‘American Idol’ rankings: Charlie Askew, Lazaro Arbos, Jimmy Smith top the guys
Over the past week on “American Idol,” we have received countless opportunities time and time again to get to know some of the men who are going to be facing off for the season 12 crown. With this in mind, we’re in at least a little bit of a better position now to judge who are likely going to be the five favorites to go pretty far in the competition.
What we’re judging this on right now is a combination of many things, whether it be screen time (since there are still some contestants we’ve barely seen), edit (which is why Curtis Finch Jr. is not included here), voting history (which tends to favor white guys and country singers), and also overall talent level. We’ll be doing this every Saturday as the season goes along, so be sure and check back!
The top five guys
5. Lazaro Arbos – A true inspirational story, and if he makes it to the point where America can vote for him, we feel pretty confident that they will. His biggest challenge is not being Chris Medina’d out of the competition right before the live voting, since the producers may be cognizant of the fact that his story alone makes him a pretty overwhelming favorite to go pretty far.
4. Nick Boddington – As of right now, he’s a sleeper pick to be the sort of male Hollie Cavanagh thanks to his past experience on the show. He has friends from last season’s Hollywood Week who could support him, and he seems like a super-cool guy with some great experience in music … even if he has not received much of an edit.
3. Burnell Taylor – Clearly, he is one of the biggest diamonds in the rough in this competition. He’s a bit unfocused and all over the place vocally, but he has such passion that he could be a serious beast a la Joshua Ledet. The most important thing for Burnell is simply that he just seems to be a guy that is very hard to not like.
2. Charlie Askew – We’re totally with Nicki Minaj when it comes to Charlie: he’s a little quirky, but he has a stellar voice and a great sense of humor to boot. He’s a little more confident a version of Brett Loewenstern, and so long as he does not botch the song choice at a potential top 20 performance show, he could go pretty far.
1. Jimmy Smith – He may not so much be a personal pick (since we’re more for Charlie and Nick at the moment), but Jimmy is very great at what he does: sing country music from his heart, and sing it really well. There really aren’t too many male country artists left, either, and the fact that he’s different than any other that has been on the show before makes him pop. Does it also help that he’s a goofy, good-looking guy? Definitely, just as Kris Allen or Phillip Phillips.
If you want to read our full review of the “American Idol” performance shows from this week, you can do so over at the link here.
Photo: Fox