I will be honest and say how difficult it was to evaluate the Idolists after a week of watching the Eurovision Song Contest’s world-class productions. Shoutout to Nutsa, an Idolist last season, for making the Eurovision Grand Final. On behalf of her country, Georgia, she finished 21st of 25 finalists, and I thought she deserved better.
In this season’s penultimate show, the remaining five Idolists sang two songs from Disney movies. Idol reject1 Kane Brown coached Round 1.
Round 1
Abi (The Little Mermaid Part of Your World) Very pretty, dynamic, evocative vocal. A-
Triston (The Princess and the Frog Almost There) Hi-quality karaoke. C+
Emmy (Hannah Montana: The Movie The Climb) D
Jack (Cars 2 Nobody’s Fool) Yeah, Luke, it is hard to find words for that performance. The struggle is real right now. C-
Will (Toy Story 4 The Ballad of a Lonesome Cowboy) It was a sleepy song choice. He did an excellent job recovering from messing up the lyrics, but I wasn’t paying attention until then. This performance never went anywhere. C
Round 1 summary: I struggled to connect with the Idolists’ performances. And what are their career prospects after the show ends?
Round 2
Emmy (Onward Carried Me With You) She’s trying. But every critique from the judges throughout the season, including the positive ones, mentions confidence. C-
Triston (Cars Life Is a Highway) That was good, but I have not been able to get past my feeling of “he’s really good for his age.” B+
Abi (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 The Chain) Abi has a terrific voice, but I did not like the laid-back arrangement that stripped the Fleetwood Mac classic of its heat. However, I did like the various rock star poses. Kind of Haley Williams-ish. B-2
Jack (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny Space Oddity) In contrast to Abi, I loved how Jack slightly tweaked the Bowie original in an effective way while staying true to his artistic identity. A
Will (D3: The Mighty Ducks Born to Be Wild) This justified the Glory Spot! Great song choice. If I closed my eyes, I would have thought he had turned into Bob Seger. That was nice. A
Round 2 summary: This was better for me. Maybe the first round reminded me that I am watching raw apprentices cosplay pop stars rather than polished Eurovision performers. Once I settled in, I could better accept them as they are.
Top Three for the Finale (“Tom – Dim the Lights! And here we go!”)
- Will
- Abi
- Jack
Not Top Three
- Emmy
- Triston
Given the five Idolists remaining, these were the right choices, even though Triston had a higher GPA (see below). Jack was more of a risk-taker and had some clunker performances. But when he was good, he was uniquely good. I am genuinely surprised, though, about Emmy. I was sure the voters were going to put her into the Finale.
Will should win and I will be shocked if he does not.
Updated GPAs.
| Will | 3.5 |
| Abi | 3.0 |
| Triston | 2.8 |
| Jack | 2.7 |
| Emmy | 2.3 |
See you next week. Until then, check out the singles dropping by the Top Three on May 17.
Ray's Musings 
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