Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol Top 7 each performed twice Sunday night, singing a song from the Coldplay songbook, then a number dedicated to their mom’s.

At the end of the night, Hunter Metts and Arthur Gunn were eliminated.

That leaves a Top 5 of Chayce Beckham, Willie Spence, Caleb Kennedy, Casey Bishop and Grace Kinstler.

Here are song by song grades for the Mother’s Day performances:

Casey Bishop, “Ironic” by Alanis Morissette — This was a dramatic improvement over Casey’s first performance of the night. She seemed more sure of herself. We got to hear how pretty her voice is. We got to hear the power in that voice. She still sounded a bit shouty on the big notes, but not on her final glory note. Just one question: What does that song have to do with Mother’s Day, other than Casey’s little shout-out to her mom at the end. Grade: B

Chayce Beckham, “Mama,” an original — Chayce was the big winner Sunday on Idol. With Arthur and Hunter eliminated, he now has the non-country singer-songwriter lane all to himself. And then there was this sensational and wonderfully performed original, based on the problems he’s overcome and the way his mom has stuck by him. Let’s just call it what it was: the best performance of the night. Grade: A

Willie Spence, “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker — The lyric change on the final line to make this more of a Mother’s Day performance was a nice touch. But Willie, again, delivered more vocal frills than emotion. That’s might be what Idol wants. Heaven knows a couple of those glory notes were impressive. But it doesn’t make it the cover of this song I’d go to for repeat listens. Grade: B–

Caleb Kennedy, “Mama Said,” an original — Hey, no hat, and an original song. And you know what, a really, really good original song. Caleb says he’s more of a songwriter than a singer. And, remember, that song came from a guy who’s just 16. Easily my favorite Caleb performance. If he’s got more originals, that might be the route he should take as the competition continues. It worked for Alejandro Aranda. Grade: A–

Arthur Gunn, “Simple Man” by Lynyrd Skynyrd — Okay, Arthur bounced back from a subpar round one showing to deliver a great cover of this song. I mean, if you like what Arthur does — and I do — this was Arthur at this best. Still you have to wonder about the point of this whole Comeback experiment. The runner-up on Season 18 is now a Top 5 finisher on Season 19. What did that accomplish? Grade: B+

Grace Kinstler, “When We Were Young” by Adele — Wow, I mean, Grace begins a performance vocally where the other singers in the competition end, and then she builds on that. I didn’t enjoy this quite as much as her first performance of the night, but it’s impossible not to appreciate the vocal firepower on display over the last part of that cover. And, yep, I ‘m thrilled that Grace made it into the Top 5. Grade: B+

Hunter Metts, “The River,” an original — Kudos to Idol for letting three of the Top 7 perform originals for their Mother’s Day tributes. This was easily Hunter’s best performance of the night. And with Ryan Seacrest saying voting was so close, I have to wonder if Hunter’s fate would have been different if this had been his first performance of the night. It might have been a case of where the pimp spot did him no favors. Grade: B+