Happy Easter.... and Happy Passover, which is now concluding.
Tonight, in a recorded episode, Idol had a three-hour Easter "eggstravaganza" featuring "songs of faith." This does feel a bit culturally aggressive, but Idol definitely knows its target audience. We will have to see if any of the kids will claim to not be Christian. I am sure there will be some great and uplifting messages in the songs tonight. although I hope it does not wind up as boring as I suspect.
I am recording the program and before it is over, I am beginning to watch it, and will pause along the way to offer commentary. This is going to be a lot to get through. Then, there are still going to be two hours tomorrow. After that, I believe the show will only be once a week on Sundays. Already, the vibe is of a Finale show, as the judges will all be singing,and there are a lot of guest performers in the house, or perhaps that of the once highly promoted "Idol Gives Back" from 2007 and 2008.
From what I gather, they will announce the 20 contestants who got enough votes after their Hawai'i performances. I do not know what will be for the four who are in the Hollywood studios and may not even get a chance to sing. It is going to be extremely hard to rank 20 performances though, but I shall do my best.
1. Canaan James Hill- "Better Days"
Group B, from last Monday night, are going to get their results first. There is no surprise fo rme that Canaan is through, although I felt he had an off night, perhaps allergy induced and I had him ranked 11 of 12.
Tonight, his voice sounds fine, so it is probably already a "better day" and he is certainly worked into a lather with the studio lights on him. It was a fairly restrained performance at first and then he went all gospel on it and was in full preacher mode at the end. He is impressive in that realm but how long can he milk that one aspect of his talent? It just felt a bit put-on to me.
The judges loved it of course. Luke Bryan refers to CJH as a "100 dollar Easter egg", perhaps taking our present day inflation into account.
2. Drew Ryn- "Yellow"
I do not know if I would consider this boring Coldplay song a particularly religious one, but it had some sort of effect on Drew, whom I had ranked first out of her group last week.
She started off singing it in an extremely technical proficient way and I was saying to myself that hopefully, she will try something more uptempo soon. Then, unless I heard something wrong, she appeared to yell out, "Thank you Jesus!" After that moment, he vocals started to waver a bit. A short while after that she seemed to be on the verge of breaking down at the end of the song. Maybe in her segment with the judges and Seacrest she can say what that was about. Maybe she had a PTSD flashback to her early teens experience on the X-Factor. Overall, I thought it started off strong and then went a bit astray.
3. Desmond Roberts- "Worship"
I had Desmond ranked ninth last week and predicted he would fall short of getting enough votes to advance. This turned out not to be the case however.
This is a song I do not know. I have to be somewhat impressed with what Desmond was able to show on it. He definitely has a lot of musical versatility and is extremely comfortable in front of an audience and working the stage. A lot of older Idol voters may not have liked this the way they apparently did his take on Stevie Wonder in Hawa'ii, but he sounded very current on what seems to be sort of a R&B and EDM mash-up. Desmond's voice went in quick succession between falsetto and low notes. It may not have been for everyone, but I give him credit.
4. Filo- "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Based on Monday, I had Filo ranked seventh, and expected him to pull through into the Top 20. We know his family came from Egypt but no reference tonight to whatever specific religious background he might come from.
This was a very strong vocal. I do not know if this song has been done on Idol since Clay Aiken memorably took it on during Season Two. Filo probably even brought more emotion and drama to the delivery without losing vocal control. This type of song is exactly what Filo does best.
I see now that Filo's brother is wearing a cross. They must be Coptic Christians. That will be less controversial for some than the alternative.
5. Josh King- "You Are So Beautiful"
I think it is confirmed now that America had a lot of different opinions than I had on Monday and that my predictions, at least for this round, were pretty bad. I had Josh ranked last and did not think he would make it. Indeed he did. This is shaping up to perhaps be bad news for a couple of female contestants who did not make much of an impact on the audition and Hollywood broadcasts.
Anyways, Josh sort of was trying to do a Taylor Hicks "soul patrol" thing at various stages of the competition thus far, and tonight, did a song that Taylor had done during his season. I though it was better and way more in line with that kind of singer Josh is. He had a couple of nice falsetto notes. All that being said, I still did not think it was that great. The competition just seems better than Josh this season, but "nice guy" underdogs often go far on Idol.
6. Thunderstorm Artis- "Reckless Love"
No surprise whatsoever here. Thunderstorm was very impressive last week and I ranked him second in his group. Research indicates that he finished all the way in third place during his season of "The Voice" but there are so many of those, and I do not follow it as closely as Idol (to say the least) that it is hard to really remember too much.
T-storm has another good night. This was very much up his alley and I am fairly certain that it would be considered a "worship song." His wife and others in the audience had their hands in the air as if the Idol studio was a mega-church. For some reason, it really does feel like Idol is really going all in on the religious component this season. For the first time in many season, there does not even seem to be an obviously gay contestant either.
