Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol Top 7 each performed twice Sunday night, singing a song from the Coldplay songbook, then a number dedicated to their mom’s.

At the end of the night, Hunter Meets and comeback contestant Arthur Gunn were eliminated.

That leaves a Top 5 of Chayce Beckham, Caleb Kennedy, Willie Spence, Grace Kinstler and Casey Bishop.

Here are song by song grades for the Coldplay performances:

Casey Bishop, “Paradise” — This was not a good way to start the night. It’s a good thing I knew the song was called “Paradise” because I was having trouble understanding much of what Casey was singing. Look, this young lady has tons of potential, but I think she landed on the Idol stage a couple of years too soon. Grade: C–

Chayce Beckham, “Magic” — To me, this started awfully sleepy for a Top 7 night performance. Especially considering Chayce raved pre-performance about how much he loves the song. But then he delivered a big note at the 1:25 mark. And the rest of the performance was superb, filled with the intensity I’d expect with a spot in the Top 5 on the line. Grade: B+

Willie Spence, “Yellow” — The Idol judges gave Willie a standing ovation at the end of this performance. Sorry, I would have remained seated. Of course, I might have been spoiled Season 7’s Brooke White’s emotionally haunting performance of the song. Instead of emotion, we got vocal frills, odd pronunciations of “yellow” and glory notes from Willie. No thanks. Grade: C

Caleb Kennedy, “Violet Hill” — I honestly did not expect much from Caleb covering Coldplay. But this was a pleasant surprise. Caleb sounded great on the opening. And if he lost a bit of momentum in the middle of the song and got drowned off by the music, he came back to deliver a nice ending. In fact, that might have been the best he’s sounded on Idol. Grade: B–

Arthur Gunn, “In My Place” — Arthur changed this up quite a bit, which should have surprised no one after his Disney Night cover of “Remember Me.” The thing is, that cover worked. Not sure this one did, at least quite as well. Even Katy suggested that Arthur might have been better served by “playing along” on this one. Coming from a Season 19 Idol judge, that’s harsh, harsh criticism. Grade: B–

Grace Kinstler, “Fix You” —
Confession time. I wasn’t nearly as over the moon about Grace’s audition as the Idol judges. But this young woman has completely won me over in the last month. This was another stellar performance, punctuated by an emotional ending, by the best singing remaining in Season 19. Grade: A–

Hunter Metts, “Everglow” — Hunter has a really pretty falsetto and showed off his range on this performance. But I’m not sure he landed all those high notes as precisely as he’d like, and his voice sounded a little worn out to me. That said, the judges were pushing him to push himself to delivering big vocal moments. And he clearly tried to do that. Grade: B