Julia Gagnon, McKenna Faith Breinholt leave American Idol on a high note

American Idol

Julia Gagnon, McKenna Faith Breinholt leave American Idol on a high note

May 7, 2024 By Mark Franklin 0

Julia Gagnon performs on the American Idol Top 7 show Sunday night. (ABC Photo)

If you’re going to leave American Idol, it’s best to go out on a good note.

McKenna Faith Breinholt and Julia Gagnon did that and more Sunday night.

Their Adele round songs — “Make You Feel My Love” for McKenna and “Set Fire to the Rain” by Julia — were among the night’s absolute best performances.

Still, they found themselves as the contestants eliminated when American Idol went from a Top 7 to a Top 5 at the end of the night.

A day later, both were promising more music to fans. And perhaps even another appearance on the Idol stage.

I’m pretty sure they’re referring to the May 19 season finale, because Idol typically brings back top contestants from the season to compete that night, often as part of a duet with a celebrity guest.

And, don’t forget, both of these ladies released music before the show. So it’s not like fans have to wait for new original music to hear their voices whenever they like.

“I am in high spirits and could not be more at peace with last nights results, as I had no idea I would even be privileged enough to BE in top 7!!!!!!,” wrote Julia on Instagram on Tuesday.

Pre-Idol, the 21-year-old from Maine released a three-song EP called “August” with fiance Nate Haven. They released the music as a duo called Chocolate Milk.

And later Tuesday, Julia returned to social media, with Nate, to post a snippet of an unreleased song called “unlikely,” which she described as the first song they wrote together.

“Something you may not know — my other half, is literally my other half!!!” Julia writes in that post. “And have we got things in store for y’all!!!! Covers are so fun, but original music is the missing piece to my ‘soul’ sound.”

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6pQkuyv-9_/

McKenna, 25, of Gilbert, Ariz., has even more previously released music, 11 singles fromt he 2017-2019 time frame, four of which already have more than 1 million streams on Spotify.

She also previously sang with a group called Cinematic Pop, a group that transforms pop songs with the help of a choir, orchestra and soloists. The group appeared on America’s Got Talent, with McKenna as a featured vocalist, back in 2016.

Cinematic Pop released its most recent album — “All the Lonely People” — in 2021. McKenna is featured on four of the 12 tracks.

McKenna’s message to fans: “Went out with a bang in my opinion 🖤 and I’m really proud of that 🙂 thank you to those who have been voting for me and making it possible for me to be here. This really just is the beginning!! And… my @americanidol journey isn’t over quite yet🖤🖤 so stay tuned!”