The American Idol 2018 Top 10 was chosen this week, and we know six of the finalists who are in good standing with America, so now is the perfect time to start our American Idol Power Rankings.
For the next few weeks, we’ll be assessing how the contestants perform and how the votes play out, and will be ranking them based on how we think they’re doing and how we think America is responding. We’ll be taking into account song choice, performance, stage presence and look, judges’ comments and their placement during the results portion at the end of each episode. And for the record, these are not AT ALL ranked based on my opinion of them. Because to be honest, if that were the case, I’d be ranking them almost in reverse order than the list you’ll see below.
So let’s get to our first one of American Idol 2018!
American Idol Top 10 Power Rankings
1. Gabby Barrett. The judges love Gabby and America apparently does as well. She is definitely doing something right with her song choices and her stage presence. We can’t be sure of her vote placement this week, but something tells me it was probably the very top spot.
2. Catie Turner. Catie isn’t my kind of performer any more than Gabby is, but they’re both really popular with the judges and America. It seems Catie found some haters on social media, but she has A LOT of fans. I’d be willing to bed she was in the top 3 as far as votes goes from this week. I do hope Catie does better at song choices. “Take Me To Church” was such a weird one for her.
3. Cade Foehner. I think Cade and Catie are pretty close in popularity, based on what we’ve been seeing with internet searches and social media buzz. And the judges love Cade. He’s also one of the better contestants when it comes to song choice. I’d also dare to say he has the best stage presence of anyone in the Top 10.
4. Michael Woodard. Michael is the most unique and talented of this whole group. I’d love to put him in the No. 1 spot, but I’m not sure he’s at the top of America’s picks. America Idol really seems to like country music, quirky girls and dudes with guitars, so we’ll see how this plays out with Michael. But he’s earned his spot here.
5. Maddie Poppe. I’m glad America put Maddie through. I wonder if she was probably the 5th or 6th person as far as votes go, but who cares. She’s in the Top 10 and she’s an amazing singer-songwriter. She has THE BEST taste in songs, so I expect to always like her song choices. Her “Walk Like An Egyptian” pick was a weird one, but it worked for her.
6. Caleb Lee Hutchinson. I was surprised and then not surprised that America put him in the Top 10 so easily. I didn’t think he was really bringing anything new to the American Idol table, but I’ve been wrong before. He’s doing something right and I’ll keep watching to see if I can figure it out.
7. Jurnee. I hope that America seeing her almost go home this week wakes them up on her. Jurnee is an effortless vocalist and is ready to be a star. I think she should be No. 1 now that Marcio (sigh) is gone, but America isn’t seeing it that way.
8. Ada Vox. Like Jurnee, Ada has got IT. She’s got all of it. But America didn’t get it. Ada should be ranking in the Top 5 in these rankings, but having not made it in by America’s votes means she has to be lower on this list than she deserves.
9. Dennis Lorenzo. Broken record alert. Dennis is super talented and definitely deserves to be higher, but here we are. America didn’t give him the votes he needed, so he used his talent to wow the judges and wow he did.
10. Michelle Sussett. I still don’t understand why the judges picked Michelle over Marcio Donaldson, Garrett Jacobs, or Mara Justine, but they did. This whole time I thought she was the one contestants with the least amount of stage presence and the ability to connect. I can’t imagine ever really getting into one of her performances. I think America still won’t get it next week either and she’ll likely go home. Unless her getting saved brings out her fans in bigger droves.
How would you rank the American Idol 2018 Top 10?