American Idol Finale

Last night, at the end of a three hour episode, American Idol crowned its 23rd winner. The result was one that pleasantly surprised me. While I long ago believed Jamal Roberts would go very far this season, I did not think he would actually win the entire show. That is indeed what happened though and Jamal is now only the second ever African-American male winner. The last time that happened was way back in 2003 when Ruben Studdard won Season Two. In face, only one other black male has ever even gotten as far since as the runner-up. That was the late Willie Spence in 2021. We were told that the vote total for this finale was "twice as many" as the votes last year, when I was also somewhat surprised when a female singer defeated a white male country singer I considered the front-runner. That was a valid result and so was what happened last night. If so many more people voted this season, that was truly a remarkable sign of a game-changing participation level.

 

Did I miss Donald Trump putting out a statement endorsing John Foster? That could have done the trick against him. My mother was disappointed that her favorite John did not win. She said she tried to vote but was unable to figure out the process and hopes that those missing votes would not have been the deciding factor. She is satisfied that John will be able to make records and have a career in country music.

 

It is once again late Monday night and I will do my best to recap the Sunday night spectacular. There is probably much more that could be said that I will forget. I always enjoy Idol season, but keeping up with it felt more like a project this year. I will be glad to not have to do any more of these write-ups. 

1. John Foster, Breanna Nix, and Jamal Roberts- "We Are The Champions"

 

The night begins with what we are told is not technically a round, but I might as well judge how these three sounded on their opening group number. The all did just fine on the Queen arena power ballad. The song and the Freddie Mercury vocals were best suited for Breanna though and least so for John.

 

1. Breanna Nix

2. Jamal Roberts

3. John Roberts

 

For the first official round, the contestants had songs picked from them (apparently from a list they submitted) by Jelly Roll. The three final contestants are all southerners. They consist of a male and female white country singer joined by an African-American R&B singer. They truly resemble this year's judging panel completely. All will be lucky to have similar careers to Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, and Lionel Richie.

 1. John Foster- "Courtesy of the Red, White, And Blue (The Angry American)"

 

I am pretty sure this song by the late Toby Keith has never been done on Idol. It came out after the 2001 terrorist attacks and was considered controversial even back then. Picking it for John tonight felt very manipulative to keep red state voters, particularly country music fans, on his side.

 

This is the point where I could easily go on a side tangent about how the Republican voters from a generation ago when this song came out (which of course I was one of) might not recognize the Republican voters of today if they really thought about it. They are largely the same people, although unlike the Presidency of the great George W. Bush, (a man who could really rock a cowboy hat), the current leader of the Republican Party approaches foreign policy and American strength in a very different light.

While this song talks about enacting revenge on jihadists who had harmed us with airplanes and were intent on doing so again, Donald Trump believes in making nice with supporters of terrorism for money making purposes and begging enablers of Hamas to give him a big airplane.

 

This could be a long essay but I will hold off because this song is from before John was born and I doubt he would ever say anything too political on television. So, he sang this country song in his usual country way including the line at the end that I thought he might skip. I do not buy that John is ready to put his boot in someone's ass. He seems to be too nice of a guy. There are better patriotic songs than this, but people were waving the red, white, and blue in the audience and I am sure a lot of Trump voters at home loved this (for the record my mother is not a Trump voter.) The entertainment diversion of American Idol aside, those people ought to really examine what this song is supposed to mean and what "the American way" should really be. It is not Donald J. Trump and what he represents.

 

2.  Jamal Roberts- "First Time" 

I do not know this song, but it definitely veered in the smooth R&B direction and Jamal did what he has done all season and sang it very well. I cannot really think of what else I can say.The families of the three contestants are all seated (or asleep) at the side of the stage on couches. For Jamal, they never really specify whom is who. Who is the older dude with the blond beard? An Uncle? If it was his father they might have pointed it out. Who was the woman in the tight jeans? Could she have possibly been the mother of Jamal's two oldest daughters? The answers may be out there somewhere on the internet, but I will let the mystery exist.

 

3. Breanna Nix- "In Jesus Name"

 

For John, they went the patriotic route and for Breanna, back to the heavily religious theme. This season has been very big on country hats and crosses. If Breanna wants to have a career in Christian Contemporary Music, she might be very successful and this would indeed have been the right kind of song for her. She sang it pretty well, but I cannot really remember much else about it.

During the performance, her young son Emerson, with noise blocking headphones on, was laying down, sound asleep across one of thc couches. He is an adorable kid but he always seems to be sleeping. Are they drugging him for the episodes? I doubt that but conspiracy theories can be fun. It was like 5:20 pm in California at this point. Could they not have arranged nap times better?

Rankings:

3. John Foster

2. Breanna Nix

1. Jamal Roberts

 

One more round until we get a "snapshot" of the vote and eliminate the first person. This is the traditional "hometown visit" aspect of the Top Three, complete with emotional video packages with not so subtle narratives galore about each contestant.

 

1. John Foster- "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

 

I feel like we learned a lot. At least I did. John's actual last name is apparently Benoit and Foster is his middle name/stage name.. Unlike his two competitors, John Foster Benoit III seems to come from a fairly well-off background. His family owns a cajun meat store and unlike the other two, he is definitely Catholic. Is country music really that big though in the Baton Rogue area of Louisiana? It seems like he would fit in more in the more Protestant Shreveport area. They did feel the name to remove the French 

sounding last name from his performance identity. When he went home, the logo of his name was splattered everywhere, which I assume was drawn up by his family or management team. What I noticed was that the T in FOSTER was stylized as a cross.  I also wonder the details of how the 19 year old John has a 29 year old sister and a four year old sister. Considering that age gap between them all, it is likely a blended family.

 

The video package had John visiting the graveside of a young girl we were told was his best friend who had died in an auto accident a couple years back. That truly sounds like a horrible thing for anyone to go through. John was very emotional on the Idol stage  when he sang the song he had written in her honor a few weeks back and even more so when he sang it to large crowds at his hometown visit.

 

For this "hometown dedication". he picked a song I really like, but which seemed sort of odd. I will note that last week I compared him to John Denver singing to Moppets back in the 1970s and this was a John Denver song. It would have been perfect if he was from West Virginia. Obviously, this song has nothing to do with his home state of Louisiana. I think it might have been ok, at least on the last verse, to have changed the lyrics to "Louisiana... Cajun Mama... take me hooooooome...." He did not do so however. Was anyone in the Pelican State pissed?

 

Regardless, this is the kind of song that best suits John's voice. It was a very good vocal.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)"

 

For one thing, although it was not formally said, Jamal going home allowed him to meet his brand new daughter Gianna for the first time. She seemed to have a remarkable head of hair for being less than two weeks old. There was also some good footage of Jamal (who has a pastor as a grandfather) with his family at a cookout. The town of Meridian, Mississippi is heavily black, but they also showed some white folks at some of the public gatherings for Jamal. Idol had to do its own DEI perhaps.

 

For these hometown visits, contestants often visit the schools where they were once students, or perhaps still technically were. This may have been the first actual instance where someone visited a school where they were a teacher. That is a pretty cool aspect. Jamal is apparently known as "Coach" at his school and teaches P.E. to elementary age kids. Perhaps ABC can get him a spot on "Abbott Elementary."  Some of the kids were quite emotional upon reuniting with him and paying tribute to him as the cameras rolled.

I do know what this song really has to do with his a hometown visit but once again, he sang an old-school classic, this one by The Temptations extremely well. Older Idol voters likely appreciated it.

 

3. Breanna Nix- "The Climb"

 

For her visit, Breanna went home to Denton, Texas, which I have always associated as the home base of the cursed Von Erich wrestling dynasty. Her visit pushed the theme of her being a mother and how she was an inspiration to other young mothers to follow their dreams. Breanna often makes some kind of mention as to how when she was young, she might not have always been a good kid and that she made mistakes. Jamal has eluded to having been through a lot in his life as well. That differentiates both of them in terms of life experience to what recent High School valedictorian and LSU biology major John has been through.

