American Idol- Top 9

I watched the show on Monday night and now it is Thursday night and I write about it. Let us see how good my memory is. Thankfully, I can just consult my rankings. This time, I had some surprises.

 

This week was the annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame episode. The very talented and legendary Pat Benatar, along with her husband and collaborator Neil Giraldo (who seemed to do most of the talking) were the mentors. At the end of the evening, the Bottom Two would be sent home and thus further away from a dream of one day being enshrined in Cleveland.

 

 

1. Chris Tungseth- "Cold As Ice"

 

In the year 2026, many feel the song title could be a political statement.  I do not really care too much for this particular Foreigner song.

 

Unfortunately, I just seem to be over Chris as a potential Idol standout. I think he was good early in the audition process but has reached about as far as he can go. He may be a big dude with long hair but he is nowhere in the vocal league of past Idol winner Caleb Johnson, especially on rock. Chris feels more "yacht rock" and I recall their being some bum notes or missed opportunities on Monday.

 

2. Rae- "MacArthur Park"

I have to think there were better songs that would have fit this category than this one for Rae. One could probably say the same thing for Carrie Underwood over twenty years ago, as she had one of her least raved about Idol performances that season.

Frankly, Rae might have sang it better than Carrie once did, but it is still a weird song to try to win people over with.As a performer, Rae seems to be sort of cabaret. Older viewers may like her but I have still struggled to see how the core Idol demographic might take to her.

 

3. Braden Rumfelt- "Superstition"

 

Braden missed a great opportunity to sing Journey. Some have noted that the tone of his voice is kind of similar to that of Steve Perry. I think he could have had a moment with an actual rock song, but his own personal tastes may lean more towards Stevie Wonder.

 

I thought this was good and probably the best Braden has been on the Hollywood studio stage, but others with actual trained ears may have noticed some parts where he went off pitch. 

 

4. Brooks- "These Days"

 

I do not know this Jackson Browne song but the artist may have been a good choice for Brooks. Frankly though, I did not like it very much. I think my mother is having an influence on how I view Brooks (and she did not even have him ranked last week.) 

 

He is getting overpraised in my view. All of his performances are just sounding the same and do not have anything in the way of dynamism. It is hard to put my finger on it exactly but something about his vocals on this song did not sit right with me. 

 

5. Daniel Stallworth- "Livin' On A Prayer"

 

Some Bon Jovi purists may not have improved, but I give Daniel very high marks for this cover. 

 

It was a bold song choice and I think he succeeded in turning into an R&B jam with elements of Gospel. It really suited him well. Is Daniel perhaps the least talked about contestant this season though?

 

6. Keyla Richardson- "Signed, Sealed, Delivered"

Her choice of a '90s song may have been surprising, but taking on Stevie Wonder was less so although it would have probably been even more predictable had she done a song by a female artist.

 

There is definitely a pattern for me with Keyla. I always think her performances are good at the start but the way she pulls out the vocal pyrotechnics in the final 30 seconds or so each time causes me to rank her one spot higher than I had first thought I would. The same thing happened here. The first minute or so was good, but nothing great, and then she shines at the end. Still though, I have to judge the entire thing.

 

7. Lucas Leon- "Bennie And The Jets"

 

In the clips of him rehearsing with the mentors, I thought this could have actual potential. I thought it was a good thing for Lucas to take on Elton John, instead of sticking too closely to country each time. This is not my favorite Elton John song however.

 

Performance wise, I thought it was somewhat lacking. Lucas played piano for the whole song, when he might have benefited more from "getting up" in the middle. Vocally, it was not horrible, but once again a bit underwhelming. Lucas knows how to play to the camera with his facial expressions, but while he was singing, his cranium was bouncing all around like a bobblehead doll.

