S19.E12: Top 16

[peachmangosteen]

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TBA

Airs April 11th.

[Ms Blue Jay]

I really, really liked Cecil, Liahona, Hannah, Jason.  So, that's too bad.  I cannot help but wonder, what if Liahona played the game and didn't wear sweatpants and sweat stained clothes.  My mother made me feel bad and said maybe Liahona doesn't have any better clothes.  The show, or her fellow contestants, should have helped her.  That was not a good display.
I'm shocked about Mary Jo, I thought she'd be the kind of thing that  Idol watchers love.

Colin always seems sooooo out of breath, I don't get it.  I DON'T. GET IT!

For my money, these four picked the right songs and executed them very well.
DeShawn (Nina Simone), Willie (Adele) , Grace (Sia - she's growing on me), Cassandra (Chris Isaak.)

I swear to you that I typed all of this up before I Googled her:

I feel absolutely nothing from Madison how do people even remember she's on this show???? There's just something about her that screams INDUSTRY PLANT to me..... has she already had a career?  Katy tries to sell her as "fresh off the bus" (Katy actually said the words "fresh off the bus") but she looks incredibly, incredibly fixed up and polished to me.

So I Google'd her!

Fresh off the bus???? What the fuck?  She's an AGT STAR.  AGT STAR according to Google.

https://talentrecap.com/5-facts-about-madison-watkins-the-former-agt-star-on-american-idol/

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Madison Was On ‘AGT’ In 2016

In 2016, when Madison was 21, she auditioned for America’s Got Talent. Her audition wasn’t shown on TV, but she reportedly performed “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” earning three “yes” votes from the judges.

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Madison released her first EP, titled Glow, in 2016. She put out another EP, called Rooted, last year. Recently, she released a new single called “Blinded,” along with a retro music video inspired by Flashdance. Check it out above.

She already has her own music video!  What the fuck?  Fresh off the bus?  What?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!??!?!

I'm sick of the lies being fed to me by this bullshit show.

Edited April 12, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Annber03]

9 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Colin always seems sooooo out of breath, I don't get it.  I DON'T. GET IT!

Yeah, when Luke was talking about how he'd taken their advice about controlling his breaths and whatnot, I was like, "...he did? When?" 'Cause he sounded like he was struggling throughout much of that song. He did hit one nice note towards the end, but yeah, much of that performance was...awkward, to say the least.

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For my money, these four picked the right songs and executed them very well.
DeShawn (Nina Simone), Willie (Adele) , Grace (Sia - she's growing on me), Cassandra (Chris Isaak.)

I'll agree with this list. I also liked Ava's performance tonight (and for someone who's fifteen years old, there's times where, especially in her face, she looks like she's a little older than that). 

[Diana Berry]

Surly country girl was shocked at the end.   Maybe a different attitude would have helped.

Jason there is always songland and agt.

The  three I’m invested in are Grace, Willie ( now those were real tears) , and Caleb.  I don’t consider Caleb surly but just is going to do his own thing.  He’s very talented for 16.  Hey, look at Gabby. I can definitely see him breaking through in Country.

many of the others are very good, too.  Good group this year.

I was a bit shocked Liahona didn’t make it.  I would have traded her for one of the other girls.

interesting about Madison.

 

 

[TheGreenKnight]

Well, tonight was disappointing. Grace and Casey both performed worse than last week. Madison did okay... Everyone else are nonentities for me. Looks like it's going to be a rough year. I was hoping they'd get back on track since I liked the first two seasons on ABC and excused last year being mostly boring because of COVID.

[Ms Blue Jay]

Today I also wondered if Katy did her nose again.

 

Edited April 12, 2021 by Ms Blue Jay

[Maya]

Good song choices tonight. They should not have left Chace in the final group. Zero suspense. 

Why do I feel like Colin is going to take this whole thing? 
 

[TheGreenKnight]

I would've definitely traded Andrea and Liahona for most of the others. I'm shocked that the country girl went. Not disappointed by that, but surprised. I was expecting her to pushed to the end. I'm guessing Casey or Chayce will win now.

