American Idol Top 24- Group B

Hello again,

It is a busy week. I watched Monday's two-hour episode somewhat late at night and compiled by rankings. Now, about 24 hours later, I will try to remember what I thought about each performance. Before I saw the show, my mother called to tell me that she really enjoyed it and that everybody was very good. For the most part, I did not happen to enjoy the show quite as much, but there is still a lot of good talent, and I usually think the highly edited performances from Hawai'i seem a bit flat.

 

1. John Foster- "Callin' Baton Rogue"

 

It happen to think the 18 year country singer from Louisiana is very much a possibility to take the crown this season. Thus, I was a bit surprised that the Idol producers had him perform first. John might wind up locked in a competition with Slater Nally, another teenage male country singer. John has a very different, more traditional country style, and also seems to be more of a natural on camera. It is also as if they always smiling contestant is straight out of a Disney Channel county show.

 

I suppose it was smart to appeal to his home state by singing this song, which I obviously do not know. Baton Rogue was once home to a Governor Foster, but I doubt the two are related. From what I recall, it was pretty good vocally, but just not really my kind of music.

 

2. Desmond Roberts- "Do I Do"

Like last evening, another African-American male singer who teaches kids and is named Roberts took the stage. I had become impressed with Desmond during Hollywood Week, including on his duet with Jamal Roberts. I also recall that Desmond did some sort of surprising rock song as a solo and used his voice to imitate the guitar portion of the song. That's pretty creative!

 

I do not know if taking on Stevie Wonder is really a good idea for any contestant at this point in the competition or if it is best representative generally of Desmond's talents. He sure did a lot of dancing on stage and gave quite a frenetic performance, which included beatboxing. It was like he was trying to pull out all the tricks and while I think he sounded decent, he reminded me more of a very good cruise ship performer than a potential American Idol.

 

3. Drew Ryn- "I'm With You"

 

I was very much impressed with her initial Idol audition. In that segment, they also showed her doing very well as a young girl singing some Kelly Clarkson. Only about a week later, I realized that I remember having watched her probably close to 15 years ago on Fox's Simon Cowell vehicle, "X-Factor USA." Drew was very young back then and I do not remember too much, except that she spelled out her entire more ethnic sounding last name and there was some sort of controversy or surprise over her elimination.

 

Now, years later, Drew is back on reality singing television and I think she definitely has one of the best pure voices this season. Her take on Monday's broadcast of an Avril Lavigne song might not have been overly exciting but to my ears, she sang it pretty flawlessly and I would look forward to hearing her do other songs.

 

4. Canaan James Hill- "Glory To Glory To Glory"

 

I was somewhat surprised they did not give him the pimp slot. Idol has definitely been hyping up teenage Canaan, who looks like he is closer to 30. Apparently, he has aspirations to be a pastor and is officially an "influencer" which leads me to believe he is not currently in school.

 

Canaan definitely has an amazing voice and I can see him having many opportunities in the Gospel music world. That seems to be his intention, and with that in mind, American Idol just might not be the right song for him. I think he might find it a challenge to do secular music. Last night, he talked about how his allergies were acting up in Hawai'i (and that would definitely be a problem for me also.) Perhaps that is why I thought his vocals, while not terrible, were somewhat subpar. I just feel like Canaan is just not going to be among my favorites. Last season, there were something like three Gospel dudes and I thought the first one to get cut (name not coming to me offhand) was great, and the one that stayed around the longest was nowhere near as good.

 

5. Filo- "Who's Loving You"

 

His name still reminds me of dough and I also remember that he talked about being cast as "Shrek" in a school musical.  Idol is pulling out one of its oldest memes by featuring Filo's as the devoted "Mama's Boy." They will keep bringing out his tearfully proud mother, who was first presented as being an old school Egyptian immigrant who wanted him to be a doctor instead of a singer.

 

There is no doubt that Filo has tremendous vocal ability. He sounded good on an old Jackson Five classic that will get the older Idol audience potentially motivated to vote for him. His voice should by right allow him to stay around for a while, but it is doubtful there will ever been anything current or "edgy: about Filo.

 

6. Kyana Fanene- "I Am"

 

Clearly, a bit of an obscure song, and Kyana  said she chose to perform it in Hawai'i as a way to connect her with Polynesian heritage, along with meeting all sorts of relatives for the first time down there.

 

I barely remember Kyana from the auditions and it seems to me that much like the Pink Penny girl from last night, she was simply early-season Idol fodder, but I do recall being pretty impressed with her vocals last night. That being said, I really do not remember what the actual song sounded like. It may have been good enough to stave off elimination however.

