February 25, 2016 
Picture Credit: AmericanIdol/Fox
The header for this topic is a bit misleading in that, before we hear the Top 10 perform for your votes, the voting results for the 10 Wildcard singers will be announced at the beginning of the show. Four singers – Olivia Rox, Dalton Rapattoni, Trent Harmon and La’Porsha Renae – were pre-selected by the judges, which leaves 6 spaces remaining in the Top 10.
Mackenzie Bourg seems to be a fan favorite and, in truth, I like him as well. However, on Wednesday evening, there were some other very good performances crossing my TV screen, including Tristan McIntosh who has been unfairly labeled as the singer with pitch problems. Whatever everyone out there is hearing is definitely not what I am hearing. Her voice is nuanced and resonant and she employs the head voice element in a flawless manner. So, I am walking the Tristan journey alone I guess!
I will be adding a Vocal MasterClass article for the Top 10 but the immediacy of its publication won’t happen for a couple of days. I am having a very busy two days here – however, I will do my very best to publish it under the two day timeline.
In the meantime, you are all welcome to join in with your insights and evaluations in the comments section.
And don’t forget, our first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson, will perform and act as guest judge on Thursday, February 25th show beginning at 8:00 PM. On Fox. Must see TV!
Enjoy the show everyone.
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Good show! My favs were;
Olivia…she Rox!!!😜😉
MacKenzie…he is so relevant, I could hear him on the radio right now!
Avalon…I just love the tone of her voice!
Sonika…I liked that she is starting to loosen up!
Dalton…he’s so pretty! Good song choice!
Lee…I liked his song choice tonight, he sounded good!
Trent…I liked him tonight!
I loved Kelly’s song, beautiful. She did really good as a guest judge!
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Enjoyed seeing Kelly tonight.
Of the contestants in the top 10, I definitely like Sonika. Still deciding about others.
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Are they going to have the songs on iTunes this year?
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I’m in agreement with these grades: http://www.ydtalk.com/idolchatteryd/song-by-song-grades-for-the-top-10-on-american-idol-3/
Best were Dalton, MacKenzie, La’Porsha, Sonika, and Trent. Everyone else was nervous and pitchy.
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I just logged on here. Missed everything. Still no Tristan love? In truth, I still have to watch the show and critique it. Stay tuned. Thanks for you comments everyone. Keep them coming!
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Can we vote for Kelly? (Did you see Keith? I hope someone got him some tissues. *cough* My mom threw a whole box of ’em at me…)
So that was a bit of a mixed bag. I agree with Idol Girl–best for me were the same five:
Dalton: I don’t love that song, but I do love what he did with it! I don’t know how he took that much of the sugariness out of it without really changing the melody, but he did. He does not have anything like the best voice in the competition, but I haven’t heard him sing a wrong note yet, and he’s got creativity all over the place.
Mackenzie: There’s a way good answer to Lee’s take on that song, a major improvement! But Ed Sheeran sings it so hauntingly and for me Mac’s version wasn’t different enough for me to not compare them. Still, I did enjoy it, and I do want to hear more from him.
Sonika: Hello, glad you finally woke up! That was a very excellent song choice for her, and I think that purely in terms of an instrument, she has one of the best voices I’ve heard. She mostly hasn’t really known what to do with it so far, and that’s lack of experience showing. I don’t know that once you are actually on national TV is the best time to start! (Although, Jason Castro managed to work that! Maybe she can, too. We’ll see.)
La’Porsha: Well, she sure knows what she’s doing–even Harry doesn’t complain about her runs because she does them right. And she has that big beautiful voice, and awesome control. If she wasn’t trained in a church choir I’d be very, very, very surprised! (Is it wrong that I found her song a bit boring? I have no idea why. No one there seemed to find it dull though, so.)
Trent: He lost control of some of the notes, but mostly I really enjoyed him….as long as I didn’t watch him. He has to stop scrunching up his whole face, it’s so distracting! But he doesn’t overlap anyone else there stylistically, so I’d like him to stay around awhile.
Avalon: THANK YOU, KELLY! I don’t like the songs she picks, either–but I like them better when she sings them. She was…not great tonight, though. The first half felt to me like she was not singing in rhythm with the guitar and it was just jarring. Not a good song or not a good arrangement, one or the other or even maybe both.
Tristan: I don’t know that song, so maybe she was in tune but it sounded like she kept going off. I think she really does better with more thoughtful, introspective songs, and she should at least alternate, so we don’t forget what she can do.