 

8. Kyndal- "Piece Of My Heart"

 

This was a weird segment beyond her continuing shunning of shoewear, which might make her searched after on some corners of the internet, but I find weird.  There was some drama as to if she would sing this Janis Joplin song or "Message In A Bottle" by The Police. I thought I would probably prefer to hear "Piece Of My Heart" as an Idol viewers, but that the other song was more attuned to her quirky vocal images. The Benatars/Giraldos seemed to really want The Police and Kyndal seemed to indicate she was leaning heavily in that direction.

Seacrest brought her out to sing then cut to a commercial. When the show returned, she was not doing the song that was expected as Pat and Neil were shown somewhat awkwardly clapping along.  I though tit was alright vocally for the most part but far from great. Then, towards the end, Kyndal turned her back from the cameras and sang it directly to the band behind her. When it was over, she looked defeated. Later, we learned that she had lost her voice this week due to illness. I did not really detect that during the performance but merely than Kyndal might not be in a great space mentally with all that is going on.

 

9. Philmon Lee- "Hot Blooded"

 

Another temperature related mid Foreigner song that has been done in past Idol seasons.  

 

Philmon has been impressing me lately and I was rooting for him on this performance. I thought parts of it were really good vocally but that he was not at his complete best. It seemed like he might have veered off course during the last big note. Then, the judges and Seacrest made a big deal about messingl his well shellacked hair up and that just seemed pretty embarrassing for all involved.

 

10. Hannah Harper- "Landslide"

 

Thus far, we have really only heard Hannah sing Worship and County songs on stage. In theory, her attempting to sing Stevie Nicks might have made some sense. 

 

This greatly surpassed my expectations and was easily the best performance she has done. Hannah did not attempt to do anything crazy with her voice or veer from the original, but she sounded terrific and it came across as a sincere and connected interpretation and better than anything else we had heard from the contestants thus far. Would the final performer (whom I was struggling to think who was left) be able to top it?

 

11. Jordan McCullough-"Somebody To Love"

 

Doing this particular Queen song is probably not that much of a surprise. I predicted it for Jordan as soon as they said what band  he was covering. If I recall, Freddie Mercury once said he wrote this tune with Aretha Franklin in mind.

 

Week after week, Jordan delivers though. I could do an analogy to another person named Jordan who once wore red and black like this Jordan on Monday night but that might be taking it a bit too far. Vocally it was great though. I do not think Jordan is capable of singing many bad notes ever. If nothing else, he is set up to potentially be a big time Gospel artist.

 

Rankings:

 

11. Brooks

10. Chris Tungseth

 

9. Lucas Leon

8. Kyndal

7. Rae

6. Philmon Lee

5. Braden Rumfelt 

4. Keyla Richardson

3. Daniel Stallworth

2. Hannah Harper

1. Jordan McCullough

 

As for my predictions during the final commercial break, I was pretty conflicted.  Mostly, I was hoping that Daniel would not fall short, but believed that was a possibility. Ultimately, I just decided to hope that America was on the same page as me and went with a prediction of my bottom two Brooks and Chris Tungseth getting the boot.

 

Who was eliminated: Rae and Philmon Lee

 

America is often not on the same page as me in many regards. The contestants I had ranked 6 and 7 (insert already outdated Gen Z meme here) would be the ones to go. I was not very surprised about Rae. I had predicted she would be soon to go for a few weeks now. Idol is now down to three females and six guys. I think that has probably happened before in a Top 9. All of the remaining ladies are in their mid to very late 20s and are either married or parents.

 

This is feeling like an unorthodox season. I actually think Hannah or Jordan could win when I never would have thought that a couple of weeks ago. 

Last week, I wondered if Philmon was perhaps a dark horse to win.Alas, that is not to be. He picked the wrong time to have a middle of the pack performance, but it probably would not have mattered anyway. Chris Tungseth is taking votes that might have otherwise gone to Philmon, and on the vocal merits, that is unfortunate. I suppose it could have been a worse result though and next week (Disney Night again), I should probably expect one.