Ahead of tonight’s big cuts where we will lose three of the remaining eight Idolists (approx. 40% for the math-inclined like me), I want to write a bit about My Girl We´Ani. I am choosing to believe in a conspiracy theory of my own making, which is that the Evil Genius Producers (EGPs) are tired of the criticism that the only people who win Idol now are country-singing White Guys With Guitars (WGWGs). So, to counter that possibility (likelihood?) this season, the EGPs slipped a couple of female ringers into the competition in the hopes that an experienced and talented but relatively unknown contender would defeat the “best” of the WGWGs.
One of those ringers was KAEYRA who I have previously written about. We´ Ani is the other. My Crack Research staff has done a little digging and here is what Google they have found. The big discovery is that back in 2016 when she was 17 years old, We´Ani finished third on The Voice competing as We´ McDonald (Ani is her middle name). Since then, she has gone on to become a Tik Tok star with over three-quarters of a million followers.
She has another quarter-million followers on IG. And We´ has a presence on Spotify with previously recorded music including an EP that dropped in April with a single that already has a million streams.
Recently, the @AmericanIdol Twitter account posted tweets promoting each of the remaining Idolists. Since Idol has been touting their “record-breaking” social media presence, I figure that Likes on these tweets would provide a sense of each Idolist’s relative popularity. Here’s that data, along with how many Twitter followers each one has, as that would influence how likely those tweets would be seen.
| Likes | Followers | |
| We´Ani | 38,000 | 467,000 |
| Iam Tongi | 19,900 | 446,000 |
| Oliver Steele | 14,500 | 195,000 |
| Haven Madison | 12,600 | 160,000 |
| Zachariah Smith | 8,800 | 162,000 |
| Colin Stough | 6,600 | 88,000 |
| Warren Peay | 5,300 | 72,000 |
| Megan Danielle | 2,500 | 31,000 |
It’s difficult to translate social media converts into votes since viewers aren’t necessarily social media followers or voters. But the point of this data-filled exercise on We´ is to provide evidence in favor of my conspiracy theory that the EGPs probably recruited her for the show[1] given her strong fan base on social media and track record of high-level performances on The Voice. Not only would she make for great television – that’s the most important thing for the EGPs – but on “paper” she might be a candidate to break the WGWG stranglehold that impacts the show’s credibility.
Between now and the May 22 Finale, we will find out.
P.S. Speaking of ringers, KAEYRA sings background vocals on the new Jason Derulo single Glad U Came that dropped the last week of April.
[1] Almost all of the contestants on The Voice are recruited. Idol to my knowledge still relies primarily on their come-one come-all auditions.
Ray's Musings 