{"id":29348,"date":"2021-03-04T10:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T16:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/?p=29348"},"modified":"2021-03-04T10:00:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T16:00:32","slug":"american-idol-returns-with-surprising-new-contestants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/2021\/03\/04\/american-idol-returns-with-surprising-new-contestants\/","title":{"rendered":"American Idol Returns with Surprising New Contestants"},"content":{"rendered":"

Season four of American Idol on ABC is underway with returning judges, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. Ryan Seacrest has also returned for his nineteenth season<\/a> as host. Auditions to earn a place on the show were held virtually<\/a>, though the audition round in front of the celebrity judges was held in-person with appropriate COVID-19 guidelines. <\/span><\/p>\n

American Idol drew much attention this season with the audition of Claudia Conway, social media influencer and daughter of former President Donald\u2019s Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway. American Idol faced criticism<\/a> after using the drama behind Conway\u2019s family and her tense relationship with her mother to gain viewers. In several promos, Conway is portrayed as a conflicted teenager having grown up in a  environment with immense pressure on her from her social media followers. Conway began her audition with the song, \u201cLove on the Brain,\u201d by Rihanna, but was stopped by Katy Perry who asked her to sing a different song. She went on to sing \u201cWhen We Were Young\u201d by Adele. Though Luke Bryan believed she was \u201climited by [her] range\u201d and gave her a \u201cno,\u201d Katy Perry and Lionel Ritchie decided to give Conway a chance, and she passed through to the next round.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Other notable contestants this season include Yurisbel and Grace Kinstler. Twenty-five year old Yurisbel from Cuba brought<\/a> incredible energy and eccentricity to the show with his bold dance moves. He performed<\/a> \u201cFireball\u201d by Pitbull, and had the judges up and dancing with him. Though his singing may not have been up to par with the other contestants, he went through with a \u201cyes\u201d from both Luke Bryan and Lionel Ritchie. The latter stated, \u201dthe kids need to be able to have some fun\u201d and that Yurisbel was \u201cthe mascot of fun.\u201d Grace Kinstler, whose dad had passed away unexpectedly last February, stated<\/a> she was singing for him in her audition. Kinstler sang \u201cMidnight Train to Georgia\u201d by Gladys Knight and the Pips as well as \u201cNatural Woman\u201d by Aretha Franklin. All three judges were extremely impressed with Kinstler – Luke Bryan compared her audition to those of Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson, who both had successful runs<\/a> on the show before their singing careers took off.<\/span><\/p>\n

The audition rounds will continue on American Idol, which will include Hollywood Week, in which the contestants go through a series of grueling performances and cuts. As a much appreciated break from the reality of the pandemic and other crises facing our world at the moment, American Idol is predicted to have an exciting season.  <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Season four of American Idol on ABC is underway with returning judges, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan. Ryan Seacrest has also returned for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":578,"featured_media":29350,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1020],"tags":[3579,3580,3581,1879],"coauthors":[3415],"class_list":["post-29348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ae","tag-american-idol","tag-reality","tag-singing","tag-television"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/578"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29348"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29420,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29348\/revisions\/29420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29348"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.imsa.edu\/acronym\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=29348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}