7. Amanda Barise- "If I Ain't Got You"
I am not at all surprised that Amanda made it through. She definitely deserved to considering that I had her ranked third. However, I am starting to get the feeling that she may not last as long this season as many might have first thought. After all, she comes from "woke" New York City.
There is no doubt she has a powerful voice and can really belt. However, she appears to be trying to do too much, both physically and in terms of arrangement. You can tell that she is needing to draw large breaths at points in the song. On this particular Alicia Keyes song, she totally changed up the melody and it felt like a different and perhaps too experimental version of what many feel is a relaxing feel-good type of jam. I would have preferred Amanda stuck more to the original.
8. John Foster- "Tell That Angel I Love Her"
Considering that I had John ranked eighth on Monday, he will have made it on over at least one person (and probably two) that I thought had better nights at the resort. Still, I would have been shocked if he did not have enough support. He is a very credible contender this season.
This was an original song that John wrote and I am sure that when the judges' comments kick off we will learn exactly whom in his life departed this Earth as the source material. I have to say though, while I am not a country music fan, this whole thing was quite impressive. The song itself definitely sounded like a "real" country ballad and 18 year old John sang it as if he has been doing this professionally for many years. I do not know if he has it in him to knock out great performances on anything other than modern type country ballads, but at least we know he can do those extremely well.
9. Mattie Pruitt- "Rescue"
Now apparently sixteen, Mattie is still the youngest in the competition. I predicted she would go through but had her ranked 10th. Indeed, bad news is coming for one or both of two ladies I thought would be splitting votes, or a Canadian.
For me, Mattie was perhaps a bit better than the last round, but her voice has sort of a rough gravelly edge to it that I do not think is totally intentional at this point in her career. If it is, then she is not singing the right kind of songs. It is probably the case that she will just be better in a few years than she is currently.
Who should have been eliminated from Group B: Josh King and Canaan James Hill
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Josh King and Desmond Roberts
Who was eliminated: Kyana Fanene and Grayson Torrence
Going into Monday, when I looked at the list, I would have thought Kayana and Grayson, whom I really did not remember that well, would be most at risk. Then, they performed and I thought were good. I ranked Kyana sixth and Greyson fourth. None of that mattered. It is tougher to be a female on Idol, at least at this point in the competition. They both may have come across as being too similar and thus split votes. Reality television can be a cruel business.
10. Olivier Bergeron- "Stay"
Canadians cannot legally vote for the Idol (although Donald Trump would apparently like to make that happen) and in this political era of "America First", Olivier perhaps had a lot to overcome. It is unknown if he was truly near the bottom or had more than enough votes to spare, but AI probably wants us to think it was the former.
While I had Olivier ranked fifth last week, right between the female contestants that are going home, I thought he would survive and wanted him to. While I believe the outfit he was wearing this evening for Easter is not something he would have ever picked out for himself, and perhaps the same can be said about his song choice, I thought he did pretty well. While far from perfect, I like his voice. It is at least different than anyone left this season. I hear, ever so slightly, a bit of an Axl Rose vibe in the tone of his voice.
11. Breanna Nix- "Up To The Mountain"
In last Sunday's Group A, I had Breanna ranked at the top, so it is definitely welcomed news that she has advanced.
This particular song has been done a few times on Idol now, to great effect, so in some regards, it may have lost a bit of an impact to those who have seen it done before. Nonetheless, Breanna sang it in a near perfect technical sense. She is another contestant who will definitely have to demonstrate some vocal variety in the weeks ahead, but from what we have seen so far, she just does not make any mistakes in how she sings.
12. Victor Solomon- "For Every Mountain"
Last Sunday, I had Victor ranked 10th and while I predicted him to go through, thought he might be on the bubble.
I cannot begin to explain the meaning of the black studded leather gloves he was wearing tonight, but I can tell you, that he sang the heck out of his song. It was quite a contrast to his pandering, but reasonably successful take on a Luke Bryan country party song in Hawai'i. Victor started off this gospel number sounding like Nat King Cole in an appealing classic way and then as the cliche goes, "took it to church." By the end, I was extremely impressed and just found it so much more appealing and interesting to how Canaan approaches this same kind of songs. This is ironic because Victor is probably less religious personally than Canaan.
13. Baylee Littrell- "Gone Without Goodbye"
Well, I had Baylee dead last for his group. Still, I knew he was going through. There are advantages to being a Nepo Baby. When all 24 contestants were lined up behind Lionel Richie at the top of the show, Baylee happened to be the shortest, at least without heels. That should not be held against him that he puts the "litttel" in Littrell.
