I'm really in the zone with American Idol at the moment, I've done the first three Live Shows of Season 13 so far, and I am liking the Season so far.
I was definitely scared early on in the first Live Show (bar one performance, which I thought was decent,) but thankfully the later performances on the night (plus the next two Live Shows,) have got me more into the Season.
And I've already got a few iconic performances in the series, which I'm happy about.
Anyway my rankings.
Live Show 1 - This Is Me
1. Jessica Meuse - The Crow & The Butterfly - I really enjoyed this, Jessica has a really good voice, with a good style going on imo.
2. Alex Preston - A Beautiful Mess
3. Caleb Johnson - Pressure & Time
4. Sam Woolf - Unwell
5. Jena Irene - The Scientist
6. Emily Piriz - Glitter In The Air
7. Dexter Roberts - Aw Naw
8. MK Nobilette - Satisfaction
9. C.J. Harris - Radio
10. Ben Briley - Folsom Prison Blues
11. Malaya Watson - Runaway Baby
12. Majesty Rose - Tightrope
13. Kristen O'Connor - Beautiful Disaster
Live Show 2 - Home
1. Caleb Johnson - Working Man
2. Jessica Meuse - White Flag
3. Sam Woolf - Just One
4. Dexter Roberts - Lucky Man
5. Ben Briley - Turning Home
6. Majesty Rose - Fix You
7. Jena Irene - Suddenly I See
8. Alex Preston - I Don't Want To Be
9. Malaya Watson - Take Me To The King
10. C.J. Harris - Waiting On The World To Change
11. MK Nobilette - Drops Of Jupiter
12. Emily Piriz - Let's Get Loud
Live Show 3 - Movie Soundtracks
1. Jena Irene - Decode
2. Jessica Meuse - The Sound Of Silence - The judges heavily underrate her performances imo.
3. Caleb Johnson - Skyfall - Tbf, a very good vocal, I weren't a huge fan of the Shows arrangement for him though, they did a bizarre edit to the song for my taste. But as I've already said, Caleb is delivering a fantastic vocal.
4. MK Nobilette - Make You Feel My Love
5. Dexter Roberts - Sweet Home Alabama
6. Alex Preston - Falling Slowly
7. Malaya Watson - I Am Changing
8. C.J Harris - Can't You See
9. Ben Briley - Bennie And The Jets
10. Sam Woolf - Come Together
11. Majesty Rose - Let It Go
Live Show 4 - Billboard Top 10
1. Jessica Meuse - Pumped Up Kicks
2. Caleb Johnson - The Edge Of Glory
3. Sam Woolf - We Are Young
4. Alex Preston - Story Of My Life
5. Jena Irene - Clarity
6. Dexter Roberts - Cruise - Dexter's a good singer imo, the Show treated him harshly imo.
7. Malaya Watson - When I Was Your Man
8. Majesty Rose - Wake Me Up
9. C.J. Harris - Invisible
10. MK Nobilette - ****in Perfect - Whoa!
Live Show 5 - I'm With The Band!
1. Sam Woolf - Hey There Delilah
2. Jena Irene - Bring Me To Life
3. Jessica Meuse - Rhiannon
4. Dexter Roberts - Boondocks
5. Caleb Johnson - Dazed And Confused
6. Majesty Rose - Shake It Out
7. Malaya Watson - The Long And Winding Road
8. C.J. Harris - If It Hadn't Been For Love - I found out yesterday that C.J had passed away last year, I don't know the full details as to how he unfortunately passed away. But either way I just wanted to say R.I.P, C.J.
