It’s another exciting night of American Idol on ABC tonight with an all-new Sunday, April 7, 2024, season 7 episode 8 called “Top 24 at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii Part #1” and we have your weekly American Idol recap below.
On tonight’s American Idol season 7 episode 8 as per the ABC synopsis,“The Top 24 travel to Aulani, a Disney Resort and Spa in Ko Olina Hawai’i, with 12 taking the stage for America’s first vote this season. Tori Kelly mentors, performs and joins the judges on the panel. Reigning American Idol Iam Tongi also performs.”
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In tonight’s American Idol episode, everyone was in Hawaii tonight. It was the first night of live voting. They were staying at the beautiful Disney Aulani Resort and Spa. They were also joined by Tori Kelly. She was acting as a mentor. She was there to whip them into shape and she had her hands full with Hailey Mia. She was the first one up tonight. The contestant was sixteen. She was still growing into her voice as well as her confidence. Hailey chose the song “She’s All I Wanna Be” by Tate McRae. It was in her pop genre. She just needed some of the confidence she had in abundance as a kid.
They played an old video of Hailey performing a Tori Kelly song. She was strong. She was on a death trap known as a hoverboard and she still didn’t let that phase her. She needed to go back to that girl. Her later performance tonight was great. Tori said she leveled up. Katy was the only one that felt Hailey could have done more. Next up was Jordan Anthony. He was a pretty boy nowadays. He has a great voice. He grew up being bullied and so he wanted to perform the song that gave him hope back then. Jordan wanted to perform “Titanium”.
Now every Sia song is difficult. She never goes easy. There’s runs. There’s high notes. She has it all. Its why she was a hard performer to follow. Jordan still wanted to perform it in spite of knowing how hard it is to perform one of her songs. He put his own spin on it. He gave it more runs. He blew away the judges. Tori was very proud of him. She was glad he was able to relive an important part of his life and find closure. He stood apart with this song. It was up to Jayna Elise to keep the same energy with her own performance.
Jayna chose the song “Confident” by Demi Lovato. At first, she was merely singing like Demi does. Tori caught that during practice and she let Jayna know that its okay to add her own spin. It wasn’t the time to play it safe. Jayna took her advice because she brought the wow factor. She literally gained confidence onstage. She got stronger throughout the performance. She had a little concert and it was amazing. She even had a unique take to how she does her runs. Katy told her to keep that because it’s what’s going to set her apart later on.
Julia Gagnon was up next. She has some good news to share. She got engaged to her boyfriend of two years. They had an engagement ceremony on the island. It was a beautiful moment and she followed up by giving a strong performance. She really got the audience on their feet with “Rumor Has It” by Adele. She performed in a lower timbre than the judges were used to hearing from her. Katy felt it needed to be ironed out some. Tori also felt Julia was holding back. She had the chance to milk that performance for everything its worth and even Lionel felt she was a little tame.
Julia received the Platinum ticket. Meaning she has the voice to back that ticket up. She just needs to learn what to do with it and hopefully she gets that chance. Tori Kelly performed her new song after Julia’s performance. It was called “High Water”. It was sure to be another hit for the star. That in turn was followed by Kayko. He was the first of the night to perform an original song. It was a huge gamble only it was important to him. He wrote the song for his mom. He wrote it right after she passed.
It helped with his grieving process. Plus, he didn’t want to miss the opportunity to dedicate a performance to her. It was now or never. It’s called “How To Live Without You”. He was so attached to this song that he got a little choked up performing it. It was very clear that it was important to him. The emotion behind it moved everyone. It didn’t matter if they had criticism or not. They weren’t going to step on it. They allowed Kayko to have this song. Next up was Nya. Nya wanted to cover a classic.
Nya performed “The Best” By Tina Turner. She has the voice to match the great Tina. She impressed Tori during rehearsals. She went on to impress the judges during the live performance. She handled the different verses with great kill. She has amazing tone. She hit all the right notes. She was simply flawless. Luke had said her performance was the best of the night and he wasn’t lying or amping her up. She truly had the best performance so far. The judges knew she was making it into the next round on that song alone. She was that good.
Blake Proehl went next. He’s been to Hawaii before. He came for football. He said football was never hard for him because it was all muscle memory while he still has growing pains with singing. The last one was still new to him. He doesn’t have much confidence with it. He was constantly looking down at his feet during rehearsal. Tori warned him about that and so he thought dead eyes staring into the audience was the answer. His performance was tame. Too tame. It could have been so much better if he had really worked up some energy.
The pride of Hawaii was next. Iam Tongi performed “Why Kiki?”. It was very upbeat and fun. Iam was an amazing singer. Its why he also won his season of “American Idol”. Next up was Abi Carter. She was coming off a bad Hollywood week. She was sick during her last performance. She wasn’t at her best and the judges chose to let that slide. They let her continue on because they thought her talent would return once she was better. And so Abi came out fighting with her performance of “Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)” by Hillsong United.
Abi brought everyone to church with that song. Katy called Abi her favorite. Everyone loved Abi’s performance. She’s only performed in front of the judges three times. They’ve loved two of them and now America has to decide if they love them too. Quintavious was up next. He kept everyone in church. He performed “Something in the Water” by Carrie Underwood. Tori had tried to convince him to do her song. She thought her song would add an extra layer of depth to his tone. Only Quintavious was already leaning towards to “Something In the Water”.
He chose to stick to his original song because he wanted to stay true to himself. Quintavious has a gospel tone to his voice. He brought that out with his performance. He had fun. He got the audience on their feet and Tori didn’t chuck her shoe at his head like she wanted. She was that moved by his performance. Next up was Kaibrienne “KB” Richins. KB was struggling during rehearsals. She felt certain parts of the song were sounding strained. She kept trying to focus on it and that resulted in her not feeling the song. She still tried to perform “Heaven” by Bryan Adams, but it wasn’t the best and she knew that.
Next up was Will Mosley. He performed “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay” by Otis Redding. He was also the first to play the guitar for his performance and so he stood out. He stood out in an exceptional way. He has a great voice. It’s very unique. He definitely deserves to make it into the next round. The judges thought the same. They all felt he was very American. They loved his voice. They wishes to see more of him. After him, it was McKenna Faith Breinholt’s turn. She was the last performer of the night. And she closed the night with “The Story” by Brandi Carlile.
McKenna dedicated her performance to her mother. She wanted to thank her mom for loving her. For encouraging her to follow her dream. McKenna’s performance was intimate. She was second and last person to play guitar for her performance. She has a great storytelling voice. Lionel thought she was up there with Joni Mitchell. She really enraptured the audience with her performance. And they were all ready to hear her album.
And that’s how the night ended.
THE END!