 

This was a smart song choice, although Breanna, at age 25, might actually be the oldest woman to ever sing it on television. Miley Cyrus was definitely far younger when she first came out with it. I will say though that Breanna nailed this and brought all kinds of power and emotion to the performance. The way she held the last note was standing ovation worthy.

 

Rankings for this round which also mirror cumulative rankings for all three songs they had sung thus far: 

 

3. John Foster. 

2. Jamal Roberts

1 Breanna Nix

 

I keep always typing John Roberts instead of John Foster, and have probably let it get through on here at least once this season. Neither John Foster nor Jamal Roberts are the Chief Justice of the United States, but since John is Catholic, he would be more likely to be on the current SCOTUS.

 

Who should have finished in third place: John Foster

Who I predicted would finish in third place: Jamal Roberts

Who finished in third place: Breanna Nix

 

Look at that. Jamal made it into the Final Two. This was perhaps a minor surprise, but despite believing that Breanna took the last round by virtue of her vocals, I cannot complain too much about it. Still, I had to think that John was likely to win in a couple of hours.

 

As Emerson Nix continued to sleep and would likely miss out on the chance to one day say he was awake to watch the aging guest performers who would be taking the stage, the other contestants were applauded by their relatives. For John, that included his two grandfathers, whom it had been mentioned on the put a boot in their ass go America song, were both veterans. I assume these grandfathers represented both sides of his family and were not a couple. That would have been a plot twist!

 

Still, I wonder what was going through the minds of those two older gentlemen, after a night heavy on religion and patriotism, when Salt N Pepa came out and started performing "Push It."

 

Also, I am pretty sure Salt N Pepa have done the exact same thing before at least one previous Idol Finale.

 

Breanna seemed ok with her elimination at this point of the evening. She did very well for herself and I hope she is successful in her musical ventures.

 

Throughout the course of the middle portion of the program, there were group numbers, and all the finalists had their "celebrity" duets or trios, although they fit Desmond Roberts in with an entire group of male finalists (minus the ones that were actually competing tonight which seemed to be an Idol Finale departure). I also noticed that Thunderstorm Artis was not on stage for the Good Charlotte group number with the other guys. It was mentioned that Lionel Richie is the father in law of one of the brothers from that group. I could never tell the Maddens apart.

The Jessica Simpson collaboration with a cowboy attired Josh King was interesting. We were told that Ms. Simpson had not performed on television in 15 years and she certainly looked different than how she used to. It was interesting to me that Carrie Underwood was watching her from the judges' table. Do they actually known each other?  Could Carrie and Jessica have had a conversation about their mutual ex Tony Romo? If it were last season, Jessica could have discussed John Mayer with Katy Perry.

 

At this point I had to judge the performances that Jamal and John were in.

 

1. John Foster- "Deeper Than The Holler"

 

This was a country duet with judge Luke Bryan for John. I wonder if the Breanna duet with Brandon Lake (whomever that is) was moved around at the schedule at this point. I really cannot remember much about this performance. John played guitar and sounded like he always does. There is no doubt he is going into country music and not any other genre. Hopefully, his music will not be as cringey as Luke's.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Unpretty/Liar"

For Jamal, it was a medley of the songs of his duet partner Jelly Roll which seem to be of the theme about what a lost soul he once was. I am not the preeminent expert on Jelly's biography, (although I saw he was hanging out with Trump and RFK Jr and that crowd at an MMA event this year) but I believe he was once in jail. Fortunately, he did not escape, as those 10 people did in New Orleans. I believe they have gotten four back thus far.

 

Anyways, Jamal has a great soulful voice. I would not want to listen to any of this on the radio necessarily but I cannot help but think he is a stronger all-around singer amongst the Final Two.

 

Duet Round Verdict: Jamal over John

 

Finally, the contestants would sing their "single." From what Seacrest appeared to say, the Top 7 all recorded them recently and they have been released on I-Tunes. If I was actually following this stuff when the show was not airing, the sales numbers would have been a big indication on who was likely to win. I do not recall Idol ever having 7 singles for sale and also, at least as it relates to Jamal and John, these were not "new" song that were written for them. John actually got to record and would be about the perform the original song he had written and had already done on the Idol stage and Jamal would also be reprising a past performance. Past Idol finales have included both the "winner's single" and a "popular reprise" and this was both of that combined.

 1. John Roberts- "Tell That Angel I Love Her"

 

As was the case when he first sang it, I was very impressed by John's songwriting ability for this genre and the emotional connection he brought to the performance. I assume John and the departed angel he is singing about were just good friends but it seems like a very sad story This was a solid vocal that due to the subject matter was without any of the corniness that John had been exhibiting on some songs. Actually, might it have been better for him to have done at least something "fun" tonight. Maybe offering a little kick on the "boot in their ass" lyric was that attempt.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Heal"

 

I had noted that Jamal over the past few weeks seemed to sing with somewhat less energy than he was showing in the earlier rounds. I suppose he left it all out on stage for this last performance. It was very good when he sang it the first time a few weeks ago, but this reprise was even better. The song, which to me continues to sound like a worship song, starts off slow and ethereal and Jamal has the kind of voice to pull that off every time. Then, at the end last night, he finished in another gear and really put a preaching/gospel spin on it that I am sure impressed a lot of people. If they were not already voting, they may have been motivated to get out their phones.

 

Final Round Verdict: Jamal over John

 

 As I was watching a recording of the show after it finished airing, I saw Jamal's name trending on Twitter/X below "American Idol" and I asked myself, "maybe he won?" I figured though it was probably more likely people were Tweeting about him to complain that did he not win although he deserved to and Idol is racist, etc.

 

Who should have won American Idol: Jamal Roberts

Who I predicted won American Idol: John Foster

Who won American Idol: Jamal Roberts

 

For the second year in a row, I was both surprised and pleased. I think John seems like a good kid and is very talented at what he does, but for pure singing ability alone, he was middle of the pack as far as the Top 14 was concerned. It will be interesting to see what he does in Nashville. Although he has sort of a modern look, with longer hair, etc, his style of singing is more old school country. Is he going to go the Scotty McCreery post-Idol route and sing songs about beer and babes and parties? Perhaps, he might end up somewhere like Branson, Missouri singing to older fans of country music. He should definitely continue to pursue his passion for music but it would also be a great story if he does go on to actually become a doctor one day.

 

Jamal is the winner. I already talked about the historical significance of this. I also am pretty sure he is the first person to be crowned the American Idol while not technically wearing what would be considered a shirt.  It seems like Jamal is the most reserved personality wise to win Idol, at least in some time. He has always come across as likeable on the show, but I feel like there is a lot about him and his life that the regular Idol viewer does not know. His reaction to advancing every week has been fairly muted and last night was no exception, As is always the case, the confetti moment featured the other finalists coming out and surrounding him. Clearly, many of them looked extremely happy for him. 

 

If as we were told, twice as many votes came in as last season, that is definitely testament to Jamal's ability to get out the vote. I do not think people were necessarily voting to stop John or Breanna last night. I think a lot of black Americans, who might not have voted for or watched Idol in years, heard about Jamal, perhaps through social media, and did their thing to support him. That is how politics works. Jamal expanded the electorate. His portrayal as a loving father to the extremely telegenic Lyrik and Harmoni definitely helped. Voting strictly along racial identity lines is distasteful in some ways but just so happens, he was worthy of the win, and I am sure got many votes from non-black viewers as well. While I am glad Jamal won, in my view, the best overall singers this season might have been two African-American females, Gabby Samone and Kolbi Jordan. I also could make a case for Breanna at times being stronger than Jamal. I think she was in one round last night for sure.

There is no doubt that Jamal is incredibly talented and was consistent the entire season. I do not know what his album is going to sound like. It might be R&B or they could have him go the Gospel route. His very strong take on "Heal" aside, he seems to be more suited to sing oldies, and thus I do not know if he is going to go on to be a star.

 

Still, he is an admirable person who overcame a tough background to become an educator. Now, he will have the opportunity to provide for his family at a level that might have looked impossible just a few months ago. Early in the season, Jamal said he auditioned to bring hope to his community and to let people know that they had options in life beyond picking up a gun.  

 

That is truly a worthy message for an American Idol that all sorts of people in our country need to hear.