 

7. Olivier Bergeron- "I Am Not Okay"

I feel like most Idol fans will either love Olivier or hate him. Perhaps, I am the odd Idol watcher who will be in the middle. The young French-Canadian from New Brunswick has been presented as a blue collar sort of guy who is destined for some sort of horrible life if his dreams of being a singing star do not work out. I guess they can add especially with all the tariffs on Canada and potential U.S.invasionof his country. No pressure, America!

 

This is an emotional Jelly Roll song, on a night when a lot of emotional fans of the often emotional Mr. Roll would have been watching. I recall thinking the first part of the vocal performance was excellent and then sort of grinded down a bit to being just ok. Olivier will probably be considered the closest thing to a "rocker" this season.

 

8. Grayson Torrence- "Seasons"

 

In many ways, I felt she was in a similar situation to Kyana (tattoos and all.) Grayson must not have made too much of an impression on me leading into the evening, and I thought that a lack of screen time could have her very much in jeopardy.

This was another song that I do not know and cannot recall too much about, besides being a ballad, but Grayson definitely surprised me in a positive way. If I recall, they also focused on her relationship with her health-challenged mother. She might have gained a lot of new fans.

 

9. Josh King- "I'm Still Standing"

Well, with all his banter with Josh Groban over their shared name, he might take all the Josh voters, but there are probably not many of those.

 

This Josh is a piano player and at this stage of the competition, it might have been a better idea to stick with what he was best at. I have thought before that he has a nice voice, but this performance of an Elton John song, harmonica solo and all, was really kind of hokey and amateurish. This just seemed like the wrong song to do and trying to move around so much on stage did not do Josh's voice many favors. He seemed to be trying to put on a bit of a fake accent which is exactly reminiscent of when Naima Adedapo years ago made the horrible mistake of singing this exact song with a fake Jamaican patois and a reference to "Boom Fiya!"

 

10. Mattie Pruitt- "Wide Awake"

Katy Perry is no longer an Idol judge, but did get her song covered on the same day she spent a few minutes in outer space along with a bunch of other women on Jeff Bezos's rocket ship. 

Mattie is the youngest contestant this season at just 15 and we are told that her singing mother auditioned for Idol back when she was pregnant with Mattie. I would have to see some video evidence of that, but it makes for a unique story at least.

 

I recall thinking that Mattie sounded experienced beyond her years and very good from what they showed in Hollywood. She clearly has talent, but on this performance (on a song I do not care for) her voice sounded off to me. There was no chance though that any of the judges would point that out.

 

11. Thunderstorm Artis- "Is This Love"

 

From the youngest contestant, to likely the oldest, as 29 year old Thunderstorm, who apparently comes from a large performing family, has been at this music thing for a very long time. I see now and vaguely recall that he was also once on "The Voice."  Thunderstorm also grew up not far from the filming in Hawai'i and lives there with his wife and two small children. I sense that his family is very church-oriented, but that his music would be more of the Christian Contemporary direction than Gospel music.

 

With that in mind, it was maybe a bit of a surprise that he sang a Bob Marley joint (no pun intended.) I am more familiar with the different Whitesnake song of the same name. I have to say though that Thunderstorm sounded extremely good and authentic on this type of reggae jam. I believe he and his guitar did not even have the Idol band accompanying.  Thunderstorm is a very seasoned performer and while the Trump Administration might have cut funding for the national weather service that provides warnings, this T-Storm may be around this season longer than I would have first expected.

 

12. Amanda Barise- "Defying Gravity"

 

Idol has a long history of featuring singers who may not look like the typical pop star but can definitely back up their talent by their voice. Amanda is hoping to follow in that tradition. She is very Broadway though and apparently has a long history in musical theater.

For this performance, she hopped on the "Wicked" hype train (for the record, I watched that movie and simply did not get the hype whatsoever) by singing the big finale number, but with some sort of 

disco-ish arrangement, to make it seem less Broadway.

 

I had mixed feelings about it. It was like I knew the judges would go nuts and I wanted to like it more than I actually did. Amanda ended strongly with some big notes but before that, much like the movie, I really could not get that into it.

 

Rankings:

 

12. Josh King

11. Canaan James Hill

 

10. Mattie Pruitt

 9. Desmond Robets

 8. John Foster

 7. Filo

 6. Kyana Fanene 

 5. Olivier Bergeron

 4. Grayson Torrence

 3. Amanda Barise

 2. Thunderstorm Artis

 1. Drew Ryn

 

By merit, and based on this one round alone, Josh and Canaan should not make the top 20. However, I would not be surprised if both did. It will be a shocker and embarrassment to Idol if Canaan falls short. especially on Easter, where they are seemingly preparing to lean heavily on religiosity during the broadcast.

 

Still though, my prediction is that Josh will fall short. The other lowest vote-getter is tough to predict. Kyana and Grayson both probably did a lot to help themselves, but at the same time might also be splitting votes.

I will say that the other person to be eliminated will be Mr. Roberts of Group B.