Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Alejandro Aranda following his Disney Night performance on American Idol. (ABC Photo)

If so, will it be Alejandro Aranda, who turned in what the show called it’s best audition ever?

Social media numbers for the Top 8 on Idol show Laine and Alejandro with a clear edge.

Laine came to Season 17 with a large social media army based on his Season 16 appearance on Idol. And it’s continued to grow.

But Alejandro has passed him in Instagram support and gained more fans on Twitter than Laine in the past two weeks.

The numbers below were recorded late Thursday night. The number in parenthesis indicates each artists’ social media surge since I last posted these numbers two weeks ago.

The numbers also make this clear: If you’re an aspiring singer looking to build a social media fan base, American Idol — and not rival The Voice — is the place to be.

In fact, seven members of Idol’s Top 8 have gained more followers on Instagram than any Top 24 contestant on The Voice has total at this point.

The key is the format on Idol, one which has included 12 performances so far from members of the Top 8. On The Voice, members of the Top 24 have performed just three times. And, in many cases, a month has passed between televised performances.

Sunday night, the Idol Top 8 will sing solo covers of tunes from the Queen songbook. They’ll also pair up for classic movie duets.

See also …
Ranking the Top 8 on American Idol
The theme doesn’t seem fair, but we can still hope for magic

INSTAGRAM

1. Alejandro Aranda, 523,000 (+253,000)
2. Laine Hardy, 342,000 (+101,000)
3. Laci Kaye Booth, 140,000 (+62,700)
4. Walker Burroughs, 133,000, (+63,000)
5. Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, 121,00 (+64,300)
6. Madison VanDenburg, 116,000 (+66,500)
7. Wade Cota, 112,000 (+61,700)
8. Alyssa Raghu, 96,700 (+36,400)

FACEBOOK

1. Laine Hardy, 254,753 (+56,236)
2. Alejandro Aranda, 32,448 (+6,453)
3. Laci Kaye Booth, 30,787 (+8,609)
4. Madison VanDenBurg, 29,055 (+16,363)
5. Alyssa Raghu, 26,125 (+3,682)
6. Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, 25,390 (+4,168)
7. Wade Cota, 19,328 (+6,636)
8. Walker Burroughs, 9,172 (+2,888)

TWITTER

1. Laine Hardy, @TheLaineHardy — 37,900 (+11,400)
2. Alejandro Aranda, @scarypoolparty — 33,900 (+12,600)
3. Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, @jlloydharmon — 14,100 (+5,900)
4. Madison VanDenburg, @MadisonV — 13,000 (+7,400)
5. Walker Burroughs, @WalkerBurroughs — 12,800 (+6,000)
6. Alyssa Raghu, @AlyssaRaghu — 11,900 (+3,100)
7. Wade Cota, @WadeCota — 11,500 (+6,000)
8. Laci Kaye Booth, @lacikayebooth — 10,700 (+3,000)