 

American Idol- Top 3

The show aired on Monday. I watched it on Tuesday and now here on Wednesday, I am here to say that I did not really find the episode all that entertaining. Maybe it was just the overloading of back to back Disney Nights with songs I really do not vibe with. Maybe it was the fact that Gabby Samone is no longer on the show. Maybe the kids just seemed to be somewhat physically and emotionally tired. I am sure they are working hard. They had to learn and perform four songs over the previous week, while also starting to prepare for the Finale. There were no disasters musically, but it all felt a little bit disjointed and overly corny at times. This has been a very strong season, but as often happens when the show gets to its final rounds, very few actually seem "hungry" for the belt.

This was supposed to be some sort of Disney "heroes and villains" theme, but I do not see how that applied. I also do not understand why out of the five contestants, they had the same person sing first and last in each round but then mixed up the others in the middle. They also interspersed the video packages between the rounds with one being another mentoring session with Lin-Manuel Miranda and the other being the contestants having a wholesome and sappy time at Disneyland with their families. Even though it was taped before it was known which of the Top 7 would become the Top 5, they had to speak to the cameras as if they already made it. That must make it even tougher for Gabby and Mattie Pruitt to think back about what they said to a producer on camera in what would become deleted footage.

 

Looking at this Final Five though, it sticks out that there are three contestants who are parents and they (now) have a combined six children between them. This is very unprecedented. Looking back, I am pretty sure that only Fantasia and Noah Thompson won Idol when they were already parents. Both of them were still teenagers at the time and single. The parents this season are in their 20s and two of them have had their spouses front and center since the auditions. We do not exactly know the relationship status of the third parent. In addition to the three parents, there are also two teenage southern boys, who appear to come from affluent families, and who most likely have not fathered any babies. They both have younger sisters though who have been very visible. All of this makes for a very family friendly and Disney friendly Idol homestretch. It all seems very stylistically different than "The Voice" where most of the finalists seem to look very much as if they come from "blue state America." I would not be able to name any of them. It is enough work to focus on Idol.

 

1. Slater Nally- "You've Got A Friend In Me"

 

I would ban this song from Idol. Every year, during the Disney portion of the competition, some dude has to sing this Randy Newman "Toy Story" monstrosity. On Monday, Slater had his hair all done up and was wearing some sort of goofy looking tuxedo and singing into an old-fashioned microphone for whatever reason.

 

This is a long way from the ballcap and jeans wearing gritty southern rock guitar player. This was the first time he did not play a guitar on the Idol stage and I think that might be a good thing, but this felt all sorts of corny. Apparently though, he sang this recently, while wearing a weird outfit, at some sort of High School performance. I really do not feel Slater is as "country" as might have been advertised. 

2. John Foster- "The Bare Necessities"

 

Oh great, another cringy song. When I was just a bit younger than John, I had a part time job working in a toy story of sorts that sold Disney music and this song used to play all the time over the speakers.

 

For what John is trying to do, he did well. His core audience are somewhat older ladies like my mother who really likes John and told me she would want to "adopt" him. Those are the exact same words she used to describe Laine Hardy, another Bayou teenager a few years ago. He would up getting arrested for something after wining Idol and we do not hear much from him anymore. In his audition, John said he was in college had ambitions of going to medical school and becoming an oncologist. Something tells me that he is probably not going back to school anytime soon.

 

Needless to say, this performance was very corny for me but John knows how to work a camera. It would have fit in very well as some sort of John Denver-ish 1970s variety show appearance, complete with the Muppets singing along.

 

 3. Thundesrstorm Artis- "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes"

 

Upon hearing the song choice, I was not excited. However, I have to give Thundestorm credit.  He sang this very well. It was a slow, almost lullaby like ballad, but his voice had a Nat King Cole quality to it. Unlike the first two performances, at least he was able to infuse some life into it and come across as a worthy vocal and not just playing dress-up and singing (although John basically wears the same thing every performance.)

 

4. Breanna Nix- "This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)"

 

Ok, this is not exactly a Disney song, but I guess it qualifies since it was in a Disney movie. I wish more contestants would have tried to stretch the rules like that.

 

Breanna sounded decent but something felt off about her performance. She just seemed a little worn out and unsure. The thought occurred to me, especially as she seemed to be sitting on the couches at the times when her male competitors were standing up.... might she be pregnant?  Breanna responded to Carrie Underwod that the song "has a lot of words." It does seem like the judges are a bit more critical of her at times than they are on the others.

 

5. Jamal Roberts- "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

 

This old Motown tune was in "Remember The Titans", a High School football movie that itself is probably not really thought of as being Disney. What could be a better choice for a soulful gym teacher?

 

I thought Jamal sang it very well. He definitely demonstrated the most vocal "tricks" out of anybody in this first round (poor Gabby) but it seemed like he could have done even more with the song. He did not directly sing the very memorable chorus, instead leaving it to the background singers, while he just did a bunch of vocal runs. He even mostly stood in one place. Back a few weeks ago, he was running all over the stage. Carrie made note of how he did not move around much either. Is Jamal, like the others, just tired? He also seems to be interacting a lot less verbally. He might not have a huge personality but he seems to be holding back more and mostly just sways back and forth while clutching the microphone during the judges' comments, while the other contestants try to interact with a panel a bit more, (or in some cases, such as Thunderstorm, a lot more.)

 

Round 1 Rankings... too bland for my tastes all around

 

5. Slater Nally

4. John Foster

3. Breanna Nix

2. Thunderstorm Artis

1. Jamal Roberts

 

1. Slater Nally- "Born To Be Wild"

 

Now, Slater was back with his electric guitar and at least trying to do something more "current" seeming, even though this song is close to 60 years old. Carrie, the wife of a hockey player, knew it was from a "Mighty Ducks" movie. Maybe John, who likes the movie "Cars" should have done "Life Is A Highway."

 

I liked this performance better than his first one but it still felt kind of restrained and "safe."

 

2. Thunderstorm Artis- "Find Yourself"

 

I do not know this song at all. Apparently, it is from "Cars." This was the second ballad of the night for T-Storm, who seems to do a lot of ballads. He might have benefited by being a bit more "fun" on stage.

 

From, what I remember though, he sang it well. This performance was heavy on the guitar playing though and he seemed to want people to pay attention to how well he was able to handle the instrument. It was maybe too much of a coffee shop sort of vibe than something for a huge stage. It seemed like Thunderstorm almost got very emotional when Luke Bryant started talking about the relationship the contestant had with his late father.

 

3. John Foster- "Rainbow Connection"

 

The song title alone seemed like more of a Thundestorm pick. Seriously though, in the last round, I was picturing John serenading a bunch of Muppets, and here we were, with him singing Kermit's song. I guess a guest appearance was either out of Idol's budget or Kermit realized that in Louisiana, they probably eat a lot of frogs.

 

What else can I say? John sang it well. Lin-Manuel had wanted him to try to sing it not so much like Willie Nelson and I guess John accomplished that but he still seems to be more of a tribute artist than an original musician. That has definitely not hurt the Idol victory chances of past contestants though such as Scotty McCreery. It seems like Carrie might be pulling to a John victory. Back in the auditions, she and Luke Bryant had cautioned him to try to be more original vocally and Luke stated he almost said "no" to a golden ticket for John. He has definitely come a long way in terms of perception, as he is now on the edge of ultimate victory, although his voice is probably the same as it was.

 

4. Breanna Nix- "You'll Be In My Heart"

 

Breanna dedicated this Tarzan song to her husband, whom handed off the kid to someone else in the audience while the cameras were on him for this. He was also mic'ed up in the crowd.

In this round, Breanna seemed more relaxed and likely had a somewhat better vocal performance for it. It just was not as impactful as what we have seen from other contestants, including Breanna herself, this season.

 

5. Jamal Roberts- "Beauty And The Beast"

 

Jamal stated in the video package that he did not know why he picked this song, which seems pretty odd. This is kind of a boring ballad, but Jamal is so talented vocally, he is able to make a listener appreciate his skills. Once again though, as was the case for everyone this evening, it just seemed sort of "safe." With Gabby and a couple others gone, Jamal (along with Breanna) have the best overall voices but this was kind of him coasting and then getting a lot of praise for that.

