Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The Top 7 — Jay Copeland, Noah Thompson, Leah Marlene, HunterGirl, Christian Guardino, Fritz Hager and Nicolina Bozzo — with the American Idol judges after Disney night (ABC Photo)

Each of the remaining American Idol contestants will get two chances to impress Sunday night.

Idol will cut its field from a Top 7 to a Top 5 as the contestants sing Mother’s Day dedications and songs that went viral on TikTok.

For some reason, will.i.am will be on hand to mentor the singers. I would have far preferred Idol stay in 20th anniversary mode and invite back a former fan favorite from the show to handle those duties.

Voters eliminated the bottom three from my Top 10 rankings, so you won’t see many changes this week. As always, last week’s ranking is in parenthesis.

1. Leah Marlene (1): She’s impressed every time she’s been on the Idol stage. She stays atop the rankings by a whisker thanks to her versatility and song-writing ability.

2. Nicolina Bozzo (2): No doubt she delivered Disney night’s most dazzling moment with her cover of “Poor Unfortunate Souls.” If I could handpick a top two, Leah and Nicolina would be it.

3. Fritz Hager (3): But if I was betting money on the outcome, I’d put it on Fritz. He’s an incredibly likeable guy who’s been coming on strong. And, remember, 10 of the last 13 Idol winners have been guys.

4. Jay Copeland (4): Since he needed a save to make the Top 14, Jay’s dialed it in vocally with one impressive performance after another. But I’m not sure he’s connecting with fans as well as Fritz and Noah Thompson.

5. HunterGirl (5): If HunterGirl is going to fulfill Katy Perry’s prophesy and win Idol, she’s going to have to start delivering knockout performances every time she steps on the Idol stage.

6. Noah Thompson (6): Noah’s intro package — featuring his young son and the co-worker who signed him up for the show — was probably more successful in rounding up votes than his Disney night cover.

7. Christian Guardino (7): He can deliver more vocal firepower than at least two of the males listed above, something he proved again on Disney Night. A bit more finesse would be helpful.