S21.E12: Top 26 Perform in Hawai'i (Part 2)

[gingerella]

Well...that was one of the most unmemorable Top 26 nights I can remember. Megan, the girl with the rough twang? She's got something special, along with Nailyah and Mariah, the rest can just GTFO already. Nothing worth wasting time with here. And judges? This is by far one of the most unspecial, untalented groups in the history of this show. Like, ever, so please, stop blowing smoke up our collective asses. We're not dumb and our ears still work.

*steps off soapbox*

[MissPriss]

I love music. For that reason and more, I’m finding this show difficult to enjoy. I think the only sane person left is Ryan Seacrest. 

[cowgirlwen]

Although I personally didn't care for her song choice, I did think We' pulled off another great performance.  Olivia did well too.  Nutsa is annoying, and didn't listen to anything Noah suggested.  Speaking of Noah...   Her hat?!?!?  Her (lack of) eyebrows?!?!?!?  The only "advice" she gave to the contestants was where to stand in relation to the mic.  There was absolutely no vocal coaching whatsoever.  I wasn't too fond of Allen Stone on Sunday night, but after seeing last night's show, I think the Sunday crew got the better end of that deal!! 

[JayDub1987]

Alright, finally a thread for last night. 

The judges are completely useless at this point. Even if I did chuckle at the fact that none of them really praised Nutsa's vocals after her...whatever that was. By and large, they offer nothing. It's just them making faces, standing to clap, spewing some random shit, and then sitting back down. Yay. 

Elijah managed to take a largely forgettable Chris Jansen song and make it worse. I'm not sure what the judges were hearing, but that didn't seem like any fun at all. He was off-key through the first part of the song and then seemed to struggle with keeping time with the band. Maybe he had monitor issues, but that performance was bad. 

I missed the announcement that Paige Ann was going to be coming back for the top 26 after getting cut. I didn't bother keeping count during the Final Judgement weeks, so I was a bit surprised we she took the stage. Holy shit, she nailed "Wrecking Ball." That was really really good. 

Mary Beth Bird is my pick to win the whole damn thing. Even if she doesn't, I think some country label will snatch her up. Cute, young, blonde, and can sing. She checks the boxes. "Heart Like a Truck" is a rangy song, and she held her own with it overall. She did seem to get a bit lost at the end, but I think she's safe. Good performance, even if it wasn't flawless. 

We Ani can sing, but the overall performance kinda lost me, and it seemed like she got a bit lost herself at one point when the band really kicked into second gear. Super talented young lady and I think she'll be around for a while, even if AI isn't going to let somebody who The Voice discovered win. 

Michael, Tyson, Dawson, Malik, Olivia and Hannah are all just interchangeable, boring, bland people to me. I don't remember what any of them sang, and I can't really say as I care.

As far as Colin goes, this one hurts me because A) I'm a country music fan and B) I was listening to Chris Stapleton when he was with the Steeldrivers. But...this wasn't good. Not even a little bit. I'm trying to remember if there were any redeeming parts to me, and I can't come up with a single one. 

Eliminate Nutsa. Please, America. Eliminate Nutsa. That's all I've got. 

 

EDIT:
I forgot Megan. I love that raspy Joplin-esque thing she has going on with her voice. Is she a great performer? No. But holy hell, that girl can SAAAAAAAANG. 

Edited April 18, 2023 by JayDub1987

[thesupremediva1]

I don’t think Nutsa realizes what show she is on. Historically, Idol isn’t kind to traditionally beautiful females regardless of talent level. The only exception to this was Carrie, 19 years ago. Sexy women? Even the most amazing haven’t been able to win. But an overtly sexual performance that’s not particularly good? I don’t see that passing when Idol still fancies itself a Disney family-friendly type of show. I’m not even trying to throw shade, I just think that performance was a big miscalculation on Nutsa’s part.

Megan is great, with or without eye contact.

Mary Beth left me cold.

I’ve already forgotten the rest. Both nights suffered from poor song choices.

