Idol Chatter & Voice Views

The American Idol Top 5 of Laine Hardy, Alejando Aranda, Wade Cota, Madson VanDenburg and Laci Kaye Booth. (ABC Photo)

So you’ve been liking what you’ve been hearing from the American Idol Top 5 this season?

Don’t forget, prior to the show, all five had already released music you can still stream and download.

That top five — Alejandro Aranda, Laci Kaye Booth, Laine Hardy and Wade Cota — return to the stage tonight vying for a spot in the finals.

The show begins at 8 p.m. I’ll be providing song by song grades.

Here’s the pre-Idol music released by that Top 5.

Alejandro Aranda: Pre-show, he used the stage name Scary Pool Party, sometimes as separate words, but squished together for music release purposes. I still haven’t seen a good explanation for that, except he told the student newspaper at California State University at Northridge that he picked the name after attending a party. Bottom line, he’s released three singles as ScaryPoolParty — “Out Loud,” “10 Years” and “Fading Away.” Combined, they had more than 3 million streams on Spotify.

Laci Kaye Booth: Laci has the most original music available among the Top 5 thanks to a impressive seven-song EP she released independently in September 2017 called “Something New.” The mid-tempo “Don’t Call Me” was also released as a single, but my favorite from the collection is the lead track, “Turn Around.” Laci’s smoky vocals are on display throughout.

Laine Hardy: Coming off American Idol Season 16 when he failed to make the Top 24, Laine wasted no time getting music in the hands of his new fans, releasing a three-track EP called “In the Bayou.” The title track is an excellent original, and the EP also includes a fine cover of Levon Helm’s “Hurricane,” a song he performed on Idol this season. Laine came back in November with a holiday release, a cover of “Blue Christmas.”

Madison VanDenburg: Madison’s the youngest member of the Top 5, having been just 16 when she auditioned, so it’s not surprising she has the least music available. She released her first single, “Need a Little Heartbreak” last June. And, according to Facebook, she was working on a debut EP at that time. But, hey, if you can’t get enough Madison, there are lots of covers on her YouTube channel.

Wade Cota: Pre-show, he was lead singer and guitarist for the Phoenix-based rock band SugarWater. They had released a single called “Walk Tall,” but it no longer appears available on streaming sites. You can still listen to it and three other SugarWater songs on Soundcloud. Wade was also featured vocalist on a late 2018 single called “Brand New” by AustnAmeliA, an alt/pop duo also based in Phoenix.

The links above will take you to the songs on Apple Music. Below is a Spotify playlist so you can hear 30-second snippets of the songs.

See also …
Ranking the Top 5 on American Idol
The themes for Sunday’s Top 5 show