Sunday night on American Idol 2019 the Top 8 performed songs by Queen, and by the end of the night, America had spoken. Your votes left Alyssa Raghu and Walker Burroughs at the bottom of the heap and it was up to the judges to decide if either of them should stay in the competition. They, of course, chose to send them both home.
So first let’s look at America’s choices. Did those two belong in the bottom two? Well, of course this is all subjective, but I’m going to just say that Alyssa being there makes sense to me. While her performance of the night was good, overall she’s just been kind of OK. She’s talented, but there’s not a lot to remember with her. So I expected her to be in the bottom. As for Walker, I didn’t quite expect it. A few weeks ago I expected him to possibly be in the bottom and go home, but then it seemed America actually liked him. And his performance last night was really good. It was actually better than Alejandro’s and LEAGUES better than Wade’s. So I was a bit disappointed in the results. But this really brings up something that should be discussed about the voting process.
You see, someone like Wade, who a lot of people like can have a really off night and it won’t effect him because people have already been voting before he performed. And people like Alyssa, who can have a really good night performs last and has no time to gather new voters who actually might still vote based on performances. Even she admitted she was trying to stall after her performance to give people more time to vote.
I know a lot of people will say the actual performances no longer matter at this point in the competition and people are going to vote for their favorites anyway. But I beg to differ. Sure, that is probably true for the most part, but I think there’s still a chance to move someone enough with a performance to get them to pick up the phone. And on the other hand, I think it’s possible for a performance to totally turn someone off and convince them to put their votes elsewhere. Wade’s performance last night was awful. He was singing flat and he even missed some lyrics (of one of the most well-know songs on the planet). So in my opinion, that should have done him in and very well could have if voting was still overnight as it used to be.
So what I’m saying, I think, is that Walker should have stayed over Wade based on performances. Walker was so good last night and Wade was so bad. Even Wade seemed to know he was robbing Walker and Alyssa. The thing is, though, has America gone for Walker or Alyssa over Wade, I’m pretty sure the judges would have saved him. I’m not sure why they’re so into him, but they really are. Even after his horrendous performance last night, they gave him nothing but praise and Luke Bryan even told him blowing the lyrics was no big deal. Last time I checked this is still a competition and you win competitions by being the best. Sure it doesn’t matter if Luke Bryan blows a lyric at a show in an arena named after some corporation, but it should matter on American Idol.
Of course, on the other hand, you could say, well it’s just American Idol and it’s not that serious. And you might be right. But this is a blog dedicated to American Idol so we are always going to have strong opinions on the show.
Now, back to the judges. We know they probably would have saved Wade had he been in the bottom, but did they make the right decision holding onto the save? I think they did. I think Alyssa has had about 5 chances now, so that should just be over. But Walker had a shot to be saved. But could he ever win American Idol? Not this season. So I think letting him go was probably the best decision. Because everyone left in the competition could really be vulnerable next week and that save will definitely come in handy then. I’m just hoping if it’s Wade in the bottom next to any of the other five they do the right thing with the save.
Let us know what you think about the American Idol Top 6 results.