[Quickbeam]

35 minutes ago, Diana Berry said:

Surly country girl was shocked at the end.  

 

 

Was that Hannah with the blue-ish top? Because she looked really annoyed. 

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Honestly, I wanted to reach through the TV and strangle the judges panel on about 12 of their 16 critiques.

Let's talk about the eliminations for a moment. Probably the one that hurt the most was Anilee who I thought really swung for the fences on her solo and her duet with Joss Stone. But when you get almost no screen time after your initial audition (even if you do get a full package on your initial audition) it is almost impossible to advance in a scenario like this where 4 people out of her group were leaving. Andrea too, I thought had a very strong night on Saturday as well and was Pirate-chic to boot. But alas. The other six (Alana, Cecil, Hannah, Jason, Liahona, & Mary Jo) were either really bad (Cecil & Hannah), too desperate looking (Jason), had no screen time (Alana) or were just okay/bordering on forgettable (Liahona & Mary Jo).

Now the 16 who made it through:

Alanis - The Story was not the right song choice. Vocally she was probably roughly as good as she has been in previous rounds...but I would be concerned to get into the Top 10 by votes or the 2 judges picks.

Alyssa -PhD_Friend noted that Alyssa's version of KMS was much slower than the Roberta Flack version (much more in the Lauryn Hill/Fugees realm). Again, I thought this was a far cry from her best performances and yet we get another tongue bath from the Judges who are becoming more and more like the Voice Coaches panel by the week.

Ava - I liked this a little bit better than the judges did. That's pretty much all I got on this one.

Caleb - I still feel like he needs to figure out a way to smooth his voice out (just a little ) in certain spots. But I will say, he does know what he sounds best on and if he's going to go down, he's going to go down swinging on a song that should be in his wheelhouse.

Cassandra - So she was visibly shaken and crying after getting called to safety last. I was prepared for Wicked Game to be a bit of a trainwreck, and while it wasn't great I thought she managed to regain her composure pretty well. She would be one where I think if she is in that group of 6 who need one of the 2 Judge Saves, I think she has a real chance to get one of those two spots. The judges seem invested in her journey so far.

Casey - So if I was to tell you that a 16 year old female was going to tackle Chris Cornell and one of the seminal songs of Grunge music what would you have said? I probably would've been ready to cringe if Casey wasn't an otherworldly talent. Was it perfect? No? But she to me is the single most exciting contestant AI has this season and I hope they (Behind the Scenes) are already talking "Band" with Casey as a very young frontwoman. I think that's the best endgame whether she wins the whole season or not.

Chayce - Tonight was better than last week by a wide margin. I just don't see a scenario where he isn't Top 6/5..

Colin - So doesn't that Tears for Fears song have a natural smoothness or vibe? Because Colin chopped the hell out of it by needing to breath to set up his falsetto after every word (and some syllables!).

Deshawn - Ugh. Absolutely did not deserve the chance to sing again based on last week's complete nothingness of two performances. Who the bleep voted for him?

Grace - Again, she could actually benefit from constructive criticism (like Joss gave her). It strikes me, that she sort of pre-plans out her performances and it's really hard for her to just live in the moment of her performances. So she comes off as a bit stilted..

Graham - I just don't really know who he is appealing to. Especially going the Frank Sinatra route tonight. This performance felt very off-the-strip in Vegas lounge act-y. Whatever he was able to channel his duet with Ben Rector he needs to figure out how to translate that version of himself into any future solo performances (if he gets any future solo performances)..

Hunter - Ugh times 2. Absolutely did not deserve this spot in the Top 16. However, in his group of 8 I'm not really sure who I would've replaced him with. Hannah was a trainwreck, Liahona didn't deserve her spot in the Top 24, Jason reeked of desperation, and Mary Jo was just there to make up the numbers. I just really, really hate his voice and my dream is if Luke and Lionel secretly hate his voice too and they are just going to speak in code for as long as he remains in the competition.