 

Frankly. he could have had a moment with "Circle Of Life."

 

Round Two Rankings:

 

5. John Foster

4, Slater Nally

3. Breanna Nix

2. Thunderstorm Artis

1. Jamal Roberts

 

 Combined rankings- just have to break a tie between 5 and 4

 

5. John Foster

4. Slater Nally

 

3. Breanna Nix

2. Thunderstorm Artis

1. Jamal Roberts

Who should have been eliminated: John Foster and Slater Nally

 

I managed to go over 24 hours without hearing any spoilers as to who was eliminated. So, my predictions were genuine. However, when I spoke on the phone to my mother, who wanted me to watch the show so we could discuss later, she did not seem at all upset, so that was perhaps my cue that her boy John went through.

 

As I had been saying, I thought Thunderstorm, who might be splitting some African-American voters with Jamal, and even more Evangelical voters with Breanna, might have run out of time. 

Then, I thought that the country music vote split between John and Slater would finally lead to one of them being cut. I have been saying from the start that I thought Slater might win the whole thing. Both Sunday and Monday though, I thought Slater came across as having "sold out" a bit, in contrast to John, who some might think "sold out" from the very beginning. John has been more consistently himself though and to those who decided he was "the one" early one, that is all that matters, more than the singing and the music. 

It is tough to say for sure, but even if I had watched live and not gotten indirect cues from my mother, I think I would have-

Predicted to be eliminated: Slater Nally and Thunderstorm Artis

 

Who was eliminated: Slater Nally and Thunderstorm Artis

 

While I thought Slater was perhaps the frontrunner to win, I did also have Breanna, John, and Jamal as going to the Final Four from the beginning. Now, one of those three will win American Idol next Sunday. Before that, they will make "homecoming trips" to Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, red states all, although I think Jamal's town probably voted heavily for Kamala Harris.

Frankly, Thunderstorm and especially Slater may be better off not winning Idol and being under the thumb, at least for a short time, of that whole team. They seem to be songwriters deep down who want to do their own thing, while the other three are probably more malleable.

I can envision fans making the case for why either Breanna or Jamal will win. I will be surprised if I do not watch the show next week and think that one of them definitely deserved to win. They are better and more versatile singers.

However with Slater now out of the way, I will be pretty surprised if John does not win. I think Breanna will come in second, but that will wind up being secondary. For the present-day American Idol, young, cowboy hat wearing John is just a great "candidate." Young girls will like his jawline and their mothers and grandmothers will appreciate his 'aw shucks" persona and southern politeness (ie, "Miss Carrie, Mr. Luke", etc.)

It might be easy to forget that a few weeks ago, in an unguarded moment, it was John of all people who got caught reacting with a profanity on stage and having to be bleeped. Maybe that won him some votes too. It probably showed a more genuine side than the carefully crafted tv personality and Idol strategy,

American Idol- Top 5

It is Monday night. Idol has revealed its Finale participants, but I will be avoiding that news until tomorrow evening, when I hope to watch tonight's episode. Just imagine if this were the pre-VCR days. Back then, folks had no choice but to watch television by appointment. I did catch Sunday night's Mothers' Day/Disney Night episode live (perhaps ten minutes late on the DVR) and made my rankings then. Now I will recap that episode, which ended with a very unfair result, that sadly did not surprise me much. The plan will be to recap the Monday show on Wednesday night, as I did last week.

 

Every year, since moving to ABC, American Idol sends its contestants to Disneyland where they rehearse a Disney song, I always sort of dread this and these songs are not exactly "exciting" but I always come away impressed with the talent shown. This year Lin-Manuel Miranda was the guest mentor. He seemed very mainstream in all the video packages, but is probably as "left" politically as Idol might get this season in terms of on-air guests.

 

1. Gabby Samone- "How Far I'll Go"

 

It is near impossible for Gabby to have a bad performance and this was definitely not one of them. However, he take on this song from "Moana" was perhaps not quite at her usual level of excellence. It had a lot of words and felt very musical theater. Still, she managed to hit the notes she wanted to. Was there perhaps a better Disney song for Gabby though? She had not done much uptempo on the Idol stage and that could have been a good idea. She also could have done "Circle of Life" and probably nailed that, although it would have brought out many comparisons to Jennifer Hudson's memorable Idol moment.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Go The Distance"

Gee, these Disney song titles are sort of nods to the uncertainty of the Idol competition. What do I remember about this? I remember that Jamal sounded very,very good and infused it with the same sort of soulish intensity he brings to all of his performances. I cannot remember much more about it but at the time, it seemed like a better song choice than what Gabby had just done. At this point, I had already determined that one of them, if not both, were very much at risk for elimination on this evening, and that would be a great disservice.

 

3. Breanna Nix- "Reflection"

 

Idol had Breanna very much glammed up and she seemed a bit more confident.  Once again, a Disney ballad from an animated movie less than 30 years old was performed.

 

This was perhaps Breanna's strongest all-around vocal. She really captured the emotion in this song and delivered some powerful notes. Three performers in, it seemed like each one had gotten better. I do not think I had previously ever had Gabby any lower than second for a round.

 

4. John Foster- "Almost There"

 

They said he was singing a song inspired his home state of Louisiana and I thought it was going to be that dreadful ditty that Laine Hardy had one done. Thankfully, it was something different. 

I was watching this Mother's Day show with my parents, and similar to her thoughts on Laine, my mother really likes John and wanted very much for him to be kept in the competition. I tried to stress my point that while he is talented, the others are better singers. For this performance. John eschewed his guitar altogether which may be for the best, considering he had barely played a note in recent performances. The vocals were ok, but this was another example of a cheesy performance in a modern-day Heee Haw variety show sort of way. Part of the song was basically talking. Yes, he can pull that off, but it is hard to rank that up there with the other kids hitting crazy notes.

 

At least Josh King is gone this week. I wish Kobi Jordan were still around however.

 

5. Slater Nally- "Can You Feel The Love Tonight"

 

Slater took on the Elton John song from "The Lion King" which was not "Circle Of Life." I think Disney should be timely and make an animated film about 100 men trying to fight a silverback gorilla.

 

In the mentoring sessions, Slater always gushes about how he is a huge fan of whomever the mentor is, but this time, there was actual video evidence of him, just a few years back, loving the hell out of "Hamilton" and singing it with his sisters. That seemed a bit.. surprising. Anyways, right off the bat, Slater seemed to draw a blank on the how the song starts and missed the lyrics, Then, he recovered and sang it pretty well,  It was not his best though.The fact that he has a unique vocal style always makes it seem a little bit less like he is just dong cover songs.

 

6. Marrie Pruitt- "Remember Me"

Despite the song title, frankly I do not remember a whole lot about this performance a night later.  It was definitely another ballad though and in my mind, Mattie has definitely improved over the past couple of weeks but dome notes still sound kind of off to me.. She sang this well, although sometimes she needs to enunciate better.  I think that would be more important than the "sass" the judges keep wanting to bring out of her.  While 16 year old Mattie is talented, I cannot claim that she is anywhere near as "ready" as the her two older female competitors, Gabby and Breanna.

 

7. Thunderstorm Artis- "Colors Of The Wind"

This season, I have said that he resembles both Steve Urkel (perhaps from the episodes where he was the cooler alter ego) and a young Barack Obama. My father said that Thunderstorm looks like Denzel Washington and I think that might be true also.

 

Once again, T-Storm did a song referencing a weather phenomenon, this one from the movie "Pocahontas" which is most definitely not about Elizabeth Warren. I am not a fan of the song, but as is always the case, Thunderstorm sounded decent. He has his artsy sort of whisiperish delivery to the beginning verses of each song. I guess it is working for him up to this point.

 

Round 1 rankings:

 

7. John Foster

6, Mattie Pruitt

5. Slater Nally 

4. Thundestorm Artis

3. Gabby Samone

2. Jamal Roberts

1. Breanna Nix

 

Now, considering the holiday, it was time for the annual "Mother's Day Dedications." It seems though that the video pieces were not as drawn out and emotional as they usually are. Far less tears were shed as the contestants honored their mothers and less sappy letters were written. There were a couple of alterations to that format also, which we will get into. I also noted that while some of the mothers were their with their Idol child for a segment taping at Disneyland, they were not in the Hollywood studio for the live performance on Sunday. Maybe they had to work on Monday morning.

