Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol Top 10 pose for a photo with Princess Katy Perry during a visit to Disneyland earlier this week. (ABC Photo)

American Idol makes history tonight, sending its Top 10 show to all 50 states at the same time.

The reason: Live voting will decide who goes home at the end of the night and who advances.

And, folks, hold on tight. This isn’t your old Idol where a single singer — or in rare instances, two — are eliminated.

This is the new faster track Idol, ABC style. Ten singers will start the night. By the time Ryan Seacrest is done announcing results, we’ll be down to a Top 7.

It’s also Disney Night on Idol, which means the Top 10 will be signing tunes made popular through Disney movies. If you’ve seen as few Disney movies as I have, head over to this blog. I’ve embedded a Disney version of each song we’ll hear tonight.

Here are those songs. I’ll be back later to provide song by song grades.

See also …
Ranking the Top 10
Social media rankings for the Top 10
Here comes live voting
Listen to the Disney songs

And to open the night, Katy Perry shows up dressed as Snow White. No costumes for Lionel Richie or Luke Bryan, fortunately. Ryan suggests we might find out if Katy has a prince by the end of the night.

Hey, vote now. Why wait to hear performances?

Maddie Poppe, “The Bare Necessities” from Jungle Book — Normally, singing first isn’t where you want to be. With live voting, that might not be the case. Maddie wants to show she isn’t a one-trick pony, but this is again pretty much a singer-songwriter vibe. That said, she did a very nice job with the song, threw in a nice wrinkle at the end and has Katy talking in her Snow White voice, which I’m not sure should earn her kudos or … Grade: B

Ada Vox, “Circle of Life” from Lion King Ada shows up in gold, from gown to lipstick to hair. And then delivers a dazzling vocal that’s the best we’ve heard so far and might be the best we’ll hear tonight. It’s going to be very, very interesting to see what fans do with Ada, who needed a judges’ save to make the Top 10. Grade: A

Cade Foehner, “Kiss the Girl” from The Little Mermaid — That’s totally different that anything we’ve heard from Cade so far. He sang so quietly at the start, I had trouble hearing him over the music. But he delivered a big note at the end. Not sure he’s survive long on the show singing a steady stream of ballads, but as a change of pace between the rockers, I’d put him through to the Top 7. Grade: B–

Caleb Lee Hutchinson, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story As Disney songs go, this is probably about as good as Caleb was going to do for a song choice. He can remain true to his country sound and still do the song justice. Don’t know what it tells us about his potential as a future country star, but Idol deemed it Disney night so Disney tunes are all we have to choose from. Grade: B

Catie Turner, “Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping Beauty Minus her guitar. Minus any hair-band tossing, mic-stand pushing theatrics, Catie took the stage in full princess mode and delivered a very, very good vocal. Maybe not Gabby quality. Certainly not Ada bombastic. But certainly Top 7 worthy, which is where I’m sure she’ll wind up. Grade: B.

Dennis Lorenzo, “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from Lion King And normally last is the preferred spot for a singer on a singing show. But with live voting? There’s less time for a sensational performance to register. Or word of a sensational performance to spread. Dennis is doing a solid job with this. There were a couple of questionable notes, but he did a good job of building the song and ending big too. Luke congratulates him on hitting a home run. But I’m not sure that’s going to be the game-changer he needs to pound his way into the Top 7. Grade: B

Gabby Barrett, “Colors of the Wind” from Pocahontas — Luke just told Gabby she has everything she needs to win the show. Lionel says she’s a star. Katy loved the versatility she showed. I second all of the above. If the show ended now and I had to vote for one contestants, she’d get my votes, and that performance just added to a string of nearly flawless performances for the young lady from Pittsburgh. Don’t believe she’s ready for the big time? Just to to Spotify and listen to her originals. Grade: A

Jurnee, “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana — I was hoping to see another burgeoning pop star performance from Jurnee. But, hey, I’ll settle for this. I love the tone in her voice and you can tell she’s gaining confidence as a performer. This also seemed a bit more challenging vocally than Maddie’s song. I’m really, really hoping America votes her through to the Top 7. Yikes, and she pulled that off after her wife just got deployed to somewhere dangerous. Grade: B+

Michael J. Woodard, “Beauty and the Beast” from Beauty and the Beast Michael, too, gets great feedback from the judges. But that was my least favorite performance of the show so far. Michael seemed a bit shaky at the opening, but deserves credit for the range he showed over the course of that performance. I’m just not convinced he has the star power of some of the show’s other top contestants. Grade: C+

Michelle Sussett, “Remember Me” from Coco — Michelle looks absolutely lovely. (I figure that’s okay to write with Katy fawning over every guy who steps on stage.) And she does an a cappella opening which might be the best she’s sounded during her entire Idol run. Then she switches to Spanish lyrics, which the judges have encouraged. Stage presence is never an issue with Michelle either, is it? I still think she’s going to have a hard time squeezing into the Top 7, but that was a very nice performance. Grade: B+

Tough decisions for the Idol viewers.

My Top 7: Gabby, Cade, Jurnee, Caleb, Catie, Ada, Dennis.

Advancing:
1. Caleb Lee Hutchinson: Glad to see an odd theme week didn’t do him in.
2. Gabby Barrett: Another excellent week for her.
3. Michael J. Woodard: Not sold yet on Michael.
4. Cade Foehner: The rocker went soft and survived.
5. Maddie Poppe: Hmm, thought she might be in jeopardy
6. Catie Turner: She’s likely going to make it into the finals.
7. Jurnee: The budding pop star.

That means the end of the road for Ada Vox, Michelle Sussett and Dennis Lorenzo.

There’s going to be lots of talk about Ada missing the cut.