[MarylandGirl]

21 minutes ago, thesupremediva1 said:

I don’t think Nutsa realizes what show she is on. Historically, Idol isn’t kind to traditionally beautiful females regardless of talent level. The only exception to this was Carrie, 19 years ago. Sexy women? Even the most amazing haven’t been able to win. But an overtly sexual performance that’s not particularly good? I don’t see that passing when Idol still fancies itself a Disney family-friendly type of show. I’m not even trying to throw shade, I just think that performance was a big miscalculation on Nutsa’s part.

Megan is great, with or without eye contact.

Mary Beth left me cold.

I’ve already forgotten the rest. Both nights suffered from poor song choices.

And she was doing the sexy thing in a Disney resort! I mostly just think Nutsa is too full of herself. The thing I tend to like more about Idol is when a contestant starts off a bit rough, maybe they'd only been singing in the shower or some karaoke, then through the show, they gain confidence and become real performers. But they start out as true amateurs.

I think Nutsa has already been on a couple (international) shows, plus I believe has a record out? So that makes me not want to root for her. She's already doing OK. She doesn't need Idol's help. With We Ani, I like her voice and she seems like a cool person, but I also have issues with the fact that she did well on The Voice already (I know some other contestants were on there, but I don't watch it--can someone remind me?)

I actually really liked Dawson's performance--but because he's had so little screen time from the auditions to now, I bet he's getting voted out. Sadly.

I thought Paige, Megan, Olivia, Tyson, Michael, Mary Beth, and Hannah were all decent to pretty good, but I wasn't drawn to vote for any of them. We Ani was good, but see above. Elijah was painful to watch. He seems like a really nice guy though! I know I'm forgetting people.

I do think Noah gave some good advice in telling contestants to take it up or down a half step when a song wasn't quite suited to their voice. No idea what was going on with her whole look, though, from the bonnet thing to the bleached eyebrows to the creepy fingernails!

[MissPriss]

9 minutes ago, MarylandGirl said:

The thing I tend to like more about Idol is when a contestant starts off a bit rough, maybe they'd only been singing in the shower or some karaoke, then through the show, they gain confidence and become real performers. But they start out as true amateurs.

Yes! Wasn’t that the premise of the show that made it so successful? It was a singing competition. Now it’s muddied up by performances to the detriment of vocals. I’m old. I recall the years of Kelly, Kimberly Locke, Ruben, Clay and Carrie who could enunciate. I never needed closed captioning and now the enunciation is so bad, CC can’t figure it out! I also like narrowing contestant lanes to specific genres. Test their limits outside their box. I enjoyed the group numbers and duets. Seeing how contestants can share the spotlight. Now contestants are just ME, ME, ME! Look at ME! Humility is underrated.

Unfortunately AI is just following the trash TV trend with some contestants, some mentors, and too often even a judge or two. They scout, recruit and encourage outrageousness. I know the bottom line is entertainment (and the almighty dollar), but I think they should count their blessings this train-wreck has lasted 20 years.

Hold on Ryan Seacrest. Don’t go down the drain with them!

[Superb Owl]

My completely unqualified opinion is that Nutsa will be around for awhile. Because she's talented? No. Because she's charismatic? Ha.   Because my recollection of AI (haven't watched it in *many* seasons) is that there's always somebody, every year, who wears out their welcome real quick (although I'm not sure Nutsa even had a welcome to wear out), but somehow persists in hanging on, week after week, as more qualified contestants get flicked off, collectively making the viewers groan "WHY is he/she still here??? WHY????"  Let's face it, the producers LOVE the drama. You can never convince me there isn't some manipulation going on. Part of why I quit watching,  but here I am again. Glutton for punishment, I guess. 

I'll be glad when the show gets down to a manageable hour every week. Right now all I have time for is to go through the clips. Nobody blew me away, but We Ani and Iam remain my favorites so far. One problem is that I'm getting too old to know not only the songs but the mentors.   But at least  the contestants get to sing songs they're familiar with, even though most aren't my jam. Does the show still have Motown night and Elvis night and all those old corny theme nights for old people like me? 😁

 

[sempervivum]

1 hour ago, MarylandGirl said:

(I know some other contestants were on there, but I don't watch it--can someone remind me?)