This song, which sounded very religious, although I could not understand a lot of the lyrics, was credited to Baylee's father Brian Littrell. Who knew that the Backstreet Boy had a solo career. To focus on the positive, Baylee sounded better here than he did trying to do "Happy" last week. This is much more in his lane and considering the vocal chord issues his father had at a big event a couple of months ago, Baylee probably sang his better than the old man could. Still, I do not find his vocals quite up to snuff with almost everyone else on the American Idol voting rounds. We will probably see him sing again tomorrow though.
Next, we learn that the song was written about the 9/11 victims. Somewhere, a long time ago, I think I had read that his mother was almost on one of the flights. Now, I feel sort of bad about my criticism. Well, not really, someone has to keep it real...
14. Isaiah Misailegalu- "Give You Blue"
Samoan Silkk was sixth out of ten for me last Sunday, but I had little doubt he would have a spot in the Top 20.
While I did not really love this song, which I obviously am not familiar with, I thought Isaiah sang it very well. He really does have a silky voice that is well-suited for R&B slow jams. It will be interesting to see if he can branch out beyond that. I really do not know what other comments are necessary. It has taken me about three and a half hours to get through the first two hours of this show. I have stopped to check a few other things out online related to the NBA and NHL playoffs and the latest in the never-ending saga of the incompetency and disgrace of Pete Hegseth,
At this point in the broadcast, the local ABC station tells us there is a Tornado Watch for areas a bit away from me. It will be peak irony if we ever get a Thunderstorm Warning during a Thunderstorm Artis performance. For the record, it is raining and thundering a bit right now.
15. Gabby Samone- "I Am Changing"
I had Gabby third in my rankings last week. It would have been a travesty if she did not get through and will equally be so if she is not through again.
Gabby may be on her way to becoming my favorite of the season. She can flat out sing. While her style is more reminiscent of the American Idol of the last generation, she can deliver on a diva ballad with the best of them. This performance, which I believe is from "Dreamgirls", was just superb.
16. Slater Nally- "Soulshine"
No surprises here. Slater is probably whom many are pegging as the frontrunner, but I am not quite as certain on that. Last week, I had him at a respectable number four in his group.
Tonight's performance was good, but I may have actually liked last week's better. Slater certainly has an appealing grit to his voice that has him well suited to sing 70s southern countryish rock. Tonight though, he seemed to be competing a bit with the band behind him and there just were not a lot of dynamics in his delivery. He was just going full throttle pretty much from the first verse.
Tomorrow night, I will try to watch a recording of the show, but I am not going to be able to do a vlog until at least Tuesday.
17. Zaylie Winsdor- "Silver Spring"
For starters, I do not know how this song fits into tonight's theme.
I had Zaylie ranked seventh last week. So far, I may actually be on track to correctly predicting this group, but still a ways to go. Tonight, I thought Zaylie sounded good, but not great. At one point, she appeared to be focused a bit on getting her guitar chords right. While the performance was not as exciting for me as some of the others tonight, I think there is a market out there in Idolland for what Zaylie is selling. This sort of white girl singer/songwriter is definitely appealing to a lot of younger female voters at least. Right now, Zaylie may not have a lot of competition left in that lane. The closest may be Drew, who is a good deal older.
18. Jamal Roberts- "Forever"
Jamal has been one of my favorites this season. Last week, I had him a narrow second place in his group, so obviously it is quite good that he made it through.
This is getting pretty interesting now. I knew Jamal would deliver and indeed he did. In many ways, it was similar to last week, in which it started off subtly, with the rich texture of his voice at the forefront and then by the end, as Lionel Richie puts it, a "possession" takes over. This is what Jamal did tonight and it was definitely worthy of attention. However, Victor and Canaan followed the same path tonight also. There has to be a lot of vote splitting going on, especially among African-American fans of the show. You can also take into consideration all the votes that Gabby is going to get, and we have not even heard from Kolbi yet. Something is going to have to give, when the demographics are taken into account and it is going to be unfortunate for at least one person (although I definitely have one guy below the others.) Thunderstorm is also a black dude, but his music probably appeals more to white folks.
19. Che- "Redemption Song"
I thought for sure Englishman Che was a goner. I had him ranked ninth last week so technically he deserved a spot, but this is feels very conflicting. There is only one spot left and I will pretty surprised if Chicano "heartthrob" MKY did not get enough votes. That will lead to a very unfair result for Kolbi Jordan and send four females home tonight, out of a group of 24 in which there were already more males.
We will get to that shortly. For now, we have to focus on Che and his Bob Marley song. For one thing, I think he sounded a good deal better than last week, when he did Stevie Wonder. However, there is a bit of a reggae theme in his mind. While this was more Che's style, it was perhaps not a great song to win votes and compared to some of the other voices we have heard on a very long program tonight, it just did not have the wow factor.
