American Idol Top 20- Group A

Twenty years ago, the American Idol franchise was born. For many of those seasons, I have blogged extensively about the competition here. Back in the day, many people did that. These days, I seem to be one of the few who still does. I will continue to watch the performances, offer commentary, rank them based on vocal performance alone, and simply for fun, make some predictions. 

 

I have always enjoyed American Idol because it combines popular music, athletic like competition, and a ton of political intrigue. In so many ways, the show feels a a lot different than it did back in the Fox days. It is far more oriented towards country music and gospel music these days to the extent of a wider range of other genres. I took particular note that the auditions this season were not held around the country, but simply at one location in Nashville, the home base of judges Carrie Underwood and Luke Bryan. Then, the show stayed at Belmont University for "Hollywood Week", instead of actually taking the contestants to Hollywood, or elsewhere in Southern California.

 

Since going to ABC, Idol has mostly become a Sunday night tradition. Now, it seems to be set for a Monday night schedule. I wish that were not the case, but it is what it is. Back in the day, Idol used to be on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 

 

Also, this beginning of the "America votes" portion of the competition, which is already whittled down a Top 20, instead of a Top 32 or Top 24, is starting a month earlier than it has in the past. I do not know if that means that Idol will end earlier this Spring or if the season will contain additional weeks, with less double or triple eliminations.

 

For tonight, they are showing a highly edited recording of what has now been a several years tradition of the kids singing at the Disney Resort in Hawai'i  I will he watching a recording, and pausing as I go, before I hear the judges (almost always exclusively positive) comments to offer my own commentary. Ten will go tonight and ten next week. My understanding is that they are planning to get down to a Top 14, so I can only assume that three in each group will be cut, while seven advance.

 

1.Makiyah- "Bang Bang"

From her previous appearances, I know the young bank manager from Arkansas has a powerful and impressive voice. I was not too impressed though on this vocal.

 

Makiyah went out on stage to give a high energy crowd pleasing performance, and it seems like she did that. However, it felt like it was the wrong song for her and her voice sounded sort of grating to my ears. Maybe I just going to be hard to impress tonight.

 

2. Jake Thistle- "The Power Of Love"

 

Jake has apparently been gigging around New Jersey for many years and from what I understand, has spent a lot of time actually around Bruce Springsteen.  He seems very comfortable in front of the camera and vocally, he often sounds very much like Bryan Adams.

 

His sort of 80's pop-rock guitar playing identity might make him someone I enjoy in this competition, but I felt was was off vocally in his attempt to go "Back to the Future" and appeal to female Idol voters in their 50s and 60s. So many people try to go out in front of this outdoor Disney crowd and have a "party" and it seems sort of corny. He is the second contestant to kick off the evening that I thought was better than what they presented vocally.

 

3. Genevieve Hayward- "Pink Pony Club"

 

I was surprised she did not sing an 80s rock song to try to appeal to an older audience. Instead, she went with a Chappell Roan anthem from about a year ago, while also wearing a horrible outfit.

Vocally though, Genevieve sounded decent. She can hit all sorts of notes. Will that be enough this early in the competition when building an identity with the voters is so key?

 

4. Daniel Stallworth- "All Night Long (All Night)"

 

Last season, American Idol was won by an African-American male elementary school teacher from Mississippi.  While reigning champion Jamal Roberts was a PE teacher. Daniel is actually a music teacher and trying to recapture the formula.

 

While talented, I think Daniel might have a tougher hill to climb. Singing an old popular Lionel Richie song, in front of the man himself, was probably a good move for the Hawai'i crowd and the contestant definitely has vocal abilities, but it really did not show anything about what kind of artist he might be outside the show. It just felt like we were listening to a very good karaoke singer.

 

5. Kyndal- "Call Your Mom"

 

Kyndal has seemingly dropped her last name of Innskeep for the purpose of this competition and has joined the legion of one name only hopefuls. She has been around Nashville as a singer/songwriter long enough to have inspired one other young contestant to have auditioned with an original song by her, just as Kyndal was standing by to audition herself. I definitely think that was producer manipulated though.

 

I do not know this song and it is not one that Kyndal wrote herself, but it easily had the most "gravitas" of what we have heard so far. One can imagine her as a current artist and she will probably do well on this show because she has a bit of a country twang to her voice,even though she is not necessarily singing country music. I think Idol is invested in seeing her go far this season. 

