Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Jelly Roll and Ashanti will mentor the Sunday night contestants on American Idol. (ABC Photo)

American Idol’s Top 24 perform in a pair of shows coming up Sunday and Monday, with 12 artists singing each night.

That means we should see full performances from every contestant below. Which will be wonderful, because Idol hasn’t exactly done a great job of evenly distributing airtime among the Top 24.

In fact, some of the ladies low in these rankings are there for just that reason. Penny Samar? Grayson Torrence? Kyana Fanene? I’m eager to hear them sing again because it’s damn hard to judge a singer based on one solo performance.

The Monday night lineup looks stronger than the Sunday night lineup in terms of true standouts to this point.

For those wondering, if all 24 were combined, my Top 5 would be (1) Canaan James Hill, (2) Thunderstorm Artis, (3) Drew Ryn, (4) Mattie Pruitt, (5) Slater Nalley.

Technology permitting, I’ll be live blogging the Sunday and Monday shows and posting song by song grades. Should you get a database connection error when trying to reach the site, wait a minute and try again. The problem corrects itself.

And thanks for your patience. My web host decided my blog needed to be on a more expensive and more powerful server, so now it goes down for a couple of minutes from time to time. Makes sense, right?

Done with the griping. On the with rankings … Last year, two singers went home from each night’s group, but results weren’t announced until the following Sunday night.

The night one performers on American Idol’s Top 24 shows include, from left, MKY, Victor Solomon, Jamal Roberts, Kolbi Jordan, Breanna Nix, Penny Samar, Zaylie WIndsor, Gabby Samone, Che Chesterman, Baylee Littrell, Slater Nalley and Isaiah Misailegala. (ABC Photo)

Sunday Group

1. Slater Nalley, 17, Atlanta, Ga.: Two superb originals. A strong country voice that cuts through all the noise. I’ll be surprised if he isn’t the last country singer standing in Season 23. And the last country singer standing on Idol usually goes very deep into the competition.

2. Breanna Nix, 25, Denton, Texas: She’s a helluva Idol story, and I bet every mom out there will be rooting for her — not Amanda Barise — as the show’s underdog. I keep waiting for her to falter due to a lack of experience. She sure hasn’t yet.

3. Jamal Roberts, 26, Meridan, Miss.: I find it very easy to root for Jamal, who wears his emotions on his sleeve and delivers a great vocal every time he takes the Idol stage. From here on out, he should be singing songs he’s familiar with, unlike in that head-to-hed duet.

4. Victor Solomon, 26, Peoria, Ill.: He’s a heck of a performer and one of the best singers on the show, even when his voice is tired. And you can tell he learned a thing to two about playing for the camera during his run to the finals on Season 20 of The Voice.

5. Zaylie Windsor, 18, Safford, Ariz.: Amid all the belters and glory notes, it’s tough for a female singer-songwriter to stand out. But Zaylie did it in showstoppers, combining surprising power with undeniable emotion.

6. Gabby Samone, 22, Baltimore, Md.: Which Gabby will we get? The Gabby who shouted through the second half of her audition performance. Or the Gabby who was a true showstopper during the Showstopper round in Hollywood. Here’s hoping for the latter because she looked and sounded like a star.

7. Baylee Littrell, 21, Atlanta, Ga.: He’s a fan favorite and he’s delivered two superb unreleased originals. But Carrie Underwood’s comments on head-to-head night suggest he’s been a bit inconsistent in the performances we haven’t seen.

8. MKY, aka Mikey Jimenez, 25, East Los Angeles, Calif.: Idol has dubbed him the Latin Elvis. One look at his on-stage persona tells you why. We’ll see if he catches on as a Season 23 heartthrob. Loved the support he showed for head-to-head partner Josh King. But he still needs to win me over with his vocals.

9. Penny Samar, 23, Williamsport, Pa.: Remember when every season of Idol had a quirky female singer. With her Pink Pony Club and the odd facial expressions we saw at her audition, I think Penny is supposed to be that girl. Problem is, she hasn’t gotten enough airtime for the quirkiness to become endearing. She did show great range on that head-to-head performance.

10. Kolbi Jordan, 26, Tulsa, Okla.: I’m wondering if she’s trying too hard to live up to her platinum ticket stature. Because her Hollywood performances — including night one’s group number — featured way too much oversinging and vocal sauce. I reserve the right to bolt her much higher in the next rankings if she returns to form.