Olivia: That was not her best performance. She was in the hospital with the flu earlier in the week, so maybe that’s why she seemed to be a bit pitchy?
Gianna: Big beautiful voice, a really bad song choice. I didn’t feel like she had any idea of what the lyrics even meant.
Lee: He’s cute as a button and I love his voice, but he was just all over the place on that song.
There, that’s my totally uneducated opinions! I stand ready to be corrected. 🙂
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MCL–The thing with Tristan is that she starts singing and I am blindsided by how lovely her tone is. And then she picks songs that I don’t think work so well for her and I get distracted. The crying shame is that I think she just needs a few years of experience and she’ll be gold, but because it’s the last season (and because they lowered the entry age several years back) she’s here now.
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ReReader – love your commentary. I expect it is spot on as usual. I am anxious to see the show and dive in with my critiques as well. It seems that these singers are stylistically unique and I love that about this season’s Top 10.
Thank you for addressing Tristan. I hope she goes back to songs similar to her preliminary audition song. She was seated at the piano and I loved the whole vibe about that particular performance. I expect she will grow to be an exceptional artist.
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YES! She’s so much better when the song allows her to go into herself.
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***I hope she goes back to songs similar to her preliminary audition song.****
That was basically the advice that Kelly gave to Tristan. Both she and Jennifer gave her good advice. Her song choices have been too ambitious for her experience level IMO. I think she has a nice combination of appealing gifts that will help her be successful one day but I’m beginning to think this isn’t her day. I also liked her audition but the country diva style she is shooting for isn’t her long suit.
Kelly was great tonight, both on the panel and especially singing. I usually don’t like an established artist using the Idol stage to pedal a sub par new song. But her heartfelt emotional rendering of her new piece tonight was exceptional and even brought Keith to tears.I’m voting for her. Kelly Clarkson, first and last Idol.
I think Sonica had the toughest mission of the night having to follow LaPorsha. Credit where it’s due, LaPorsha stepped up tonight and delivered her best performance and brought down the house. Would I buy it? Sorry, no. But Sonica followed he four chair standing ovation performance with an outstanding passion filled vocal and a professional level performance, not to mention she was dressed to the nines and looked great. I probably wouldn’t buy her track either but I have to give her credit for not being intimidated by the huge performance that preceded hers.
Lee Gene and Gianna were the weakest tonight. I think both of them have the potential to develop further, both seem like very nice young people, but It’s a tough group and there are double eliminations so I believe they will be the ones to go.
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For me, the thing with Tristan is; I felt like her whole audition package was a production! From her sitting and talking about missing her mom, to the Keith, “I got a feeling” comment, to Tristan talking about her mom in her audition, her mom showing up and has been right there for every Tristan moment?
Go back a watch her audition video, it is on American Idol’s Facebook page! I hear the same pitch problems then that I do now! I think Tristan had a manipulated Peak at her audition!
LaPorsha…I don’t care for her airs! I find her smug!
Now, that said on both of these, I won’t comment any further about either! I don’t have a favorite this year, so I guess it makes it easier to call it like I see it.
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One of my epiphanies from last night. The ability to link emotionally with the audience in some way is the most important aspect of reality shows. In AI the link is the ability to project through song and performance. Whatever rating someone may have given AI last night on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10, I would subtract two to three points if Kelly Clarkson had not been there. The power of her linkage ability to the audience there and in TV land (and synergistically with the other judges) made the show last night what it was.
Of the remaining ten, the three contestants who continue to be least linked with me are Lee, Gianna, and Tristan and so I think two of those three won’t make the cut to next week. They can sing but the there is something missing unrelated to voice and
song.
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Apparently Olivia wasn’t the only one dealing with the flu this week: https://twitter.com/DaltonRapattoni/status/703321103645745152
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@Idol Girl – I don’t think they are having the iTunes downloads this year.
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Who would you like to listen to on an iTunes track. Not considering fan interest or how well they perform on stage I think Mackenzie and Olivia might get my pocket change this week. There are better singers and better performers but these two suit my listening taste best at this point. How about you?
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Gene – too early to tell but I really loved the tone of Trenton’s voice. But, in truth, they are all very good. I honestly can’t pick a favorite yet.
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I would add Trent to my list as well. He’s growing on me.
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Like Rocker Chick, I also plan to tune in only occasionally, depending on the guest appearing.
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