The first thing you notice about Gabe James is his striking resemblance to the late Dirty Dancing legend, Patrick Swayze. The second thing you notice is his honeyed vocals. James scored three “yes” votes with a swoon-worthy cover of Bon Iver’s “Skinny Love.” Now, the Coloradan is going Hollywood.
“We didn’t even look at each other. Right? Okay. It’s a yes for me,” Lionel Richie said.
Is there nothing Kaleo Knight can’t do? The 16-year-old from Los Angeles grew up performing hula dance and traditional Hawaiian ballet. She also speaks Japanese, and she just delivered what Lionel Richie called a “crazy good” cover of Idol alum Jennifer Hudson’s “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” from the Dreamgirls film adaptation.
“What I loved about you is, you fought through a battle through and then just slayed it at the end—something a 16-year-old should definitely be proud of,” Luke Bryan said.
Back in 2021, Luke Bryan starred in the docuseries My Dirt Road Diary. Brajawn Upshaw, who punched his golden ticket during the March 16 episode, cited that series as an inspiration for his American Idol audition. And much to the “Mind of a Country Boy” crooner’s delight, Carrie Underwood has watched it too.
Zaylie Windsor, an 18-year-old singer-songwriter from Safford, Arizona, isn’t new to American Idol.
“I’ve been auditioning the past couple years,” she told AZ Central. “And this year, I was like, ‘I don’t know. Maybe I’ll just not do it.’ And my mom was telling me, ‘Just try it one more time. It’s OK if it doesn’t work out.’ And this ended up working out. So I was really happy about that.”
Accompanying herself on guitar, Windsor belted an original song called “The Used.” Judge Carrie Underwood called the performance “Taylor Swift-esque.”
“I feel like there’s something about her,” Underwood said before voting “yes.” After a second “yes” from Lionel Richie, Zaylie Windsor is going to Hollywood.
Jessica Marie Michel, an R&B singer-songwriter from Brooklyn, New York, who goes by JMarie, hardly seemed intimidated to perform Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats” in front of the Idol legend herself. And not only that, she made the song entirely her own, infusing the vengeful country anthem with some pure rhythm-and-blues soul.
“This is a hood anthem, Carrie,” JMarie said. “I’m sorry, it is.”
The last night of season 23 auditions starts right now on American Idol! Monday (March 31) kicks off Hollywood Week. Following last year’s Idol Arena format, each singer will perform at random with their competitors closely watching. Last year, only 56 of 143 Idol hopefuls were left standing. Let’s see if this year will be as brutal.
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