‘American Idol’ judges and viewers don’t want it that way: Baylee Littrell, son of a Backstreet Boy, is eliminated
There was an absolute bloodbath on Monday's episode of American Idol, with the number of contestants dropping from 20 to 14. Among the unfortunate was Baylee Littrell, the son of Brian Littrell of the Backstreet Boys.
The 22-year old singer from Alpharetta, Ga. performed "All of Me" by John Legend as his "save me" song after failing to make it through via the viewers' overnight vote. America's top 10 vote-getters all advanced, and then the three judges — Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, and Lionel Richie — got to pick the other four. They had nothing but positive comments about Baylee's latest rendition, but alas, it wasn't enough to keep him in the competition.
The night before, Baylee had belted out "Gone Without Goodbye," a song written by his father following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In an emotional moment, Baylee revealed to America that his mother was supposed to be on one of the airplanes that crashed that fateful day.
"Vocally that was one of your best performances so far," Carrie raved. "You have a nice powerful tone when you choose to turn it on."
Lionel urged him, "Put pressure on yourself. Scare yourself to death from this point on."
And Luke stated, "Lean in and enunciate. I want to learn as much as I can about you every time I watch you perform."
Besides Baylee, the following five singers were also axed during the April 21 results show: Isaiah Misailegalu (his "save me" song was "Sleepwalker"), Drew Ryn ("Million Reasons"), Olivier Bergeron ("It's Not My Time"), Zaylie Windsor ("Still Into You"), and Victor Solomon ("Stayin' Alive").
Gold Derby readers were most surprised by Baylee's elimination, according to our overnight poll, as he was in their combined top eight based on the "Songs of Faith" performances from Easter Sunday. The other five ousted artists all placed in our users' bottom 10 for the week.
Here are the 10 singers that sailed through to the top 14 based on America's votes, plus the songs they performed: Kolbi Jordan ("I'm Every Woman"), Thunderstorm Artis ("i love you"), Filo ("Skyfall"), John Foster ("Neon Moon"), Mattie Pruitt ("In the Stars"), Canaan James Hill ("Stand"), Breanna Nix ("The Show Must Go On"), Jamal Roberts ("Try a Little Tenderness"), Slater Nalley ("This Ain't It"), and Gabby Samone ("Don't Rain on My Parade"). And these four artists were later saved by the judges: Desmond Roberts ("Titanium"), Josh King ("Never Gonna Give You Up"), Ché ("Jealous Guy"), and Amanda Barise ("Ain't No Way").
Previously on American Idol, Baylee sang "Waiting on Myself to Die" in the auditions, "Hey Jesus" during Hollywood week, "Shallow" (with Keilene) as his duet, "Happy" in the top 24, and "Gone Without Goodbye" in the top 20. Do you think America got it right this week? Sound off in our reality TV forum.
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