Madison - I just get nothing from her other than a (more muted than Jason W.) sense of desperation. Like I'm 26 and why is my employment still listed as a hair model? I still don't think she's found the "pocket" in terms of the types of songs she should be singing going forward.

Willie - OMG, the judges panel might as well have been on Mars. Willie was terrible by his own standards. He was so flat and out of breath in so many spots. The spot that Luke mentioned. NO NO NO. If you are going to do that Adele song, you do that rising crescendo. You just do because it's off-putting and frustrating when you don't. And its a foregone conclusion that they are going to just tongue Willie's ass no matter what he sings, no matter what he does, no matter how he wobbles around the stage in an ill-fitting suit. I'm just done with it already.

Wyatt - I thought the first 30 seconds of this was excellent. And then he got so manic on the performance side of things that his vocals got lazy and out of breath sounding.

 

 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I'm so tired of people using those Kings of Leon songs when nobody is good at singing them.

[leocadia]

29 minutes ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Alyssa -PhD_Friend noted that Alyssa's version of KMS was much slower than the Roberta Flack version (much more in the Lauryn Hill/Fugees realm). Again, I thought this was a far cry from her best performances and yet we get another tongue bath from the Judges who are becoming more and more like the Voice Coaches panel by the week.

I thought she did herself a disservice by matching the quality of neither the Roberta Flack nor the Lauryn Hill/Fugees version.  To me, it was just a technically well sung song with no real life of it's own.  Also, her physical performance felt very choreographed as opposed to a natural extension of her feeling the song.

 

1 hour ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

I'm sick of the lies being fed to me by this bullshit show.

Agreed.  Every week it seems more and more like the entire judging panel is on a mission to gaslight America.  I don't even think they listen to the performances, they just say whatever nonsense they've pre-written for each contestant.  I used to think Luke was more authentic with his responses, but this year it seems like he's drinking the kool-aid too.  I get that the "reality" in reality shows is going to be tweaked, but I'm really irritated when they can't even bother to hide the puppet strings.  

While there have been some awesome performances where the contestant "made the song their own", changing a song to the point it's unrecognizable (and vaguely unpleasant) should be avoided -- I'm talking to you, Willie and Cassandra.

In retrospect, this show put me in a bad mood tonight!  I can't say that I really enjoyed any of the performances and I don't have anyone that I'm pulling for to win.  I blame ABC, Disney and the judging panel.

Edited April 12, 2021 by leocadia

[Ms Blue Jay]

3 minutes ago, leocadia said:

In retrospect, this show put me in a bad mood tonight!  I can't say that I really enjoyed any of the performances and I don't have anyone that I'm pulling for to win.  I blame ABC, Disney and the judging panel.

I felt the same.

Though, to be honest, I go through this every single season of AI.

I love the auditions (or used to, back in the Simon days), Hollywood Week is obviously the apex of the season, and then I progressively get angrier and angrier through these "America's voting" shows until I eventually abandon the show.

It's been my pattern each time.  I never watch when the winner's actually announced.  By then I've always bailed.

[Blissfool]

I actually enjoyed this episode.  My faves were Casey and Chayse.

I also liked Willie, Caleb, Deshawn, Alanis, and Collin (good personality).

I dont feel anything for Alyssa, Grace, Ava, Cassandra, Graham, Hunter, Beane, and Wyatt.

I cannot stand Madison.

Thought the right people went home. I was especially relieved Liahonna is gone.

1 hour ago, PhD-Purgatory15 said:

Honestly, I wanted to reach through the TV and strangle the judges panel on about 12 of their 16 critiques.

Let's talk about the eliminations for a moment. Probably the one that hurt the most was Anilee who I thought really swung for the fences on her solo and her duet with Joss Stone. But when you get almost no screen time after your initial audition (even if you do get a full package on your initial audition) it is almost impossible to advance in a scenario like this where 4 people out of her group were leaving. Andrea too, I thought had a very strong night on Saturday as well and was Pirate-chic to boot. But alas. The other six (Alana, Cecil, Hannah, Jason, Liahona, & Mary Jo) were either really bad (Cecil & Hannah), too desperate looking (Jason), had no screen time (Alana) or were just okay/bordering on forgettable (Liahona & Mary Jo).