Marybeth Bird, Megan Danielle, We, Malik, and Michael Williams were all on the Voice in various years, and Kaeyra was on America's Got Talent.

The show needs some reliable experienced performers to fill out the 'cast' in case the real amateurs tank. Imagine watching a whole evening of Colin/Elijah/Haven. I don't expect any of the 'already had their chance' crew to win.

2 minutes ago, Superb Owl said:

Does the show still have Motown night and Elvis night and all those old corny theme nights for old people like me?

Sort of. Usually there's a Disney theme night (shudder), but this year all I see is 'Rock and Roll Hall of Fame' night and 'Judges Song Choice' night. They don't try to get these singers out of their genres anymore, like at all.

That said, my favorite performance last night was (unpopular opinion, I'm sure) Dawson's Billy Eilish song. Suddenly, church youth pastor gets nasty! I mean, read the lyrics to Copy Cat; it's downright sinister. I love when these kids do crazy stuff like that🤪

[Cryonix]

Noah Cyrus looked absolutely terrible, she looks nothing like she used to, wasn't such a good mentor either really & why on earth was she wearing that white hat thing when she was in the audience ??? that didn't do her any favors either.

[Annber03]

4 hours ago, thesupremediva1 said:

I’ve already forgotten the rest. Both nights suffered from poor song choices.

Yeah, Sunday night's crop was definitely the stronger of the two. 

 

4 hours ago, MarylandGirl said:

The thing I tend to like more about Idol is when a contestant starts off a bit rough, maybe they'd only been singing in the shower or some karaoke, then through the show, they gain confidence and become real performers. But they start out as true amateurs.

Yeah, I was thinking about that when watching last night, too. One minute these people are struggling a bit and flailing in the lead up to these concert performances and then the next suddenly they're acting like total pros on stage, grabbing the audience members' hands and running all over the stage and encouraging the crowd to sing along and whatnot. I mean, yeah, I can see a couple contestants gaining that kind of confidence rather quickly, but everyone suddenly gaining all this stage presence...you do start to wonder about just how much prior experience they've really had. 

As for Noah, yeah, she basically screamed, "We know Miley's got too much going on/isn't interested in coming here to play mentor, so, um...here's her sister?" :p. 

[gingerella]

Noah Cyrus looked like a vampire from some weird horror anime mash up. The black dyed hair. The bleached out brows, the weird ass bonnet. WTAF? And her advice was lane as hell. I had no idea who Allen Stone was,  but he gave great advice. Noah was vacuous and boring. What a surprise.

[Vermicious Knid]

I'd like to know what they were smoking because in no way, shape or form is Noah Cyrus a superstar. She's had the black extensions and crazy nails for years now. The crocheted baby bonnet was...a look. But all that could be forgiven is she had more than an ounce of musicality. Just because someone makes a few records doesn't mean they know how to actually teach or judge singing. She was  pretty useless as a mentor. 

Wé Ani was great, the others largely forgettable. I'm going to buck the prevailing sentiment and say I like Nutsa. She has more experience as a performer than most of them. Yes, there's usually one contestant who wears out their welcome while better people go home but I don't think she's it this season. And I fully expect in the next few years to see her performing Georgia's entry for Eurovision. 

[ruffy666]

Since moving to ABC, the show has definitely been disney-fied such that I think its primary goal is to be family-friendly, inspirational comfort food programming.  You really don't get any worthwhile critiques from the judges or the coaches anymore because that's seemingly not the point of this show.  I still enjoy it and I truly think this is the best crop of finalists they've had in ages, but it's... different.

I can't believe they gave the last slot to Nutsa, holy moly.  She definitely has *cough* stage presence?  But the rest of her is just too, too, too much.  There's 0% chance she will win.