 

6. Kutter Bradley- "It's Not Over"

 

Who decides to name their kid, Kutter? With a K to boot? Anyways, this dude from Alabama seems like a nice guy. I thought he would probably sing a country song, but instead covered Daughtry, and while reasonably credible, was not quite on par with the original.

 

 I thought Kutter started off pretty good vocally, but maybe ran out of steam. He did this performance without playing guitar, which was new to him,and maybe he ran out of steam a bit towards the end. I give him points for effort though. This seems like it would be sort of a tough song to sing.

 

Idol really wants everyone to vote this season via Instagram, Facebook, or Tik Tok. I do not do any of those things. Why not a Twitter/X option? I am on there (semi anonymously) where I mostly vent about politics, make observations about sports, or try to guess the identities on "The Masked Singer."

 

7. Jesse Findling- "You Found Me"

 

Hey, the song he picked is sort of a variation of his last name. Jesse is an interesting contestant. He was introduced as a stutterer when he speaks, but seems to not be doing that too much in front of the Idol cameras. He definitely sings better than Lazaro Arbos, Idol's previous stutterer. Also, I am pretty sure that Jesse from Long Island is Jewish, so these days, I bet he is probably sadly getting a lot of online hate for that alone. I hope he can shut that all out.

 

There is no doubt that he has a really good voice and I was impressed with his take on this song by The Fray. Performance wise, he is all sorts of awkward, at least so far at this stage of the competition, but a lot of nerdy guys with good voices have managed to go pretty far in Idol history. I envision Jesse as more of a Josh Groban type than a pop singer though.

 

8. Hannah Harper- "Ain't No Grave"

 

Hannah is likely to be a polarizing contestant, but she seems to have quite a grasp of her musical identity and will definitely appear to many Evangelicals and perhaps fellow mothers of young children.

 

She is from a prominent bluegrass family band, but apparently left music when she started having kids. Now, the mother of three young boys, she is competing on American Idol and did a strong job on what sounded like a religious worship song with country music overtones. It will be interesting to see if she can show musical versatility on other genres.

 

9. Braden Rumfelt- "Love On The Brain"

I was sort of expecting Braden to be sort of average and perhaps cast in a role of Idol fodder but I have to say, this performance definitely exceeded my expectations.  

 

He sang this Rihanna song really well and seemed to effortlessly hit some big notes. I think this was commented upon in his audition, but his voice does sort of resemble Steve Perry of Journey in a way. I would be very interested to hear his sing some songs in that musical lane. I think he probably took a lot of votes that Jake was hoping to get.

 

10. Brooks- "Dancing On My Own"

I truly do not understand why he dropped his last name. It seems very pretentious for the kind of seemingly humble singer he is and the Rosser branding is still on his social media of course.

 

Brooks is my mother's least favorite member of the Top 20 this season. I do not think she likes the fact that a dumpy looking male with facial hair sounds like a woman when he sings. Frankly, a lot of older Idol fans may feel the same way. I appreciate his talent though and I thought this was actually the best he has sounded on anything that has been aired thus far. This particular song was very well suited for his style.  Idol is definitely pimping him a ton early on.

 

Rankings:

 

10. Makiyah

 9. Jake Thistle

 8. Kutter Bradley

 

 7. Daniel Stallworth

 6. Genevieve Hayward

 5. Jesse Finding

 4. Brooks

 3. Hannah Harper

 2. Kyndal

 1. Braden Rumfelt

 

I do not know if we will get the results in one week or two weeks. I think these kids are probably fine with a longer wait. As for my view, I thought the first two performances of the need were not nearly as good as I was anticipating from those particular singers and they missed a big opportunity and fairness dictates they should be eliminated. Everyone else was decent but Kutter was somewhat less decent than some of the others. It was all very close though.

What will happen? I think Makiyah and Jake will probably go. The third prediction is more difficult. I do not think it will be Kutter. I think it will be either Daniel or Genevieve and since I think more Lionel Richie fans were watching than Chappell Roan fans, I think it will be bad news for Genevieve, to go along with a curse on all Wisconsin competitors ever since the Milwaukee Brewers stupidly flew an L flag in "celebration" last October.