Now the 16 who made it through:

Alanis - The Story was not the right song choice. Vocally she was probably roughly as good as she has been in previous rounds...but I would be concerned to get into the Top 10 by votes or the 2 judges picks.

Alyssa -PhD_Friend noted that Alyssa's version of KMS was much slower than the Roberta Flack version (much more in the Lauryn Hill/Fugees realm). Again, I thought this was a far cry from her best performances and yet we get another tongue bath from the Judges who are becoming more and more like the Voice Coaches panel by the week.

Ava - I liked this a little bit better than the judges did. That's pretty much all I got on this one.

Caleb - I still feel like he needs to figure out a way to smooth his voice out (just a little ) in certain spots. But I will say, he does know what he sounds best on and if he's going to go down, he's going to go down swinging on a song that should be in his wheelhouse.

Cassandra - So she was visibly shaken and crying after getting called to safety last. I was prepared for Wicked Game to be a bit of a trainwreck, and while it wasn't great I thought she managed to regain her composure pretty well. She would be one where I think if she is in that group of 6 who need one of the 2 Judge Saves, I think she has a real chance to get one of those two spots. The judges seem invested in her journey so far.

Casey - So if I was to tell you that a 16 year old female was going to tackle Chris Cornell and one of the seminal songs of Grunge music what would you have said? I probably would've been ready to cringe if Casey wasn't an otherworldly talent. Was it perfect? No? But she to me is the single most exciting contestant AI has this season and I hope they (Behind the Scenes) are already talking "Band" with Casey as a very young frontwoman. I think that's the best endgame whether she wins the whole season or not.

Chayce - Tonight was better than last week by a wide margin. I just don't see a scenario where he isn't Top 6/5..

Colin - So doesn't that Tears for Fears song have a natural smoothness or vibe? Because Colin chopped the hell out of it by needing to breath to set up his falsetto after every word (and some syllables!).

Deshawn - Ugh. Absolutely did not deserve the chance to sing again based on last week's complete nothingness of two performances. Who the bleep voted for him?

Grace - Again, she could actually benefit from constructive criticism (like Joss gave her). It strikes me, that she sort of pre-plans out her performances and it's really hard for her to just live in the moment of her performances. So she comes off as a bit stilted..

Graham - I just don't really know who he is appealing to. Especially going the Frank Sinatra route tonight. This performance felt very off-the-strip in Vegas lounge act-y. Whatever he was able to channel his duet with Ben Rector he needs to figure out how to translate that version of himself into any future solo performances (if he gets any future solo performances)..

Hunter - Ugh times 2. Absolutely did not deserve this spot in the Top 16. However, in his group of 8 I'm not really sure who I would've replaced him with. Hannah was a trainwreck, Liahona didn't deserve her spot in the Top 24, Jason reeked of desperation, and Mary Jo was just there to make up the numbers. I just really, really hate his voice and my dream is if Luke and Lionel secretly hate his voice too and they are just going to speak in code for as long as he remains in the competition.

Madison - I just get nothing from her other than a (more muted than Jason W.) sense of desperation. Like I'm 26 and why is my employment still listed as a hair model? I still don't think she's found the "pocket" in terms of the types of songs she should be singing going forward.

Willie - OMG, the judges panel might as well have been on Mars. Willie was terrible by his own standards. He was so flat and out of breath in so many spots. The spot that Luke mentioned. NO NO NO. If you are going to do that Adele song, you do that rising crescendo. You just do because it's off-putting and frustrating when you don't. And its a foregone conclusion that they are going to just tongue Willie's ass no matter what he sings, no matter what he does, no matter how he wobbles around the stage in an ill-fitting suit. I'm just done with it already.

Wyatt - I thought the first 30 seconds of this was excellent. And then he got so manic on the performance side of things that his vocals got lazy and out of breath sounding.

