Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Liliana Tover Dalton during the interview portion of her American Idol audition. (ABC Photo)

So I was checking social media today to see if Liliana Tovar Dalton would be releasing “5 Percent,” the original she performed to much acclaim on American Idol in the episode that aired Sunday.

Turns out, Liliana dropped out of American Idol.

She posted this message on Instagram Tuesday: “thank you all so so much for following my idol journey! nonetheless, i feel i should share that i withdrew from the competition before hollywood week.

“i am eternally grateful for the experience and the advice given to me by artists i so look up to. lots of exciting news coming up for those who continue to follow my journey!!!!”

Liliana, you’ll recall, was the 17-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, who proclaimed herself in her “Taylor Swift era,” a young woman who wrote songs about stupid teenage boys.

“5 percent” she said was reflective of the effort one of those boys put into their relationship.

The judges praised her original and she received a unanimous yes from the judges when it came time to decide whether she should advance to Hollywood.

Her mother Christa also posted the news of Liliana’s departure from the show on Facebook.

Liliana “decided to withdrawal from the competition last Fall; however was delighted American Idol aired her episode nonetheless!”

Sometimes, the televised singing shows make very odd editing decisions. Remember, the auditions we just finished watching were filmed last fall. Hollywood Week was filmed in December.

Yet American Idol dedicated four a half minutes of a late March episode to introduce us to Liliana.

Not only that, they pre-released her audition clip, using it to promote the final audition show.

Only to turn around and delete it from their YouTube channel sometime after Sunday. Seriously, check it out. They have taken down Liliana’s audition video.

And this is happening just as Nars Taylor, a contestant who made it to the Top 57 showcase, has taken to social media with the hashtag #AmericanIdolSucks to lambast the show for giving him no airtime whatsoever.

Remember, Sunday’s episode opened with Ricky Moyer’s wonderful performance of Roxette’s “It Must Have Benn Love.” But we learned absolutely nothing about Ricky.

Ditto for Brant McCullough, Sophia Ava Marie and Carmen Olivia, all of whom sounded superb while being shoe-horned into a short clip on fearless teen auditioners.

Would it have been that difficult for the show to re-edit the video to cut down Liliana’s segment a bit in order to give us more information on them? Or on another contestant who received no airtime? There are a handful of singers among the rumored Top 57 whom we’ve never seen.

That said, I enjoyed meeting Liliana. She came across as a likeable, carefree and talented young woman.

Still don’t know whether she’s releasing “5 Percent.” But she has a debut single out called “Wish You Cheated.” She released it under the stage name LILIana.