11. Che Chesterman, 28, Essex, England: He’s from the UK and has singing show experience. He amde made the finals of The X Factor UK in 2015. My guess is he’s going to need an absolutely amazing performance to survive the next cut.

12. Isaiah Misailegalu, 17, Las Vegas, Nev.: He’s got great potential. He’s also very inexperienced. And anyone who watched the head-to-head judging travesty and listened to illogical explanation would come to the conclusion that Isaiah made the Top 24 based on a cool nickname (Samoan Silk) and a loud cheering section.

See also …
Where the Top 24 rank on social media
American Idol stages a massive head-to-head misfire
Song by song grades for Head-to-Head night
Song by song grades for Showstoppers

The night two performers on American Idol, including, from left Canaan James Hill, Thunderstorm Artis, Desmond Roberts, Grayson Torrence, Drew Ryn, Filo, Amanda Barise, John Foster, Olivier Bergeron, Josh King. (ABC Photo)

Monday Group

1. Canaan James Hill, 17, Dallas, Tx.: Wow. Just wow. Not sure he’ll win. But his combination of power and passion — at age 17, no less — is going to be hard to beat. He’s been superb in every performance we’ve seen so far. Heck, his Showstopper performance even prompted Lionel to rush the stage and offer congratulations.

2. Thunderstorm Artis, 28, Nashville, Tenn.: The former Voice finalist is so polished, it almost seems unfair pitting Idol newbies against him. And he’s released so much impressive music, it’s going to be advantage Thunderstorm any time he has a chance to sing an original.

3. Drew Ryn, 27, Chino Valley, Ariz.: I don’t remember her performances from The X Factor when she was 14. But I know this: She’s matured into one heck of a performer, delivering a wonderful mix of vocal power and emotion every time we’ve seen her.

4. Mattie Pruit, 15, Engleville, Tenn.: I’ve long argued very young singers shouldn’t get special consideration in a competition like this. But if you can hold your own and even stand out the way Mattie has so far … well, that’s mightily impressive.

5. John Foster, 18, Addis, La.: On a show that loves sad stories, I can’t believe we haven’t heard John sing, “Tell That Angel I Love Her,” written about a female friend tragically killed in a high-speed police chase. Maybe he’s keeping that in his hip pocket. If so, now might be the time.

6. Desmond Roberts, 25, Corona, Calif.: The last two times we’ve seen Desmond perform, I came away thinking: “I’m not sure the vocal was perfect, but that was fun to watch.” He’s a heck of an entertainer, not surprising since he sings in an event band called Midnight Delight.

7. Amanda Barise, 26, Manhatten, N.Y.: She keeps referring to herself as an underdog, but she delivers big, belting notes like a Season 23 front-runner. She’d be well advised to pick songs where she can deliver emotion as well as power and steer away from songs we’ve heard countless times on Idol.

8. Filo, 23, Dublin, Calif.: I’m not sure Filo is catching on with viewers. He audition video still has only 323,000 views, far, far fewer than many singers who have already left the competition. Having only a snippet of his Showstopper performance air certainly didn’t help him establish an identity with Idol fans.

9. Kyana Fanene, 28, San Leandro, Calif.: Idol fans will be forgiven if they ask, “Kyana who?” because her only full performance to air was during the auditions when she sang “Unaware,” quite impressively, then announced she was “pmsing.” I’ll help. Here’s Kyana singing “She Used to be Mine.”

10. Grayson Torrence, 21, Providence Forge, Va.: Some members of the Top 24 are at a disadvantage because of a lack of airtime, Grayson among them. Thanks to Idol’s editing, I feel like we’ve seen more footage of Grayson crying than singing. But for those who don’t remember, she showed great control on a big song in her audition.

11. Olivier Bergeron, 22, Kedgwick, New Brunswick, Canada: To me, Olivier was one of the surprise choices for the Top 24. Judging from his reaction, he was pretty surprised too. He’s the last Canadian standing among at least a half dozen featured in the audition round. Idol aired just 18 seconds of his audition performance.

12. Josh King, 24, Charlotte, N.C.: Idol has been trying to chase the lounge singer out of Josh, who has lots of performance experience, including performing for travelers at a piano in an airport terminal. You’re more likely to remember him as the guy who wrote lyrics on his hand because he wound up singing an unfamiliar song on head-to-head night.