 

 

You forgot Beane.  I guess you're not a Beanie Baby 🤭

[PhD-Purgatory15]

Blissfool, you are correct. I am definitely not a Bean-ie Baby. He's an odd one. I feel like we are on version 3.0 of Beane and we are barely a 1/3 of the way through the season. Vocally, I don't think he's replicated the heights of his Marvin Gaye performance (and his Benny and the Jett's performance to a lesser degree) in Hollywood week.

I think there's a real chance he will not be voted into the Top 10 tomorrow night, and it will be interesting to see whether the Judges choose to save him with one of their two picks (I'm already on record saying if Cassandra's in that group of 6, then I do believe she'll get one of the judges two picks)..

Edited April 12, 2021 by PhD-Purgatory15

[DietCokeJunkie]

I really wish someone would give Grace some advice on dressing for her figure. Don’t they have someone on the show to do that? 

[OLynn33]

1 hour ago, Diana Berry said:

I don’t consider Caleb surly but just is going to do his own thing.  He’s very talented for 16.  Hey, look at Gabby. I can definitely see him breaking through in Country.

Agreed. I liked when Katy was trying to get him to smile and he was having none of it. He's my fave because he can live without this. He also slightly scares me. Lol

1 hour ago, Quickbeam said:

Surly country girl was shocked at the end.

Reality was hitting her hard in that moment. Admitedly I don't know how song choice works with the duets but she should have done a ballad imo. Softened up her image, toned down the tude, and added a touch of humility and she might have gone through. And Katy could have helped her with this earlier but chose to play it up instead.

[Vermicious Knid]

I am quite happy to be loosing Hannah. She brings nothing to the table except an oversized sense of entitlement.

Some of the guys were dressed like they were hanging out in their garage. I'd rather have the Viking back.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

So when do the judges actually start giving critiques of the performances like they are paid to do?!  I got so sick of hearing “great job”, “you are a star” and other crap that I finally only listened to the performances and FF’d them entirely!

Hannah visibly upset.  I agree Grace needs some help with her clothing choices.  

[Jillybean]

2 hours ago, Foghorn Leghorn said:

So when do the judges actually start giving critiques of the performances like they are paid to do?!  I got so sick of hearing “great job”, “you are a star” and other crap that I finally only listened to the performances and FF’d them entirely!

This particular panel never does. They give standing ovations for nearly every performance, and declare "the winner" early on and slobber all over the contestants. Any constructive criticism is veiled, such as what they gave Ava last night. This panel is an utter joke. I have stopped watching, but a friend shared a video of Casey performing and I tuned in to see her.

[peachmangosteen]

UO-ish I guess but I loved this episode and I legitimately like almost everyone in the Top 16. In fact, I think this is probably the best overall Top 16 the show has ever had.

If I had to get rid of 4, I'd pick Caleb, Willie, Madison, and maybe Deshawn. I'm pretty confident Caleb and Willie will 100% make it though and Madison is probably pretty likely too, so I'm going to be losing at least 2 and probably 3 people I really enjoy. But luckily for me I basically like them all so!

[MarylandGirl]

Agreed that the judges gave too much praise to some of them. It seemed the main negative comments regarded stage presence and not overthinking it. When some could have used a bit of Randy Jackson, "That was a bit pitchy, dawg."

[sempervivum]

I haven't felt moved to re-watch any performances since the first (contestant vs. contestant) duet night. But I just re-watched Hunter's and Ava's songs from last night. Casey was good, too, although I wonder why she wasn't wearing flannel and Doc Martens- polyester bellbottoms, really? 

26 minutes ago, MarylandGirl said:

When some could have used a bit of Randy Jackson, "That was a bit pitchy, dawg."

I think a number of them could have used a Simon Cowell critique: 'That was like something on a cruise ship'. Specifically: Alyssa, DeShawn, Colin, Graham, Madison, and maybe even Willie.

How can Katie Perry not see how much better she looks with dark hair?

[waving feather]

The most cruise ship performer on the show is Bean. He's young but his performances are always so dated.

This is the first time I've liked Grace; she toned it down and just sang the song. 