 

1. Breanna Nix- "Like My Mother Does"

 

This song was definitely suited for the occasion. First released by one-time Idol contestant and erstwhile horse-owner Kristy Lee Cook and then done as a part of an Idol finale by Lauren Alaina, I feel like this song has been done too much already on the Idol stage.

 

I will say though that Breanna sang it incredibly well. She was also smart enough to bring on the tears at the conclusion of the song, which I am sure was mostly genuine. This has to be quite a memorably Mother's Day for Breanna herself, whom apparently was not too active in the music world last year. she had a very strong night and might be in for an even bigger Sunday next week.

 

2. Gabby Samone- "Home"

 

Once again, another ballad for Gabby, but this is exactly what she excels at. I thought her first performance on Sunday was very good, but this was just an another level.  There is no way Diana Ross sang this nearly as well in "The Wiz" movie. Based on her vocals, Gabby deserves to be a star. I hoped people were voting for her, even though I myself do not vote, mostly because, when I do manage to watch it "live", I like to actually watch the show and judge and rank them all at the end on the merits.

 

My parents agreed though that Gabby was fantastic and deserved to be on tomorrow night. They seemed to dismiss my concert that she could go "home" that night.

 

3.  Slater Nally- "Don't Think Twice It's Alright"

Some dude sang this last season and I cannot remember his name. I cannot use the What Not to Sing website since it sadly has not been updated in years now with the recent season information, even after claiming they were going to do so.

 

Anyways, Slater said this Bob Dylan song reminded him of his mother, because she was reassuring, or something along those lines. This was a better fit of a song for Slater than the Disney one in the first round. He did the Bob Dylan thing by playing the harmonica as well as the guitar. Can Timothee Chalamet do that? I have yet to see that movie and since I am not a huge Dylan fan, do not really feel the need to. People who are true Slater fans, and I am sure there are many of them, would have definitely loved this.

 

4. Jamal Roberts- "A Change Is Gonna Come"

 

Jamal, whom has had at least one woman give birth to his children, dedicated this song to his step-mother, whom apparently died of Covid a few years back.

 

This song has been done a whole lot on Idol but it seemed tailor made for Jamal. I was very impressed by his version of it, including in the way he resisted the temptation and did not go over the top with his vocals. I thought Jamal was very much at risk of not getting enough votes to survive, but after I watched this, I really wondered how he could be voted off and did not really know who might be going home at least a round too early.

 

5. Mattie Pruitt- "Those Kind Of Women"

 

At Disneyland, Mattie was joined by both her mother and her step-mother and talked about being part of a blended family. The step-mom was the one in tears in the audience though and it comes across as if Mattie has mostly been raised in that household. 

Once again, I did not know this song, and I am really having a hard time recalling much about it. I think it was another attempt by Mattie to sing country, which could be strategic. I think her best performance was last week, when she sang what was a modern song by a non-country artist. By no means was this bad, but I think it was the one performance on the night that had the most spotty vocal moments. Mattie had to be saved by the judges last week after a bottom two performance and I was fairly sure she would run out of luck on Sunday.

 

6. Thunderstorm Artis- "Out Of The Blue"

 

An original song! Perhaps one that can be vaguely weather inspired, but this was one T-Storm wrote for his wife Faith. He dedicated this performance to her, the mother of his two children. I do not believe we have heard anything about Thunderstorm's mother this season, although he did talk about his father, whom I believe had passed away a while back,

 

I cannot recall how exactly this song went but it felt very natural for Thunderstorm and very much in line with what he has been having success with. He finished third on "The Voice" a few years ago and weeks ago, I might have been a bit surprised that he would get all the way to at least the Top Five on Idol.

 

7. John Foster- "Believe"

 

John was the one who broke down in tears with his mother in the pre-performance package. Now, that is smart politics. I am sure it was genuine.  My own mother is still rooting for him. She has always liked country music more than me though and knew this Brooks and Dunn song, which I did not. I just know "Only In America" from them because of awesome memories from the 2004 George W. Bush reelection campaign, a feeling I have sadly not gotten from politics since and probably never will again.

 

Anyways, this was a less corny performance from John. He definitely did his country thing well. If his style of country music is still popular in Nashville, I can see him having a career. I just cannot pretend that he is as good as Gabby, Breanna, Jamal, or Thunderstorm or typically Slater.

 

Round 2 rankings:

 

7. Mattie Pruitt

6. John Foster

5. Thunderstorm Artis

4. Slater Nally

3. Breanna Nix

2. Jamal Roberts

1. Gabby Samone

 

When it comes time to combine the two rounds, I already knew I had ties galore all over the place. For example,while I had Jamal second in both rounds, I had Breanna and Gabby swapped for first and third. Decisions would have to be made.

 

Overall rankings:

 

 7. Mattie Pruitt

 6. John Foster

 

 5. Slater Nally

 4. Thunderstorm Artis

 3. Jamal Roberts

 2. Breanna Nix

 1. Gabby Samone

 

Who should have been eliminated: Mattie Pruitt and John Foster

 

Prediction time. Let me start by telling the story of how last Wednesday evening, before the next Pope was even chosen, I had a dream, that the Pontiff came out on the balcony, as I have seen on television before, and had taken the Papal name of "Elo." When I woke up, I thought that it made no sense. Electric Light Orchestra? I do often have weird dreams.

 

Then, the next day, Catholics do get their new Pope.. amazingly enough, an American!, and from Chicago!, and he takes the name Leo. OMG, Leo and Elo have the exact same letters. I must be the Jewish Nostradamus. I should note though that the new Pope looked Filipino in my dream.

 

Would this prediction streak extend into the weekend for Idol though?

Who I predicted would be eliminated: Mattie Pruitt and Jamal Roberts

As I have mentioned, I was pretty sure Mattie would be cut. As for the other person? Nobody other than Slater or Breanna would have surprised me. It should have been John, but I thought he probably was going to survive. My hunch was that it would come down to Jamal or Gabby and whomever was getting the lesser of the amount of votes of African-Americans would be eliminated. Indeed that seems to be exactly what happened.

 

Who was eliminated: Mattie Pruitt and Gabby Samone

 

Perhaps, I was just hoping beyond hope that Gabby could stick around, but I think the black people who vote for Idol sided with Jamal more because he is somewhat more of a traditional black soul singer than baladeer Gabby, whom probably should have done something up-tempo in the latter rounds. I think she is good enough to have pulled it off.

 

 

My parents were surprised and upset about Gabby. Of course during the show, my mother was mostly focused on hoping John would survive. She prefers him way more than Slater. I have been saying from weeks ago that Slater is probably going to win the whole thing, whether he deserves to or not.

 

It is also true that at least since the days of Fantasia and Jordin Sparks, any African-American woman faces steep hurdles to even make it into the Finale. Recent years have seen a couple of extremely talented ones leave too soon and Gabby now joins that list. I said weeks ago that I thought she would probably fall short of the Finale, even if she was the best overall singer this year. A couple of black women have won since, but they were untypical seasons, such as the Covid/Zoom year of Just Sam or when Candice Glover won because Idol producers made sure that every male in the Finals that year was either gay and/or a horrible singer.

 

Yes. Gabby was robbed. Kolbi was last week also. It all felt inevitable though. Idol voting is about demographics.and whom people "relate" to the most for the whole season and not simply folks voting for the person whose voice sounded the best on that given night. 

One could look back and see that weeks ago, before the Finals even began, I offered an early prediction of a Final Four of Jamal (though I did sort of predict he would have been unfairly eliminated last night), Breanna, Slater, and John. That is what we have, with Thunderstorm, a black singer, whom appeals more to white fans, in the Top Five. 

 

The Top Five, for Disney Night Two (as if we needed another one) are two African-Americans and three white kids, which seems less outrageous than four males and one female. If anything, it should have probably been Jamal and three females, with Breanna the only white singer left.

