest known hit. I thought it was pretty good, though not really anything spectacular. Jack played guitar and seemed to do his thing. Emmy did not play an instrument and seemed less confident vocally than her partner.

4. McKenna Faith Breinholt- "Everywhere I Go"

I do not believe I know this song, but it clearly meant a lot to McKenna. I thought she sounded a bit too hoarse on the first few words but then as she got into it, her vocals were stellar.  Very often with her, it seems like she is not even in a singing competition, but is someone who should already be famous in the music world.

5. Jack Blocker- "Always On My Mind"

Jack is back. He has chosen to select the well-known Willie Nelson song, although versions of it have also been done by Elvis and others. For this performance, he does not play guitar. Some of his body movements were a bit awkward. Perhaps, he should have held the microphone in his hand instead of standing behind a mic stand, but I think he did what he wanted to do both vocally and physically. Jack delivered a very sincere and connected vocal. While I think the three best singers this season are all female, Jack has a very good shot of being there as part of the Top 3 at the Finale.

6. Will Moseley and Triston Harper- "What Makes You Country"

Not much of a surprise to put these two fellas together and have them sing a ridiculous Luke Bryan song.  Country fans will like it though. Both sounded ok, though Will maybe a bit more, but this was mostly about them delivering a high energy performance.

7. Abi Carter- "Bring Me To Life"

This Evanescence song has become a staple on singing shows. It is very different from the sort of piano driven ballads that Abi has typically been doing this season, but she pretty much blew this one out the box. Dressed the part, Abi took the stage without an instrument and proved she has serious musical versatility and pretty much nailed every note. Her version has to be considered the best cover of this song (which I do not really have strong feelings for one way or another in its original form) done on television.

8. Julia Gagnon- "Over The Rainbow"

I am not sure why she was wearing a cowboy hat. Do they do that a lot up in Maine? This was billed as Julia performing the Eva Cassidy version of the classic song, but it sounded more like the Israel (long Hawaiian name) version sans the ukulele. On a night with strong competition, this was not quite my favorite of the evening, but it was still really, really good. Julia showed restraint and dynamics, which is something some have felt she may have been lacking when she goes all out on big notes. Her, and Abi, and McKenna can all really sing. I could maybe compare them to the season when there was Fantasia, LaToya, and Jennifer (Hudson), though I think Julia might bow out first as Jennifer did.

Now that everyone has gone (at least) once, here are my Round 1 rankings:

8. Triston Harper (duet)

7. Emmy Russell (duet)

6. Jack Blocker (duet)

5. Kaibrienne (solo)

4. Will Moseley (solo)

3. Julia Gagnon (solo)

2. McKenna Faith Breinholt (solo)

1. Abi Carter (solo)

9. Kaibrienne, Julia Gagnon, McKenna Faith Breinholt, and Abi Carter- "Wide Awake"

This group, which all managed to wear different colored dresses, called themselves "Katy's Ladies" as they covered one of her less memorable songs (in my opinion.) I wonder what Emmy thought about being the only lady to not be included. Again, there must have been some rearranging done on the last day. Perhaps KAYKO was going to join them and beatbox or something.

They all sounded just fine. Julia and Abi were on their game.Kaibrienne is just a little below their standard. It may not have been the best kind of song for McKenna.

10. Triston Harper- "Sand In My Boots"

Triston seemed to go back and forth on his song choice. I do not think I was familiar with any of his options. The song reminded me a lot of "Smoky Mountain Memories" by Dolly Parton, which I first heard on Idol in 2008.  This was another good vocal and perhaps one of his strongest. However, I just do not hear anything amazing from him. Most of what he does sounds the same, but consistency for his base is probably a good thing. He did so something far more uptempo the night previous. The 15 year old Triston seems like this whole experience is very emotionally draining but he seems grateful for it and that will win him a lot of votes.

11. Emmy Russell- "Coal Miner's Daugher"

Well, they certainly set things up for Emmy to sing her grandmother's most iconic song in the "pimp spot." It did make for good television. I had thought that Emmy was the most vulnerable going into tonight but this would be likely to save her.

Playing the piano, this was easily Emmy's best moment on the show this season. I do not think every note was perfect but I liked how she brought her own personal tone and style of singing to make it a sentimental and even somewhat mournful ballad. It was very different than the upbeat Loretta Lynn version.

 

As Emmy was singing this tribute, as  a coal miner's great-grandaughter, I could not help but think a bit about politics. It is no secret that the perceived disdain shown to coal miners by politicians like Hillary Clinton and others have done a lot to shift our electoral results. There probably are not many Democrats left in Butcher Holler, Kentucky, very much unlike when this song was first written. There are a lot of red-state Donald Trump voting rural folk who will have found this performance moving and symbolic.

Round Two:

8. Kaibrienne- (group)

7. Will Moseley (duet)

6. McKenna Faith Breinholt (group)

5. Triston Harper (solo)

4. Jack Blocker (solo)

3. Emmy Russell (solo)

2. Julia Gagnon (group)

1. Abi Carter (group)

Overall rankings- with the realization that the Bottom Two vote getters would be announced:

8. Kaibrienne

7. Triston Harper

6. Will Moseley

5. Jack Blocker

4. Emmy Russell

3. McKenna Faith Breinholt

2. Julia Gagnon

1. Abi Carter

Who should have been Bottom Two: Kaibrienne and Triston Harper

Who I predicted would be Bottom Two: Kaibrienne and Julia Gagnon

 

I figured that Julia would not get enough votes but that the judges would save her, at least for one more week.

Who was Bottom Two: Kaibrienne and McKenna Faith Breinholt

So, this takes an interesting turn. Apparently, Julia has more fans than McKenna, which surprises me a little bit. I will now have to keep that in mind, especially considering next week is supposed to be split between dance songs and Adele. This sounds like that could be a strong night for Julia.

With all due respect for Kaibrienne, whom I thought got better as the season went along, the obvious choice was to save McKenna here, and I thought Katy would do so (although there were some moments when it might appear that nobody might be sent packing) McKenna Faith Breinholt was indeed the girl that Katy Perry saved, and hopefully liked it.