Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Gotta say, for the first time all year, I’m excited about the talent on American Idol.

We saw some brilliant performances on Wednesday’s final Hollywood show.  We met a couple of talented new singers.

Yep, the crew at Idol might have rounded up a fine cast for Season 11.

Now, I’m still a little ticked that Idol wasted an hour on drama last Thursday.  Wouldn’t it have been better to hear from even more of the advancing contestants?

And I can’t for the life of me understand why Idol has yet to figure out a way to identify all of the contestants who survive Hollywood.

Nigel, it was the toughest Hollywood Week ever, or so you tell us.  The survivors — all of them — don’t even merit an on-screen mention?

Here are the advancing contestants I caught, some by recognizing faces, because Idol identified precious few by name.

Room 1 survivors included Joshua Ledet, Colton Dixon, Aaron Marcellus, David Leathers Jr., Adam Brock, Jermaine Jones, Lauren Gray, Jen Hirsh, Creighton Fraker, Erika Van Pelt, Hallie Day, among others.

Room 2 survivors included Phillip Phillips, Skylar Laine, EbenFranckewitz , Shannon Magrane, Reed Grimm, Cari Quoyeser, Jessica Phillips, Amber Caparas, among others.

Room 4 survivors included Angie Zeiderman, Britnee Kellogg, Richie Lawson, Heejun Han, Baylie Brown, Aubree Dieckmeyer, Deandre Brackensick, among others.

Sorry, that’s less than half.  But head to my contestant profiles.  The ones we haven’t seen eliminated from that list of 90-plus are probably still around, because the profiles were based on the rumored top 60, plus all the contestants featured during audition episodes.

Now, to recap last night (you’ll find grades for all of the group and individual performances in the live blog):

Best new talent:  Joshua Ledet, hands down.  The 19-year-old from Westlake, La., grabbed my attention as soon as he started singing with his group “6-7-9” and his final solo performance was simply the best of the night.  And this from a guy who got so nervous he almost didn’t make the trip to Hollywood.

Best female:  Shannon Magrane simply amazes me.  She stands 6 feet tall, so she looks older than the 16 she just turned.  But it’s not her height that surprises, it’s that voice.  Wow, what a voice.  Two teens wound up in the finals last year, and I think Shannon is every bit as talented as Scotty McCreery or Lauren Alaina.

Best female who isn’t a teen:  It’s about time Jen Hirsch got showcased on American Idol.  A solid performance with Group Sauce followed by a splendid version of “Georgia On My Mind” should establish her as a front-runner among the ladies for a spot in the semifinals.

Best male not named Joshua: Nigel doesn’t like contestants to hide behind instruments.  I don’t call it hiding when pawn shop employee Phillip Phillips picks up a guitar. Without it, he’s an OK performer.  With it, he’s something special, as he proved again in Wednesday’s solo round.

Second best male not named Joshua:  I’ve said it before, I didn’t really take to Creighton Fraker when he was featured in the Pittsburgh audition episode.  But American Idol should be about singing first and foremost, and this 28-year-old from Queens, N.Y., can flat out sing.

Thursday night on Idol, we get a two-hour episode from Vegas.  I’m hoping, really hoping, that Idol does what it did last year and posts all of the solo peformances from Vegas online so we can watch them before the final semifinal selections take place next week.