When I watch tomorrow to see who the Final Three in the Finale will be I will judge on the merits, but I sort of fear that there might be some serious backlash in certain corners if Thunderstorm and Jamal are both gone and the Final Three are all white and from the South. That is the main demographic for this show. As it stands, all of them are from the South, with the exception of Hawaiian Thundestorm, whom mentioned last week that he had Texas roots.

 

To hold to my prediction of what a Final Four might be, I think Thunderstorm may be eliminated on the Monday show. Before I hear them sing tough, I really hope it is not Jamal joining him. Considering the vote splitting between the two country teenagers (of conflicting singing styles and somewhat so regarding personalities and looks) , one of Slater or John will be gone. Who has more fans? It may actually be John, but my hunch is that Slater will advance, and join Breanna and Jamal next Sunday in the Grand Finale.

 

Jamal will finish third and Breanna will be the runner-up to Slater even though I will probably think at the time the results should be reversed.

First though, I have to get through Tuesday without seeing any spoilers and then find out whom moves on.

American Idol- Top 7

In full disclosure, I did not see Monday's Idol episode until late Tuesday night. Now, it is late on Wednesday night and I am catching up with my recap. This may be a shorter one than usual.

 

As has become a recent tradition, it was the Judges' Song Contest, which is an interesting concept, in which the three judges each anonymously pick a song for each contestant. The one that gets picked wins a point for the judge, and then the kids try to guess afterwards, and this year Jelly Roll joined in the speculation, although he basically just agreed with the guesses. At the end of the night, the winner(s) would get to "save" one of the two contestants voted into the Bottom Two.

 

For one thing, I have to think that the judges already had a list of what songs had gotten picked and thus knew who had "won", but they went along with pretending to be so competitive about this. I believe Katy Perry won the last two years, and now this season, Carrie Underwood came across as perhaps too competitive. She seemed sort of in a down mood all night.As she said, she is only used to winning on American Idol. Gee, is she for real with all that? I think the night would probably wind up worse for one of the kids who was about to have their dreams of Idol victory dashed.

 

Nobody really had a bad performance on Monday, and in fact, I think that one contestant continued to show a good amount of growth. Some others though, I think probably had their least good round in terms of the solos. There were also a spattering of duo and trio performances throughout the night. One of those was really horrible too. While Idol tells us that they are not officially part of the competition, they did take place during the time where people were voting, so as I always do, I had to rank them, and the fair way to do so in my mind is to judge each contestant against the other in the order of which they sang. This always leads to some inconsistency in what is being compared, but there is really no other way. If I have to break ties, I put emphasis on the solo performances. I also imagine Kolbi and Canaan had also rehearsed their parts in these groups and I can speculate as to which song they would have done. I suppose all the rehearsals had to be re-arranged to take out the parts of the 9th and 10th place finishers (we will never know who was who) or perhaps they just learned those songs on Monday morning. Frankly, that would not shock me either.

 

1. Breanna Nix- "Independence Day"

 

Breanna picked perhaps the best known of her choices, and a song that used to be done on Idol a lot, including by Carrie, even though Ms. Underwood was not the judge who selected it. 

It seems like this was the most country oriented song Breanna has done this season. Towards the top, she forgot to sing some of the lyrics. Then, she caught her composure and sang very well once again, although it seemed like she was maybe singing louder than she needed to be. It is clear that Breanna is still dealing with her nerves, and like several other recent female performers, is basically shaking on stage when hearing the judges' comments. She should realize this set of judges are far "nicer" than what we used to get on Idol.

 

2. Mattie Pruitt- "Always Been You"

 

On Sunday, I thought Mattie easily had her best performance. In my view, she continued this momentum on Monday. While she certainly does not as great of a voice as some others in the competition, this kind of current song suited her better than anything else she had been doing.

 

I think I have heard this song somewhere, but am not really too familiar with it. Mattie did sort of an interesting vocal modulation a few times that at least made her stylistically stand out. I can envision that a lot of young girls especially would have been into this.

 

3. Gabby Samone, Josh King, and Jamal Roberts- "Dancing On The Ceiling"

 

Of course, Idol will use these group performances to pay tribute to their judges. I think Canaan probably would have been included in this group and might have been funny to hear him sing something with zero faith-basied connotations.

 

Nobody really bombed, but this seemed pretty haphazard all around. Gabby probably did her thing the best/ Jamal sounded a bit like Lionel at the beginning of his solo part and  Josh looked and sounded a little out of place with them both.

 

4. John Foster- "I Cross My Heart"

 

Well, I guess they are not trying to avoid John having a girlfriend on the show after all.  She was mic'ed up in the audience pit and everything.

 

George Strait is pretty much right up John's alley and he sang it professionally. I just find this kind of music sort of boring. John is quite competent in his genre, but I feel like he is no longer capable of doing anything on stage that would surprise me in an impressive manner. Once again, he had the guitar on him but barely played a chord.

 

5. Josh King- "Home"

 

OMG, they wanted him to sing "Great Balls Of Fire", that would have been on brand for his neo-"Vote For the Worst dot com" appeal. It also seems like Josh has a bit of a backstory that I did not know a lot about. It seems like he is somewhat of an experienced actor and was on Saturday Night Live as a child (obviously not as a cast member.) We had already heard that he once sang backup for Fantasia at a church and now we saw a clip of him singing this very song at a David Foster (brother in law of an Idol vocal coach) concert. Josh has also apparently been at a lot of Michael Buble concerts and sort of lamented the fact that the Canadian crooner is currently on "The Voice" this season, and not Idol. This was a bit of breaking the fourth wall. I think it even took Seacrest by surprise. He should have taken the opportunity to throw some shade at Carson Daly. So, what I am trying to say is that either Josh is the Forrest Gump of American Idol, or a lot of his sad sack positioning could be an act. I just wonder what the eliminated MKY thinks about Josh surviving round after round after having to basically carry him in their Hollywood duet performance.

 

Yes indeed, this Buble song does sort of have some ominous lyrics for someone trying to advance on a show, but it has been done on Idol before. Josh sang it somewhat decently, but nowhere near spectacular. The song choice itself was the "safest"and least entertaining of the the three options he had.

 

6. Gabby Samone- "Hero"

It seems like Gabby wanted to do the Celine Dion option, but realized she has already covered her this season. So, she went with Mariah Carey, whom apparently she has met professionally before. We also learned that Gabby has sung with Justin Timberlake. So, despite having apparently been homeless in the past few years, she is definitely not a complete novice in this business, even if she has not been on a show like "The Voice" previously.

 

Needless to say, Gabby sounded very good on this ballad. It is what she can do in her sleep.I just was not quite as wowed as some of the other things she has done.

 

7.  Thunderstorm Artis, Slater Nally, and John Foster- "Huntin', Fishin' and Lovin' Everyday"

 

My opening statement is that Luke Bryan's "Huntin', Fishin', and Lovin' Everyday" may legitimately be the worst song I have ever heard in my life. Seriously, people spend their money on that crap? Why not a country fan, I could at least understand why people liked past Idol judge Keith Urban. Luke Bryan? I just do not get it.

 

This was almost hard to watch, although, they naturally received no criticism. John sort of was best suited for this, but Slater sounded awful on his part. Thunderstorm, who as mentioned is from Hawa'i', and not the Deep South, seemed a bit out of his element also. It was also noted how since he is so much older than teenagers Slater and John, had to sing the lyric about whiskey. 

So, now that everyone has sang at least once, I have my first set of rankings:

 

8, Slater Nally- group

7. Joah King- group

6. Thunderstorm Artis- group

5. John Foster

4. Breanna Nix

3. Mattie Pruitt

2. Jamal Roberts- group

1. Gabby Samone- group

 

8. Jamal Roberts- "I Believe"

I think he made a mistake by not doing "Grenade" by Bruno Mars, which while a song from the last decade, would at least have made him seem a bit more current.