9. Alex Preston - Don't Speak -
Live Show 6 - Back To The Start
1. Jessica Meuse - Blue-Eyed Lie
2. Dexter Roberts - One Mississippi
3. Sam Woolf - Lego House
4. Caleb Johnson - Chain Of Fools
5. Alex Preston - Fairytales
6. C.J. Harris - Soulshine
7. Jena Irene - Rolling In The Deep -
8. Malaya Watson - Ain't No Way -
Live Show 7 - Music From The 1980's
1. Caleb Johnson - Faithfully - It was nice to see Caleb have a more softer performance. And he is a fantastic vocalist.
2. Sam Woolf - Time After Time
3. Jessica Meuse - Call Me
4. Jena Irene - I Love Rock And Roll
5. Dexter Roberts - Keep Your Hands To Yourself
6. Alex Preston - Every Breath You Take
7. Malaya Watson - Through The Fire
8. C.J. Harris - Free Fallin
Live Show 8 - Competitors Choice
1. Sam Woolf - Sail Away
2. Jena Irene - Creep
3. Jessica Meuse - Gunpowder & Lead
4. Caleb Johnson - Family Tree
5. Dexter Roberts - Muckalee Creek Water
6. Alex Preston - The A Team
7. C.J. Harris - Gravity
Live Show 9 - Rock And Roll & Country - Round 1
1. Sam Woolf - It's Time
2. Jessica Meuse - Somebody To Love
3. Caleb Johnson - Sting Me
4. Jena Irene - Barracuda
5. C.J. Harris - American Woman
6. Alex Preston - Animal
Live Show 9 - Rock And Roll & Country - Round 2
1. Jessica Meuse - Jolene - I get that this performance will divide people, but I personally really enjoyed it.
2. Caleb Johnson - Undo It
3. Sam Woolf - You're Still The One
4. Jena Irene - So Small
5. Alex Preston - Always On My Mind
6. C.J. Harris - Whatever It Is
Live Show 10 - America's Choice - Round 1
1. Jessica Meuse - Human
2. Alex Preston - Sweater Whether
3. Caleb Johnson - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
4. Sam Woolf - Sing
5. Jena Irene - My Body
Live Show 10 - America's Choice - Round 2
1. Sam Woolf - How To Save A Life
2. Jessica Meuse - Summertime Sadness
3. Alex Preston - Say Something
4. Caleb Johnson - Still Of The Night - A very strong vocal imo. I just thought that the other three were better.
5. Jena Irene - Valerie -
Live Show 11 - Round 1
1. Jena Irene - Heartbreaker
2. Alex Preston - Too Close
3. Jessica Meuse - Since U Been Gone
4. Caleb Johnson - You Give Love A Bad Name
Live Show 11 - Round 2
1. Jena Irene - Bad Romance
2. Alex Preston - I'm Yours
3. Jessica Meuse - So What
4. Caleb Johnson - Travelin Band
Live Show 11 - Round 3
1. Jessica Meuse - You And I
2. Alex Preston - Yellow
3. Jena Irene - Can't Help Falling In Love
4. Caleb Johnson - Maybe I'm Amazed
Live Show 12 - Round 1
1. Caleb Johnson - Never Tear Us Apart
2. Jena Irene - Titanium -
3. Alex Preston - Pompeii - I've found out that Alex was ill during this performance, so I'll spare him the emoji on those grounds.
Live Show 12 - Round 2
1. Alex Preston - Stay
2. Jena Irene - Heart Attack
3. Caleb Johnson - Demons - Being serious, this is Caleb's worst vocal of the entire Season imo, I do think that he was getting stagnant anyway, but this was definitely a below par performance for him. He is a great vocalist overall though imo, despite the stagnation that I felt with him by the end. Again like Alex, Caleb was ill on the night, so I'll cut him some slack in the vocal department.
However my point about him stagnating towards the end of the competition I do believe to be true.
And Caleb and Jena were definitely the most favoured by production that I have possibly seen by any of the Seasons that I have watched of American Idol so far.
I'm personally really enjoying the series, I personally think that the talent is stronger than Season 6, and on par with Season 9 imo (and because the voting is better in this year, you do overall get better Live Shows.)
Season 8 I still think might have overall the strongest line-up that I've seen though, because Season 13 does have some early elimination contestants that are... Interesting.
The one contestant begins with a K, and the other begins with an M.
There's a few gripes that I have with the Season though, that I will address out of fairness.
1. The camera has to stop panning to the judges when the contestants are performing, sometimes I'm seeing more of Jennifer Lopez than I am say C.J for example during his performance.
I want to watch the contestants, not the judges.
2. The favouritism towards Jena, Alex, and Caleb from production is really blatant, they all get late time slots, and overall preferential treatment. Don't get me wrong, I really like Caleb, and I have really liked some performances from Jena, and I really liked Alex's first Live Show, so I'm not hating on any of the three, it's just to me, they're blatantly being favoured by production.
3. Jessica and Dexter (especially Dexter,) getting harsh time slots and comments, like Jessica and Dexter delivered good performances every week imo (or to where I am currently with Jessica,) yet the Show has mistreated them badly imo, I mean Dexter even got picked on for his diction which I thought was really rude, especially considering that I could personally understand what he was saying, and I could understand what he was singing, so the comment just felt like they wanted to make him look like a simpleton, which is really harsh imo.
4. Sam being treated as "The Hearthrob," does him a massive disservice in my view.
Apart from Come Together in the third Live Show, I think that Sam has delivered solid vocals and has displayed a strong talent throughout the competition, I really don't like how the Show is treating him like he is their own equivalent to Lloyd Daniels off of The X Factor.
He was a good contestant in his year, and I will not be embarrassed to admit that.
5. Jennifer Lopez speaking to the judges during certain contestants performances, in particular I've seen her do it multiple times to Jessica, and at least once to Caleb, C.J (RIP,) and Sam, whether the production are telling her to do that, or she's being deliberately unlikable, it's really disrespectful imo, and blatantly trying to influence the public to feel a certain way about certain performers/performances, which I say let people make their own minds up on the Show.