‘American Idol 15’ review: Manny Torres, Zach Person, Jaci Butler perform in final audition show
Yep, get your hankies out now. Thursday night’s “American Idol” episode was the final one for the series, pending of course some sort of last-second move where the show gets renewed for another run. The final contestants are trying out for their golden tickets, and we’re going to be updating this live as the show goes on.
Jessica Cabral – Out first audition of the night was one we’ve seen so many times: A young ambition with plenty of ambition who was trying to give her family a better live. A really good singer with a whole lot of talent, but someone who is going to need to do still a whole lot of work in the event she wants to make it far.
Brian Dale Brown – This dude has auditioned for the show TEN TIMES, and has never made it through the first round until now. This felt in some ways like a pity golden ticket, since he really wasn’t that good; instead, he was really just LOUD.
Melanie Huber – She has a pretty solid voice; her Bruno Mars cover was lovely, but we’re not sure that she is going to be ready for the next stage of the competition or the live shows. We’re not going to fault the judges for their decision here, though; as a cancer survivor Melanie has been through quite a lot, and it was nice for her to have this moment.
Chyna Sherrod – There probably needed to be a little more power during her “One Last Time” performance to really win us over, but we’re not going to deny that there was a void of good singing here. She has a nice, soft voice, but this is a song that needs to crescendo more. Still, she did enough to move forward.
Lillian Glanton – Very good songwriter. She may be a little better in that space than as a singer. She got two yes votes from Jennifer Lopez and Keith Urban, and that was enough to offset Harry Connick Jr. being not too keen on her sound.
Casey Haynes – He’s got a story about overcoming addiction, and we could feel some of the passion as he performed. The one thing that he still needs to work on here is figure out how to match his singing to the obvious passion that he has. The power was there, but the control at times wasn’t.
Zach Person – One of the better guitarists we’ve seen audition, and he has a really good voice, as well. He’s the sort of guy you can tell really loves music, and will do almost everything that he can to entertain. Think of him as someone we’d love to see more of.
Colette Lush – She loves being a redhead; she can’t stop talking about it! She’s also probably the best singer of the show so far. We’d love to see her do something a little more current since she’s got so many different things that she can play with.
Avalon Young – A really good take on “XO.” She’s got a few nasally notes, but you can see in the way she performs that she would work really hard to do what she needs to do for the sake of the show. She didn’t have a ton of range, but was really comfortable when she performed.
Usen Isong – A very good voice, but he’s got to tone back the faces and the snapping. Him moving around during his Sam Smith cover took out a lot of emotional from the song, almost like it was more about his personality.
Jaci Butler – She got a great plug for her band out there, and you can hear in her voice that she’s got a history performing. She does have a few bad habits thanks to performing on stage versus doing TV (too many hand gestures), both these are things that can be worked on.
Stephany Negrete – Why are we getting “Who’s Loving You?” just a few minutes after we last heard it? Stephany can sing, but hearing this once completely negated any impact that would have come from hearing it a second time.
Manny Torres – Our final audition, and a guy who could easily win the show. Cool look, and we love the way he performs. This audition reminds us a lot of Phillip Phillips, and we all know how that story ended in season 11.
If you missed it, head over here to read our review for Wednesday night’s new episode right now! Also, you can sign up over here to get some other TV news on everything we cover, sent right over to you via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Fox.)