American Idol review: Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, Laine Hardy, & Disney
Consider this article your LIVE review for all of the festivities, as we’re going to be bringing you our take on all of the performances throughout the night. Refresh this piece throughout the night for updates!
For some more American Idol updates in video form, be sure to check out some of the latest below! For some other insight, remember to subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube right now. We’ve also got an official American Idol playlist that you’re going to want to check out for some more updates.
Uche, “I2I” – Why don’t these people get to hang out at Club 33? This isn’t a particularly well-known Disney song, but it totally fits his aesthetic as this pop-rock star who knows how to perform? His low register is so good and he figured out a way to make sure that he was in-tune while also still strutting around the stage. Think about the control required here! That’s a LOT of effort from start to finish.
Laci Kaye Booth, “See the Light” – This is a song from the movie Tangled, and one that Laci tried to put a soulful, sweet version of this song that was perfectly subdued and nuanced. She hit a couple of bigger notes before the end, but this was more just about being able to carry through the emotion of the song and causes us to be still. Kudos to the band for not overpowering her, either.
Alejandro Aranda, “Remember Me” – This was lovely. It was a very different arrangement than the original version and it was soft, emotional, and it really fit his style and who we know him to be as an artist. We do still wonder if he really needs to be a backing band with him, but that’s probably a little bit besides the point. This was, at least so far, the best performance of the night.
Alyssa Raghu, “Colors of the Wind” – We’ll admit that of all of the performances tonight (at least at this point), Alyssa had the number that felt the most true to the original version. It was flowing, elegant, and extremely well-sung. It didn’t sound all that different from the original, but sometimes with Disney, you really don’t need to do anything different.
Wade Cota, “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” – This was a very pleasant performance of what is a really pleasant song, but was there anything unique or special about this? Wade’s a nice guy and we like his voice, but this was predictable. Personally, we would’ve preferred him to pick a legitimately surprising song and tried to somehow flip that on its head. This was solid, but also uninspired.
Dimitrius Graham, “You’ll Be in My Heart” – Is this Dimitrius justifying his place in the top 10 further? We think so. This was beautiful — there were still a couple of notes that were still a tad out of control, but we perhaps felt the heart and the emotion here perhaps more so than at any other point on this night so far. We love the song choice, the power of some of those high notes, and how much he just cared to be there. That matters a lot to us.
Madison VanDenburg, “How Far I’ll Go” – We knew that Madison had the ability to go out and completely crush this Moana ballad, so we can’t exactly come out and say here that we’re altogether surprised by the fact that she came out and did it. Probably the best performance of the night vocally, and we’re not entirely sure that it was altogether close.
Walker Burroughs, “When She Loved Me” – This was a good performance, albeit a reasonably safe one at the same time. Basically, we consider this to be a pretty even performance to what we’ve seen the past few weeks — nothing worse, but not necessarily anything better.
Laine Hardy, “Oo-de-Lally” – For Laine, he had the task of taking on a classic Robin Hood track that we know to be rather lighthearted and fun. All of that was there in this performance, but so was a little bit of an edge. While we don’t know if it was Laine’s best performance per se, it did remind us of why people like him — he can appeal to both pop and country artists without fail.
Jeremiah Lloyd Harmon, “Candle on the Wind” – This was the final performance of the night and it was everything that we imagined that it was going to be — emotionally powerful, heartfelt, and everything that you could’ve possible wanted to close things out. Jeremiah is showing us yet again what he’s incredible at, and that is connecting to viewers.
To get some more news when it comes to American Idol…
All you have to do is visit the link here! We’ve already got there some of the latest song spoilers, and then also where we ranked the contestants coming into the episode.
What do you think about tonight’s American Idol, and all of the performances you end up seeing? Be sure to share right now in the comments. (Photo: ABC.)