Someone tell my sweet Cassandra that her strength is not the belting but her beautiful lower register and head voice.

Wyatt was so bad. I couldn't believe he sounded that way on the big American Idol stage. I compared him to buskers earlier on but I take that back. I've seen many buskers who are better singers than him.

Hunter, on the other hand, was pretty good. He doesn't have the strongest voice but he has good instincts about how to sing the song the best to his ability and connects with them. 

Ava is talented but I don't like the way she pronounces her words when she sings. It's like a strange British accent.

I miss Mary Jo. She has an awesome voice.

So many standing ovations for mediocre/bad performances.

Edited April 12, 2021 by waving feather

[Twiz44]

My two “critical” cents...

I wasn’t crazy about Alyssa’s performance last night, and I’ve liked her up to this point. And this is more of a “performance” critique rather than a critique of her vocal abilities. It seemed overly dramatic, with the interpretation and the walk. And she was doing that “stink face, something disgusts me” look, the same face that Grace has been doing all along. Don’t get me wrong, I believe they both have earned their spots in the top 20, but I find that facial expression off-putting. 

I also am not a fan of the way the young “indie” style girls pronounce their vowels. Hard to describe with words but it’s like they round their mouths in an odd way to get the sound. 
 

Colin is a likeable guy but it was so hard to watch/listen to him last night with his lack of breath control. I couldn’t believe that that was exactly what the judges commended him on. Did they not hear what we heard? I can hear him singing “Louie, Louie” (Yes, I’m that old!) with a bar band and having a great time. 

Enough of the negatives, my favorites are Chayce and Casey.

 

[leighdear]

5 hours ago, Twiz44 said:

I also am not a fan of the way the young “indie” style girls pronounce their vowels. Hard to describe with words but it’s like they round their mouths in an odd way to get the sound.

I call those their "meows".  Those sounds to me, literally, are like the yowling/meowing of cats.  The overenunciation is just as bad, as is the gargling, the running up & down the scale just to show the vocal gymnastics.  And the word distortions and slurring are stupid.  Just sing the words as their written, you idiots!  

Lots of previous contestants had record deals, albums cut, demos and been on other shows before getting on Idol.  Hell, one of the chicks in a earlier season had a song on the "Legally Blonde" soundtrack.  I don't think the Idol producers ever tried to hide what people had done previously, they just emphasize how they come across now and their preferred persona, like that "fresh off the bus" comment from Katy. 

Every contestant can be Googled, and the show execs know it.  Social media is way too encompassing these seasons for them to think anybody is safe from a deep dive, more so now than in the past.  I don't see any nefarious plots to hoodwink the audience.  YMMV. 

Edited April 13, 2021 by leighdear

[pezgirl7]

On 4/11/2021 at 11:18 PM, DietCokeJunkie said:

I really wish someone would give Grace some advice on dressing for her figure. Don’t they have someone on the show to do that? 

I’ve noticed that a lot of times her outfit matches the background so her figure is sorta camouflaged in wide shots. But then there’ll be a close-up shot that ruins the illusion. 

[ForReal]

18 hours ago, Twiz44 said:

My two “critical” cents...

I wasn’t crazy about Alyssa’s performance last night, and I’ve liked her up to this point. And this is more of a “performance” critique rather than a critique of her vocal abilities. It seemed overly dramatic, with the interpretation and the walk. And she was doing that “stink face, something disgusts me” look, the same face that Grace has been doing all along. Don’t get me wrong, I believe they both have earned their spots in the top 20, but I find that facial expression off-putting. 

I also am not a fan of the way the young “indie” style girls pronounce their vowels. Hard to describe with words but it’s like they round their mouths in an odd way to get the sound. 

 

Before watching, I thought Alyssa could do no wrong, but that performance was terrible. I am only familiar with the Roberta Flack version, and the song to me is kind of serious and thoughtful, and she turned it into some kind of sideshow. Everything you said is right.

I don't like the way the "indie" style girls enunciate, but the indie boys do it, too, in a slightly different way. They all sound like they are trying to sing a certain way, and it's not a way that appeals to me.