[Gemma Violet]

Not a Nutsa fan at all.  I don't like the way she treated the girl she was partnered with in the duet.  The girl (can't remember her name) wanted to practice and Nutsa wanted to sleep.  Then, when Nutsa woke up and was ready to work, she was all, "Let's go, let's go, we have to practice our song!"  Well, where were you when the other girl was ready to practice?  I think the other girl was totally thrown off by all of this and lost her confidence, hence her bad performance.  

[MarylandGirl]

59 minutes ago, Gemma Violet said:

Not a Nutsa fan at all.  I don't like the way she treated the girl she was partnered with in the duet.  The girl (can't remember her name) wanted to practice and Nutsa wanted to sleep.  Then, when Nutsa woke up and was ready to work, she was all, "Let's go, let's go, we have to practice our song!"  Well, where were you when the other girl was ready to practice?  I think the other girl was totally thrown off by all of this and lost her confidence, hence her bad performance.  

I feel the same. And she was also critical of the other girl's outfit, right? Which may have also thrown her off.

[ljenkins782]

18 hours ago, gingerella said:

Noah Cyrus looked like a vampire from some weird horror anime mash up. The black dyed hair. The bleached out brows, the weird ass bonnet. WTAF? And her advice was lane as hell. I had no idea who Allen Stone was,  but he gave great advice. Noah was vacuous and boring. What a surprise.

She had a Marilyn Manson vibe going with that hair and those (missing) eyebrows. Seems like she felt she had to take a deliberately different visual approach from her sister, so she went goth. She was genuinely enthusiastic with the contestants and had a few good notes here and there. But I'd never heard of her before the show.

Quote

Elijah managed to take a largely forgettable Chris Jansen song and make it worse. I'm not sure what the judges were hearing, but that didn't seem like any fun at all. He was off-key through the first part of the song and then seemed to struggle with keeping time with the band. Maybe he had monitor issues, but that performance was bad. 

I like Elijah as a person, but his voice isn't the strongest and that was a really poor song choice. It sounded like the band was drowning him out in the beginning and the song just never really took off. Hopefully he can make it through and pick better songs in the future. Or go on to do something else in the entertainment industry, he's very engaging and personable, he could probably go do something on the Disney channel or something.

Quote

Yes! Wasn’t that the premise of the show that made it so successful? It was a singing competition. Now it’s muddied up by performances to the detriment of vocals. I’m old. I recall the years of Kelly, Kimberly Locke, Ruben, Clay and Carrie who could enunciate. I never needed closed captioning and now the enunciation is so bad, CC can’t figure it out! I also like narrowing contestant lanes to specific genres. Test their limits outside their box. I enjoyed the group numbers and duets. Seeing how contestants can share the spotlight. Now contestants are just ME, ME, ME! Look at ME! Humility is underrated.

Remember when it was a huge scandal that Kelly Clarkson had sung for demo records in LA before Idol? I remember that being splashed across the National Enquirer-type rags as this "she doesn't qualify as an amateur and shouldn't have won this amateur contest." Now it seems like half the contestants have already been on other singing shows or had previous record deals. I like it much better when a kid emerges from nowhere and gets an opportunity.

Quote

 

I don’t think Nutsa realizes what show she is on. Historically, Idol isn’t kind to traditionally beautiful females regardless of talent level. The only exception to this was Carrie, 19 years ago. Sexy women? Even the most amazing haven’t been able to win. But an overtly sexual performance that’s not particularly good? I don’t see that passing when Idol still fancies itself a Disney family-friendly type of show. I’m not even trying to throw shade, I just think that performance was a big miscalculation on Nutsa’s part.

 

That's true. Going back to the very beginning, with the likes of Christina Christian, Ryan Starr, etc, Kelly managed to emerge as the winner, even as she refused to wear any makeup or do her hair in all of those pre-taped Ford commercial things. 

and Nutsa's performance was super karaoke, on top of being over the top flashy. I hope she doesn't go very far.