The New York and Chicago auditions are now behind us, with two more weeks of auditions and even more bickering between Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj still to come. As we know, these preliminary rounds were filmed last fall and Hollywood Week in December. Spoilers are bound to surface when a show as big as Idol has prerecorded elements. And that’s the case for season 12, with the list of 20 men and 20 women who are moving on to Las Vegas, courtesy of The Idol Pad. Check out this year’s Top 40 below:
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Top 20 Male Contestants
1. Bryant Tadeo
2. Burnell Taylor
3. Charlie Askew
4. Chris Watson
5. Cortez Shaw
6. Curtis Finch, Jr.
7. David Willis
8. Devin Velez
9. Elijah Liu
10. Gurpreet Singh Sarin
11. Jimmy Smith
12. Johnny Keyser
13. Joshua “Josh” Holiday
14. Joshua “Josh” Jada Davila
15. Kevin Harris
16. Lazaro Arbos
17. Mathenee Treco
18. Nick Boddington
19. Paul Jolley
20. Vincent “Vince” Powell
Top 20 Female Contestants
1. Adriana Latonio
2. Amber Holcomb
3. Angela Miller
4. Aubrey Cleland
5. Brandy Hotard
6. Breanna Steer
7. Candice Glover
8. Cristabel Clack
9. Isabel Pasqualone (Christina “Isabelle”)
10. Janelle Arthur
11. Jenny Beth Willis
12. Jett Hermano
13. Juliana Chahayed
14. Kamaria Ousley
15. Kree Harrison
16. Melinda Ademi
17. Rachel Hale
18. Shubha Vedula
19. Tenna Torres
20. Zoanette Johnson
You may have recognized a handful of the names listed above from the New York and Chicago auditions: Curtis Finch Jr., Gurpreet Singh Sarin, Johnny Keyser, Joshua “Josh” Holiday, Lazaro Arbos, Angela Miller, Isabel Pasqualone and Tenna Torres.
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Some of them had memorable auditions. Curtis Finch, Jr.’s soulful and moving voice is reminiscent of Ruben Studdard and Michael Lynche. There’s usually a singer like him in the live shows, so expect him to make it far. Johnny Keyser tried out last year, but the judges sent him home in Vegas. It’s good to see him make a return because his rendition of “Try A Little Tenderness” featured a beautiful falsetto — the girls will be all over him, no doubt. As they will be for Josh Holiday, who took on “Back at One,” a song that I would normally say should be banned from all singing competition shows, but Josh killed it.
Lazaro has the emotional story that Idol loves to showcase. He stutters, but that all goes away when he opens his mouth to sing. It’s inspiring, emotional and downright impressive. Of the women on this list, Isabel (not sure why she changed her name) is by far the stronger singer. If her audition is anything to go by, then we can expect her to still be around for the live shows.
I’m surprised that Gurpreet made it past Hollywood. If you don’t remember him, he’s the Turbanator. He must have impressed the judges enough in the next round because while he’s a good singer, he didn’t blow me away during his audition.
The Top 40 will perform in Las Vegas over a two week period beginning February 20.
What do you think of who made it into the Top 40? Are you surprised that the Turbanator is still competing? And were there other singers that stood out to you from the auditions that didn’t advance this far?
American Idol airs Wednesdays and Thursdays at 8pm on FOX.
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(Image and videos courtesy of FOX)
Staff Writer, BuddyTV
Jeff Dodge, a graduate of Western Washington University, has been a TV news editor for many years and has had the chance to interview multiple reality show stars, including Randy Jackson, Nick Cannon, Heidi Klum, Mel B and John Cena.
