It’s another exciting night of American Idol on ABC tonight with an all-new Sunday, March 21, 2021, season 19 episode 6 called “Hollywood Week: Genre Challenge” and we have your weekly American Idol recap below. On tonight’s American Idol season 18 episode 16 as per the ABC synopsis, “With surprise twists no one saw coming, fan favorites from auditions return to the stage for the Genre Challenge to sing their hearts out in hopes of making it through to the next round.”
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In tonight’s episode of American Idol, Hollywood Week is when they bring all the people in from all over America. It was a fast-moving week and so the judges wanted the contestants to impress and to shine while the light was on them. They couldn’t afford to make any mistakes now. There wasn’t going to be a do-over and second chances weren’t going to be given like they were during auditions.
Liahona Olayan was one of the first to perform tonight. She was used to performing with her brother and so singing alone was new for her. She had been nervous. She thought she wouldn’t do as well without her brother and instead, she blew everyone away. Her brother Ammon performed right after her. He too did very well in the Pop category and overall the Pop genre did very well.
The contestants were all separated by genres. They chose the genres themselves and they either went into Pop, Rock, Soul, or Country. They also had their solo performance as the first performance of the night. This will change the further they went into Hollywood Week. But before that happens, the contestants have to survive the cut. Liahona survived the first cut along with Ava August and Laila Mach.
They were all on the young side. They were teenagers and basically kids. They also were all powerhouses and so of course the judges had to keep them. Liahona was personally happy that she got to stay. She just wishes her brother wasn’t cut because they had wanted to go into the top ten together and he too was sad about it.
The judges told the people they cut that they can come back next year. Hopefully, they all learned something from tonight and they do come back. Like Drake McCain. He came back performing in the Country genre and this genre was very open with each other. They all became fast friends. They also were performing behind the scenes and so that gave them an edge.
Cameron McGhar and many others performed in this genre. They were all great in their own ways. It was tough for the coaches to cut people and yet it had to be done. They had many contestants to get through. There were people like Cecil Ray that touched the heartstrings because he left his two-month-old baby daughter to come to take his shot at this competition and so it was great when he survived that first cut.
Then came Soul. Re’h performed in this genre and she found out her old friend Celeste Butler was in the same genre as her. The two apparently met on a ship. They’re now pursuing their dreams on land and they weren’t the only ones. Grace Kinstler was in the Soul genre as well. She came to have over thirteen million views of her audition tape and so you would think she was confident except she wasn’t. Grace was plagued with self-doubt. She was on the bigger side and she knows she doesn’t fit the typical mold for singers. She knows she’s different. Grace could have let her fear stop her from giving a killer performance as it had with DJ and she chose not to let it. She gave a great performance. And so she survived the first cut in Soul.
Others like DJ and Celeste didn’t make it. Next up was the Indie-Folk genre. They were sorta the forgotten genre because prior to a few seasons ago, there wasn’t an Indie-Folk genre and those people usually went to Pop. Graham DeFranco was one of those people that are happy now he gets a genre. He said if he had to choose between singing and being a pilot that he would choose singing each and every time. He gave an amazing performance. A teacher that had to be convinced by her students to audition also stood out and then there was Cassie. Cassie gets the shakes when she performs in front of her family. She had been a nervous wreck on “American Idol” and, in spite of her nerves, her voice still stood out as so beautifully clear.
Cassie’s voice was just too beautiful to cut. She survived Round 1 and each genre was so large that the judges hadn’t finished with Pop and so it was Pop’s turn again to stand out. Erika Perry performed in Pop. She used the time she had while she was waiting to flirt with a bunch of guys. She had been dumped by her ex right before she auditioned and so she wanted to find someone new to stick it to him. Only she should have used her time more wisely. Erika fumbled during her performance and she was forced to keep going and therefore it wasn’t a surprise when she got cut. Erika hadn’t wanted to be cut because she fears her ex will use this to make fun of her with his friends and family and so again she was focusing on the wrong thing.
Erika failed to remember she was pursuing a dream. She didn’t remember until she was leaving the stage and that’s when she tried to fight for her chance. She asked the judges if they were sure. She asked them what she did wrong and Lionel had to tell her that she could try again next season. He handled her very well. Erika was left with no doubt that she was cut and so she had a b*tch fit later on. It truly became clear why her ex would dump her. She was a lot to handle and even the judges saw that. Afterward, it was Country’s turn again. Christian McGuckian performed in this genre and she was again a bundle of nerves. The judges had to remind her to breathe. They also tried to count her back in and she froze for a few moments.
Christian still manages to perform. She gave it her best and it was painful for her to then wait to see how she does in the competition because the entire time she thought she was going to be cut. She even turned out to be right. She was a self-fulfilled prophecy and nothing anyone could have done could have stopped her from sabotaging herself. It was onto Pop again. The contestants in that category were just so happy to be performing on an actual stage that they each gave it their all. Mary Jo Young was in that genre. She was jittery at first and then she was amazing. Another person in the genre was Claudia Conway who looked very different than she had at the auditions. She was a brunette now, she was more confident, and she came with her mother.
Kellyanne Conway is notorious for her role in the Trump administration. Her daughter openly spoke out against the government during mother’s boss’s time there and so it’s a good sign that Claudia was there with her mother. It showed they mend fences. Soul was at it again soon and there was plenty of talent there. Vahhley was in this genre. She was the mother of one and homeless. She was living at the shelter with her toddler son and unfortunately, she was cut tonight. She didn’t make it this time, but she was free to come back on a different season, and hopefully, her living situation will have changed by then. And next up there was a group of people who auditioned with the thought of just shouting through the song and so they had to be cut because their voices would have grated on everyone’s nerves.
It was actually great when Murphy came along. It was a nice cleanser after those disastrous people and his story was a unique one. Murphy grew up with a father who always believed in him. His father wasn’t a performer himself and that didn’t stop him from supporting his son. Murphy’s dad died when he was seventeen. He had to couch-surf for a while after that before he found a job and he realized he wasn’t happy nor was he ever going to be happy with a job like that. He bought a guitar. He traveled the world playing for money and that’s when he was the happiest. Murphy gave a great performance, but at first, Katy didn’t like it. She said she had a hard time connecting with the song and so the other two judges had to fight for Murphy.
Luke and Lionel must have said the right thing because Murphy survived the cuts in his genre. Next came Rock. Beane performed in this genre and his rendition of “Benny and the Jetts” won a few smiles from the judges. Christian Terry was also a rocker and he was on the young side. He was a kid himself. He wanted this more than anything and sadly he was the only one cut from his group tonight. The Rock genre held a great deal of talent. The last performer of the night was Willie Spence. He was from Douglas, Georgia and he had a great voice. He performed “All of Me” for the judges who seemed very much taken with him. The judges even gave him a standing ovation when he was done and so it wasn’t shocking for him to find he’ll be going into the next round.
The duet round was next. The contestants used to be able to pick their own partners for this round but the judges threw away the old script and the new script is that they get to pick who partners up with whom.
THE END!
