Twitter and Facebook provide a great way for fans to communicate their thoughts and song choice suggestions to their favorite American Idol contestant. The finalists have the potential to accumulate many thousands of Twitter followers and generate an impressive amount of Facebook likes as well.
According to International Business Times the 2013 Top 4 girls’ Twitter and Facebook totals as of April 25th at 6pm (just before Thursday’s results show) were as follows:
Angie Miller – Twitter: 120, 350 & Facebook Likes: 72,696
Candice Glover – Twitter: 64,800 & Facebook Likes: 24,378
Kree Harrison – Twitter: 61,789 & Facebook Likes: 11,940
Amber Holcomb – Twitter: 39,159 & Facebook Likes: 7,551
Does their popularity on social media in any way equate to the number of votes the contestants receive each week and their eventual place in the ranks after the votes are counted?
During Season 10 it sure looked that way. The phenomenon known as the “Twitter Curse” was first brought to our attention during American Idol Season 10. This is the year producers set up Idol sanctioned Twitter and Facebook accounts for the Top 10 finalists. The basic theory of the “curse” was that the number of tweets and Facebook likes a contestant received in the days and hours leading up to the results show predicted whether or not they would be voted off. The surprising thing about it was the more tweets a contestant received the more likely they were to be voted off.
During that season, that interpretation of Twitter and Facebook totals accurately predicted the outcome of the voting every week including the finale, with the exception of one.
The curse theory doesn’t seem to apply to American Idol 2013’s Angie since she has not landed in the Bottom 3 so far this season and likely will not end up there in the remaining few weeks of the competition.
Some reports attribute Angie’s lead in social media popularity to the attention she received when she performed her original song, “Set Me Free”. The song has had more than 3.5 million views on YouTube.
Candice and Kree haven’t as yet performed an original song, but they have both delivered consistently strong performances all season. Is that enough to account for their high totals relative to Amber? The appearance of Drake and Paula Abdul most likely provided a boost in Candice’s popularity in recent weeks. Kree’s popularity among the judges seems to be in decline. Keith Urban said not long ago that she’ll be a member of the Grand Ole Opry soon and Nicki Minaj said she would be performing on the Country Music Awards. Candice had not been voted into the bottom 3 all season until last Thursday night. Kree and Amber have both landed in the bottom of the rankings.
The judges have said that America doesn’t seem to get Amber and they have been accused of giving her overzealous praise in recent weeks. Some have said it’s been a transparent attempt to influence the voters that may have backfired. In any case, it hasn’t had much of a positive effect in the social media communities. Amber has given some great performances but continues to generate the lowest Twitter and Facebook totals of the Top 4. Is it just because America just doesn’t “get” her or is there some other explanation?
Tell us your thoughts on what the Top 4’s Twitter and Facebook popularity really means and does it really have an effect on the outcome of the voting?