‘American Idol 15’ video: Former ‘The Voice’ contestant MacKenzie Bourg returns

Remember MacKenzie Bourg? He was someone who built a decent fan following on “The Voice,” and come this week on “American Idol,” he will be back to try his luck at going far on this show.

For these singing shows, we figure that there is a delicate balance when it comes to giving you people who have had a presence on other shows in the past. It’s often not addressed, and it is totally weird given the fact that it is a huge part of their narrative and their journey to get to the show. Back in the way we used to have a big problem with it (see Thia Megia, or our initial take on Jessica Sanchez before coming around), but we’ve come to realize that almost nobody on these shows anymore is truly undiscovered. Sometimes judges / producers on other shows made a mistake, and their loss could be someone like MacKenzie’s gain.

What he does in this audition is really smart as a move for screen time, choosing to do a loosely-connected melody of three songs from the judges. It’s not often we get to hear Harry Connick Jr. covers on the show, but we’re certainly glad that there is one here. We also like that he did the Keith Urban song as MacKenzie, and didn’t do the thing that Harry hates where people pretend to be country for the sake of trying to put a twang on it. We liked both of those better than what we heard of Jennifer Lopez’s “Love Don’t Cost a Thing,” but to be fair that’s not a great audition song. There’s not much room to show off your range, and the video cuts out before the end.

MacKenzie is not the only familiar contestant you are going to see on “Idol” Wednesday. Head over here to see who is coming back from a past season in an attempt to succeed again!

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