Julia Gagnon performs Somewhere Over the Rainbow on Top 8 night on American Idol. (ABC Photo)
Julia Gagnon took to social media this week to make a request of American Idol fans.
The Top 7 contestant wants them to dial back the online hate and “just spread love.”
“As the competition gets tighter and more people are forced to leave our family, there’s so much hate everywhere,” she says.
“People feel the need to drag down the other contestants as they think, for whatever reason, it promotes their favorite.
“If you’re a fan of mine — if you’re a fan of us — you will not bring any hatred to any of the rest of our family,” the 21-year-old from Cumberland, Maine, adds.
It’s a touching, heartfelt message from Julia and comes at a time when there’s plenty to love about the Season 22 cast.
Every member of the Top 7 has created an Idol moment this season, a performance so superb it was Idol victory worthy. Heck, I’d argue that’s the case for everyone in at least the Top 10.
In Julia’s case, one of those occasions came when she covered Zach Bryan’s “Something in Orange” on Top 10 night with a brilliant blend of emotion and vocal skill.
This week’s message to fans isn’t the first time Julia has addressed online hate.
In fact, she and Abi Carter have made a game of reading each other’s hate comments. One takes a mouthful of water and tries to hold it without laughing while the other reads one of that singer’s “hate” comments.
They says it’s their way of laughing on camera instead of crying off camera about those hate comments. And they’ve posted three videos worth of hate comments so far.
“There’s way too much darkness in the world,” Julia says in her more recent post, which you can check out in its entirety below. “We don’t have to add to that.”
Besides, she adds, American Idol “is about fun, and we’re having fun.”
That fun continues tonight at 8 p.m. when the Top 7 take on songs by Adele and songs that make you want to dance before two more cuts are made, leaving Season 22 with a Top 5.
See also …
Ranking the Top 7 on American Idol
Most popular performances from Top 10 and Top 8
Song by song grades for the Top 8
Song by song grades for the Top 10
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