Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Paige Anne awaits her fate following the Showstopper performances on American Idol.

The 16-year-old junior from Idaho Falls High School might have been referring to what looks like a bright musical future.

Then again, she might also have been referring to Season 21 of American Idol.

In what now seems like an odd production decision, Idol made a sing-off between Megan Danielle and Paige Anne as a cliff-hanger that carried over from the Sunday night to the Monday night episode.

Idol was revealing what turned out to be a Top 26 during those episodes, with each conestant appearing before the judges to learn his or her fate.

Paige and Megan, a former contestant on The Voice, were called before the judges together.

Megan turned in a brilliant performance of Lady Gaga’s “Always Remember Us This Way” during the Showstopper round.

Out of an abundance of caution, Paige Anne, who was feeling a bit under the weather, wound up performing “Wrecking Ball” by Miley Cyrus from her hotel room.

The judges were still torn on who to put into the Top 26, so they asked them both to sing Adele’s “Easy on Me” before deciding.

Paige’s rendition was quite impressive. But they were more taken by the character in Megan’s voice.

So Megan advanced, Paige was eliminated.

At least that’s the way it went down in the clips that were aired.

But Idol only revealed a Top 25 on those two episodes.

And the Idol Pad spoiler site, which usually gets everything right, lists Paige Anne among the Top 26.

So this theory is emerging. The 26th spot was held by Beckett Rex. Some eagle-eyed fans spotted him celebrating with the Top 26 at the end of Monday’s show.

He’s a contestant we’ve never seen on Season 21, which struck me as sort of odd since his backstory includes the fact that he’s the son of actor Malcolm McDowell of Clockwork Orange fame.

The theory is that Beckett dropped out of the Top 26 for some reason.

And after high-profile defections in each of the past two seasons — Benson Boone and Kenedi Anderson — Idol might not have wanted to invest airtime in a singer who left the show before fan voting began.

Having already announced a Top 26, judges needed to fill Beckett’s spot.

Hello, Paige Anne.

Anyway, that’s the theory. Idol hasn’t confirmed it yet.

In fact, a video posted to the site’s Instagram account Tuesday still featured a Top 25.

Here’s hoping the show makes an announcement — or allows Paige Anne to make one — soon.

After all, voting starts during the Sunday and Monday episodes, and her fans need to know to tune in.

By the way, I’ll be providing song by song grades for those performances, so be sure to check back in for those as well.

Meanwhile, here are the Top 25 we saw advance.

The Guys (12)

Elijah McCormick
Oliver Steele
Dawson Wayne
Matt Wilson
Colin Stough
Iam Tongi
Tyson Venegas
PJAE
Zachariah Smith
Malik Heard
Michael Williams
Warren Peay.

The Ladies (13)

Marybeth Byrd
Emma Busse
Olivia Soli
Elise Kristine
Mariah Faith
Hannah Nicolaisen,
Nailyah Serenity.
Megan Danielle
Lucy Love
Haven Madison
Nutsa
We Ani
Kaeyra