Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Marcio Donaldson walks into the American Idol audition room with the baby he’s caring for. (ABC Photo)

We heard from 22-year-old Brandon Elder, whose mother had him when she was in her mid-teens and, reportedly, traded him for a car. He wound up being adopted, but his adopted mom died of cancer in 2016.

We heard from 28-year-old Amalia Watty, who’s from the Caribbeans. She heard her father was a musician in New York, so she moved her to connect with him. They only met once. She found he was too busy to have time for a relationship with her.

And we heard from 28-year-old Marcio Donaldson of Compton, Calif. His mother was in the system. He and his sister were placed into the system when his mom couldn’t care for them. Then his sister had a baby that was taken from her. He wound up adopting the baby to keep him out of the system.

All three owned golden tickets to Hollywood.

Brandon sang “Gone,” a tribute to his late adoptive mother and earned high praise from the American Idol judges for his song-writing ability.

Amalia covered Bob Dylan’s “Make You Feel My Love” and displayed a unique sound that could help set her apart in the competition. It was probably the best female vocal we heard Monday night.

And Marcio impressed the judges with his version of “Jealous.” Though the baby he’s taking care of seemed to impress the Idol judges as well.

As for the best of the night, I’d give that award to Dominique Posey, who was oh, so impressive with his spot-on cover of “A Song For You” by Donny Hathaway. Naturally, he advanced to Hollywood as well.

Surprisingly, a former Voice contestant did not. We caught a brief glimpse of Johnny Rez during Monday’s episode, but he was part of a montage of singers who didn’t receive golden tickets. Johnny had made it to the battle round on Season 11 of Idol’s prime competitor.

Other singers who earned golden tickets Sunday included Trevor McBane, Genavieve Linkowski, Kenedee Rittenhouse, Cody Martin, Victoria McQueen, Daniel Ethridge, Samothias, Taryn Coccia and her sister, Payton Taylor. In the video we saw, Britney Holmes did not advance. But she got a second-chance audition at the American Music Awards earlier this year and made it.

Here are videos of those who advanced.