 

Next. we learn that Jamal just had a new baby daughter (named Gianna) born that day! Or on whatever day he filmed the interview. That is news and definitely an Idol first to have a contestant welcome a child during the actual voting round. (We have seen it happen in auditions and Hollywood Week.) Obviously, Jamal was not present for the birth of his third daughter, who unlike Harmony and Lyrik, does not have an overly musical name. While none of this should really deflect from his talent, there are some obvious questions raised. We have not heard anything about Jamal being married or still partnered with the mother of his other daughters. I doubt he is the new Nick Cannon or Elon Musk. Maybe they all still have the same baby mama and she just has not been shown because she has been pregnant in Misssissippi but it seems like he would have at least offered some sort of gratitude to the woman who just gave birth while he is on television. 

Anyways, on to the music, which is why this show exists I suppose. It is weird to sing Fantasia's winner singer, especially if you are a dude. Jamal has the vocal pipes to do it though and mostly succeeded. At first though, it seemed like he was content with letting the backup singers (including 2009 seminifinalist Felicia Barton) sing the chorus. Jamal was obviously going to get praised heaped on him for taking on Fantasia's anthem but it felt pageantry and kind of pointless to me.

 

9. Breanna Nix and Mattie Pruitt- "Something In The Water"

 

Finally, it was Carrie's turn to get one of her songs performed. I guess Kolbi would have joined in if she was around, but instead it was just the two. It did look like a much older sister and a younger sister and some might have even gotten a Judds mother-daughter vibe to the pairing.

 

They both did decent. Mattie definitely was trying to sound more country here than she has on her other performances. This was a better chance for Breanna to shine though.

 

10. Thunderstorm Artis- "Faithfully"

 

I cannot help but find it hard to believe that so many music fans hate on Journey and on songs like this. It is one of my absolutely favorites and I was instantly convinced that Carrie Underwood was the one who picked it for Thunderstorm.

 

I also knew he would not sing it anywhere like the way that Steve Perry or Arnel Pineda or past AI winner Caleb Johnson did. That is sort of too bad for me, but I think T-Storm largely succeeded with his acoustic version. There was one part where I did not like his musical choice, so I had to deduct some points there.. He said the lyrics about being on the road as a musician and away from his family spoke to him. Mrs. Artis (maybe we should call her Lightingstorm) is always there with a baby on her hip and the toddler being held by grandma or an aunt perhaps. After the performance, Seacrest walked him over to where she was standing and basically let the contestant profess his love for her. This seemed like blatant Idol manipulation. Is T-Storm the chosen one they want to win?

 

11. Slater Nally- "Atlantic City"

 

My first thought was that the good ol' boy (he is literally still a boy legally) from Georgia sand the night before about New England and now was singing a song about Atlantic City.  I do not know this Bruce Springsteen song, but was surprised it was available. I thought once Clive Davis had to go to great lengths to get The Boss to clear one of his songs for the show.

 

The fringed shirt Slater wore seemed a bit pointless for this. It would have made it seem like he was doing a more country number. I think Slater is actually better at this sort of Americana rock thing than pure country. The vocal itself maybe had some very good parts and some not as great parts, but I do find Slater impressive as a young musician and think that he has even greater potential as he gets older.

 

"Round Two" Rankings:

 

8  Josh King

7.  John Foster- group

6.. Mattie Pruitt- group

5. Jamal Roberts

4. Thunderstorm Artis

3.  Slater Nally

2.  Breanna Nix- group

1.  Gabby Samone

 

Combined Rankings:

 

8. Josh King

7. John Foster

 

6. Slater Nally

5. Thunderstorm Artis

4. Mattie Pruitt

3. Jamal Roberts

2. Breanna Nix

1. Gabby Samone

 

Who should have been the bottom two: Josh King and John Foster

As the show went to its final commercial break and we learned that Luke Bryan and Lionel Richie would share the contest trophy (which Carrie Underwood, wife of an NHL player who never got to hoist the Stanley Cup smarlly refused to touch), I figured that Josh had to be one of the bottom vote getters. I mean, it has to happen eventually, right?

 

As for the second slot, I was pretty sure it would not be John or Slater or Thunderstorm. It could have been any of the others, but I thought that Jamal might be the unlucky one. I had no doubt the judges would save him though and wisely sacrifice Josh.

 

Who I predicted would be the bottom two: Josh King and Jamal Roberts

 

Who was the bottom two: Josh King and Mattie Pruitt

Very interesting. I had thought Mattie had stuck around longer than she deserved and then in the past week, I thought she was greatly improved. America finally caught up to what I was once thinking in regards to what I thought was the bottom two headed into the entire Finals.

 

Who should not have been saved, who I predicted would not be saved, and who was not saved: Josh King

 

People would have lost their shiz if the judges saved Josh. I think he knew that too.  At first , I liked how he sort of subtly pointed his head towards Mattie while looking at the judges, asking them to save her, as if they were not already going to do so. Then, he made it way, way more obvious and it was clear he wanted everyone to think he has being magnanimous. That sort of made it look unfair for Mattie because on the merits, she deserved to be saved on Monday night.

 

Good luck to Josh, who outlasted a good number of better singers, even if he might be a nice guy. I wish him success, whether it is back to the airport lounge or perhaps on some television comedy set in the future.

American Idol- Top 8

The week has been busy and the Idol schedule has been a bit difficult to navigate in terms of watching a two hour episode in one sitting and then blogging about it. I watched Sunday night's episode after it aired on Sunday and now about 24 hours later, I am trying to extract specific memories to go with the rankings I composed on the spot. I have been doing this for the past couple of Monday episodes, but now am doing it for the Sunday show. Of course, there was also an episode of Idol that aired tonight, but I am doing first things first and will focus on my recap of the first show of the week. Tomorrow, I will watch the Monday show and then on Wednesday plan on doing another post. If this were still the days of the Bush or Obama Administration, it would be very difficult to avoid hearing spoilers on what happened tonight or who got cut. Somehow though, I think I will manage to go all day tomorrow without finding out. The franchise is just nowhere near the cultural phenomenon it once was.

 

Last night, aka Sunday, the then Top 12 took the stage to honor women in the music business,which might be considered "woke" to some. The mentor was Miranda Lambert, whom also took the stage and in my view sang pretty poorly. Nonetheless, she was the first Lambert to be on Idol since the most recent guest appearance of Adam. (Does anybody remember Season 10's Alex Lambert?) Miranda was on Idol for the first time ever. She used to appear occasionally on "The Voice" as her former husband Blake Shelton was a "coach" for about 29 seasons in a row. That is where Blake met his now wife Gwen Stefani somewhere along the way. While Miranda Lambert, like Idol judge Carrie Underwood, is a considered a huge female country star, this is a rare recent season without a true female country singer among the finalists. Two of the remaining males can definitely be considered country though. This all led to a bit of an odd episode, that learned pretty heavily on country and with a lot of cowboy hats. Perhaps, the non-country contestants were trying to appeal to whom they thought was watching and voting, which may have included people tuning in just to see Miranda Lambert.

 

From my perspective, a couple of the contestants last night had their best showing, though they still were not better than many of the others, while a couple had perhaps their weakest overall performance on the live Hollywood studio stage, and still deserved to advance.

 

Here is how Ladies' Night proceeded:

 

1. John Foster- "Something To Talk About"

 

I have no doubt that John is racking up tons of votes. I think perhaps some did not want him to mention his girlfriend on the show. He was sort of forced to do so though by Luke Bryan, when he acknowledged that he already knew her and a cousin or two among his fawning fans in the front row of the studio floor audience.

 

This was a vocally decent but once again fairly corny performance. This is the sort of thing though that got Scotty McCreery, who was maybe just a year younger than John all the way to victory several years ago. There just was not much of an impact by his voice itself though and it really seemed like the guitar served as nothing more than a prop. I would not be surprised if did not actually play a single note on this Bonnie Raitt song. I am not even sure if he even had a guitar pick in his hand. It also occurred to me that this was the song that once (finally) got Sanjaya Malakar eliminated.

 

2. Kolbi Jordan- "The Chain"

 

At the time, I thought this was a smart strategy by Kolbi. She said the audience might have just expected her to sing Aretha or her personal idol Patti LaBelle. Instead, the contestant sang a Fleetwood Mac song, and made it pretty country along the way, which is fairly different than the original. Kolbi was dressed in sort of a sparkly western outfit and a cowboy hat.