Who should have been eliminated from Group A: Baylee Littrell and Penny Samar
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Penny Samar and Che
Who was eliminated: Penny Samar and MKY
Yes, I am both pretty surprised and relieved. However, there are still going to be a lot of upset fans tomorrow night when six singers get cut.
Penny Samar, the quasi Chappel Roan tribute artist was the one I had ranked 11th last week. She never really had a chance.
However, what in the world happened to MKY? I had him ranked eighth, so this is not a tragedy or anything, but what happened to his voters? Frankly, I think it needs to be asked if Latinos in this country are now afraid if voting for American Idol might get them deported. There does not appear to be anyone now of Latino heritage in the entire Top 20. Something is going on there. Perhaps though, people just found MKY a bit too full of himself or were offended that he considered himself above vowels.
20. Kolbi Jordan- "Amazing Grace"
It has to be said that on Easter Sunday, Kolbi Jordan's Idol run rose from the dead, because going into the commercial break, it seemed like she was about to get MKY'ed. I was all prepared to comment about how "New Attitude" cursed Tamyra Gray back in Season 1 and the same thing happened 23 years later.
Next, I have to say that it is just a fact that the black kids can sing better than the white kids this year. This is an odd season of Idol. They seem to be focusing almost exclusively on white Evangelicals and African-American churchgoers. There must be some sort of study that shows these are the most religious (no pun intended) Idol consumers in this era.
Anyways, Kolbi did her thing on this traditional standard. I think she was a bit overwhelmed with the drama of the whole situation and having to wait all the way to the end of the show. I think she also assumed with MKY next to her that the odds were stacked against her. For this performance, Kolbi took it to church on a night where a lot of others did the same. At least for tonight, she does not have to plan how to get her HR job in Oklahoma back.
Rankings:
20. Josh King
19. Baylee Littrell
18. Mattie Pruitt
17. Drew Ryn
16. Amanda Barise
15. Zaylie Windsor
14. Canaan James Hill
13. Che
12. Desmond Roberts
11. Thunderstorm Artis
10. Olivier Bergeron
9. Isaiah Misailegalu
8. Slater Nally
7. John Foster
6. Filo
5. Kolbi Jordan
4. Breanna Nix
3. Victor Solomon
2. Jamal Roberts
1. Gabby Samone
We are told we are getting a Top 14 tomorrow based on the vote. Nothing was said about "Wildcards" to be selected by the judges. I will make predictions on the fly if that changes when I watch tomorrow, but those are my rankings. We are potentially headed for a very, very uneven surplus of males over females. In my rankings, it would be 11-3. Something is definitely off with this production, but that is how I have it on the merits.
This is a very strong group, but let us be honest. Josh and Baylee do not belong there, just because they are "cute" white boys. A couple of the younger female singers might be more worthy in a few years than they are now. A couple of the older ones are perhaps in the stage of their career where they find themselves trying too hard. I had really liked Drew but felt she fell short tonight.
Who will get cut? Out of my bottom six, I am going to predict Josh King, Mattie Pruitt, Drew Ryn, and a surprise elimination of Amanda Barise.
That leaves two more. I think the rhyming pair of Baylee and Zaylie will wind up faring better than Nikki Haley and make it through. After all, one's dad is a Backstreet Boy and the other sort of looks like a Temu Taylor Swift.
Che will be eliminated. I called it for this round and I am going to stick with it. Then, considering how all the extremely good black singers are going to be splitting votes, at least one of them will be cut. My biggest concern is that an additional one or two may make it in over one of the white people I have in my Bottom Six.
So, something has to give. Jamal was great and has been great throughout. Victor was pretty great last night. Canaan sang first, in the exact same musical genre as the other two and in my view was not nearly as good. So Platinum ticket and all the hyping aside, Canaan will be the odd man out.
As I wrap this up, let me say that it was a more entertaining night than I thought. The name of Jesus was said more on television during these three hours than perhaps any recent prime time television show in American history. Most people in America do identify with the Christian faith and as a lifelong conservative, who is personally Jewish, I have always respected the convictions of deeply religious Christians.
It is also true that last year, most of those Christians, at least the white ones (along with an increasing number of those of other races) voted for a particular candidate who now sits in the White House. I disagreed with their vote, but those people are still my fellow Americans.
I just hope that those who glorify the name of Jesus on Easter Sunday or any day realize that the person they voted for has always thought he is greater than Jesus and looks down upon them and their religiosity. Like those Christian voters, I have tremendous disagreements with the secular left on many issues, but as a principled conservative, and as a Jew, I cannot fall victim to hypocrisy.
What is happening in Washington DC today on behalf of a duly elected Administration is definitely not in line with what so many Christians profess to believe.
G-d bless America. We need it these days more than ever.
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