 

Some might think Kolbi acts a bit too cocky on the show, but I have really enjoyed her personality. If past Idol contestants like Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson can host syndicated daytime talk shows, I think Kolbi would be perfect for a job like that. I liked her vocals on this song, She always has a very strong voice, but this was perhaps not as impactful as some of the other songs she has done, because it was a bit out of her comfort zone, as she took a calculated risk to get country fan votes.

 

3.  Josh King- "Rolling In The Deep"

 

Really? This song? Josh? Good luck.

 

All things considered Josh might have had his best vocal performance, at least at the beginning, on this Adele number, as he tried to make it more "bluesy" while playing piano. In the context of a small lounge, it might have been considered quite good for what it was. Then, he got up, ran around stage, pulled out his harmonica, and it got pretty manic and amateurish.

 

There is definitely something going on wish Josh personality wise that is either beyond his control or quite calculating to appeal to a category of Idol voters. He is embracing the "awkward dork" image for all it is worth. There really should be a focus group study on who exactly is voting for Josh and why. It could be that his racking up huge numbers from his home state of North Carolina, which last year elected a Josh as Governor.

 

4. Breanna Nix- "Water Under The Bridge:

 

Back to back Adele on the Idol stage. For some reason, I am finding this one a bit more difficult to remember details than some of the other performances last night. I know that she showed up to her mentoring session in (ripped) jeans, which might have confused or angered some of her Fundamentalist fanbase.

 

I remember that Breanna sang this song very well, but she always sings well. I thought that perhaps that on some of the bigger notes towards the end, she lost some vocal control. Her young son is in the audience, being held by the dad, with giant earphones on, every week. It seems like Idol is pushing hard to get as many very young children or siblings in the crowd at all times. I also noticed that at the end of Kolbi's song, her mother started walking away from her seat, perhaps to some sort of waiting room, before the segment was even over.

 

5. Canaan James Hill- "Love Wins"

Seacrest tells us that after the break, CJH is taking on Carrie Underwood. Well, obviously, this was going to be "Jesus Take The Wheel." Alas though, no. For the first time ever, Canaan sang a song without overt religious themes on the Idol stage. Still though, it might as well have been a gospel song, based on the lyrics and the way he performed it.  I sort of have to give him credit for proving me wrong and doing something secular, but if he was going to cast aside those restraints, he might as well have just gone for it and done something completely unexpected. For this song, he had been worried about forgetting the words, and indeed he seemed to do just that at the end, and instead just did some of his well-established runs.

 

All things considered, I think this was maybe Canaan's best vocal. It is easy to forget he is only 17. He looks like he is old enough to run for the U.S. Senate. I think he has been even better over the past couple of weeks on the Idol stage, but there is a perpetual non-exciting Luther Vandross quality to his showmanship.

 

6.  Thunderstorm Artis- "When We Were Young" 

Adele is back again! Thunder said he wanted to play piano for the first time on the Idol stage because it was the first instrument he learned to play back when he "was young." Last night, he sort of looked like a young Barack Obama and some might think he has the self-sure attitude to match. When he was worn glasses before, I thought he looked like a grown-up Steve Urkel.

 

I was extremely impressed by T-Storm's vocal performance here. While I sometimes wish I could understand the lyrics a bit more when he sings, he has such a deep connection during his performances.This was very good and Thunderstorm is gaining a lot of momentum.

 

7. Slater Nally- "Whoever's In New England"

This was a Reba McEntire (also a Voice coach) song I do not know. One might almost assume that a country song that references New England might be some sort of red state smackdown of a bunch of blue states, but I do not think that is what this was about.

 

My views on this Slater performance were somewhat mixed, but lean more towards positive. Maybe I am crazy, but it sounds like his guitar was out of tune and I was wondering if the singer himself was distracted by that. It seems like he was doing a lot of thinking. I have come to appreciate the tone of Slater's voice, though his style of music is not necessarily my favorite. The drama was if he would attempt to sing the end of the song with a big note or play it more safely. Of course, he went for it. The judges said he nailed it. I might not be as sure.

 

8. Jamal Roberts- "Undo It"

 

Another Carrie Underwood song by a black dude, why not?  Jamal has been so good all season and has proven he can use his voice and stage persona to great effect. While Canaan wore a canary yellow suit for his take on Carrie, Jamal was decked all in black, including a cowboy hat. I wondered if some Idol voters might have been turned off by his appearance.

Also like Canaan, Jamal seemed to struggle a bit with the words, in his case at the top of the song. Besides for that though, he sang this fairly rockish country song very effectively. At the end, the hat was flung to the judges' table and ultimately wound up on Carrie's head, albert backwards.

 

9. Mattie Pruitt- "The House That Built Me"

 

For this performance, Mattie sang a Miranda Lambert ballad. During the mentoring session, Miranda encouraged Mattie to be bold and play guitar for the first time on the Idol stage. I am sure the producers would have made her do so otherwise.

 

All of this was set up for a "Mattie moment" and I will say, it was definitely her best performance. Mattie seemed more connected to this song than some others she had done and the somewhat gritty tone of her voice worked better for her. I will not say she is on the same level as some of the other kids on the show, but it was a clear improvement. Mattie was almost immediately in tears after she was done. Last night could have been a good opportunity for her to leave on a positive note.

 

10. Gabby Samone- "I Was Here"

 

When they said Gabby was singing Beyonce, I was really hoping it would be "Halo" which I personally said on here last week that I wanted to hear her do on Idol.

 

Instead, it was a Beyonce song I do not know. Nonetheless, Gabby is always Gabby and she continues to crush it. She can sing softly, she can sing loudly, and always sounds close to perfect. She definitely deserves comparison to a young Whitney Houston, and the hair last night seemed to resemble 1987 Whitney.  Many people will be quite disappointed and sad if Gabby is voted off before the Finale. I still fear that may happen, but for now, she is doing almost everything right.

 

Rankings:

 

10. Josh King

 9. John Foster

 

8. Mattie Pruitt

7. Slater Nally 

6. Breanna Nix

5. Jamal Roberts

4  Kolbi Jordan

3. Canaan James Hill

2. Thunderstorm Artis

1. Gabby Samone

 

It has to be acknowledged, I put every black singer ahead of every white singer. That is not something I consciously did, but as would have been the case if the roles were reversed, that is just how I saw it. So maybe I will not be invited to join Al Sharpton's National Action Network quite yet.

 

Who should have been eliminated: Josh King and John Foster

 

I have been like a broken record on this Josh thing. Somehow, someday, it has to end, right? I did find myself surprised having John ranked behind Mattie. When John is good, he is quite good, and when he is corny, it definitely approaches cringe-worthy. Overall, it might just be a style of musical taste. Regardless, I did not at all think John would actually be voted off last night.

 

Who I predicted would be eliminated: Josh King and Kolbi Jordan

 

It seemed like this was simply a math problem at this point for Kolbi who definitely did not deserve to be eliminated. She had perhaps not her best performance doing a song that was considered unorthodox for her and adding an additional country twist to the equation. With so many African-Americans, I knew vote splitting would cost one of them. Before we had a Top 14, I thought that Canaan might find himself on the outside looking in, but was thinking last night he had a big enough fanbase, even if he sang a song that did not have the words Jesus or G-d in it. It was possible that Jamal was at risk, but I figured it would most likely be a female and that Gabby was getting the votes that Kolbi needed.

Who was eliminated: Kolbi Jordan and Canaan James Hill

 

That is the way it ended up. Two African-Americans were suddenly voted off. I sort of wonder if they would have had better luck if they sang a "Ladies Night"song by a black artist. There would have been a lot to choose from. I had them ranked third and fourth so I definitely do not approve of this result, but it is perhaps not exactly shocking. Canaan seemed fairly surprised though. With the time ticking off, we barely got more than ten seconds of reaction from the two booted contestants. Long gone are the days of the elimination song, montage package, and tearful sing-off of the contestant(s) who just had their hopes and dreams crushed.

 

As I type this, there is already a Top 7, but I am going to try to not find out who is contains until tomorrow evening. I beg of all the massive amount of readers out there, do not say anything to spoil the suspense for me!