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5   David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “Bad Boy Good Man” (Charleston): 1 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - "Applause" (Tango): 7 Katja Mia & Ervinas Merfeldas - "Cuff It" (Cha-Cha-Cha): 10 Laura Fox & Denys Samson - “Échame La Culpa” (Samba): 11 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “Fields of Gold” (Rumba): 10 Rosanna Davison & Stephen Vincent - “Lady in Red” (Rumba): 3 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - “Lose Control” (Viennese Waltz): 10 Katja Mia & Ervinas Merfeldas - “I Need You” (Charleston): 10 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - “I Go to Rio” (Samba): 31 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “Paradise” (Contemporary Ballroom): 10 Laura Fox & Denys Samson - “Take On Me” (Tango): 10 Laura Fox & Denys Samson - “Do Your Thing” (Charleston): 11 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - “Texas Hold ‘Em” (Quickstep): 12 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “Whole Lotta Love” (Paso Doble): 10 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - “Witch Doctor” (Charleston): 14 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “Wrapped Up” (Salsa): 13 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “All That Really Matters” (Showdance): 14 Laura Fox & Denys Samson - “Make It Look Easy” (Showdance): 5 Blu Hydrangea & Simone Arena - “I Am What I Am” (Showdance): 10 David Whelan & Salome Chachua - “You Never Can Tell”/“Misirlou” (Jive) [Reprise]: 48   + David & Salome Jive - David & Salome Charleston

I actually think his Dancing On My Own performance was his best, but part of it was the shock of a conservative white guy from the south doing a Robyn song and not changing any of the genders.

pretty sure she hits a F6 at 2:13  didn’t know she could do whistle tones LOL is there anything she can’t do? queen!    

There's going to be a lot of unpopular opinions here I predict lol   S1: Dia Frampton - "Losing My Religion" S2: Gwen Sebastian - "Stay" S3: Cassadee Pope - "Are You Happy Now?" S4: Sasha Allen - "Oh! Darling" S5: Grey - "Already Gone" S6: Christine Grimmie - "Hold On, We're Going Home" S7: Toia Jones - "Crazy in Love" S8: Kimberly Nichole - "Dirty Diana" S9: Madi Davis - "A Case of You" S10: Mary Sarah - "So Small" S11: Karlee Metzger - "Samson" S12: Lauren Duski - "Lord, I Hope This Day is Good" S13: Addison Agen - "Lucky" S14: Spensha Baker - "Down on My Knees" S15: Chevel Shephard - "Travelin' Soldier" S16: Maelyn Jarmon - "Mad World" S17: Gracee Shriver - "Leave the Pieces" S18: Zan Fiskum - "Blowin' in the Wind" S19: Skylar Alyvia Mayton - "Blinding Lights" S20: Savanna Woods - "Black Hole Sun" S21: Wendy Moten - "Over the Rainbow" S22: Sydney Kronmiller - "Latch" S23: Gina Miles - "Wicked Games" S24: Alexa Wildish - "Fields of Gold" S25: Anya True - "Runaway"

BLAKE PROEHL It turns out Blake is the son of former NFL wide receiver Ricky Proehl. I remember watching his father catch the go ahead score in the 1999 NFC Championship game against the Bucs, which led to the Rams advancing to and winning the Super Bowl, but I digress. It turns out Blake himself tried his hand at an NFL career, but things didn’t work out there and therefore, he turned his attention to music. It appears there is some work to do for him in this area based on the little I saw from him on Idol.   POSITIVE: I’ll start by saying his tone wasn't all that bad, at least in the lower part of his range. In addition, he has high heartthrob potential with his looks.   NEGATIVE: His tone is nasally in the higher part of his range. This was evident in his lone performance in the competition. Also, he doesn’t seem to be a natural performer. Tori Kelly mentioned in his rehearsal that it looked like he was thinking, which appeared to be the case in his performance. While we are on that subject…   ANYONE This started on the wrong foot with his vocals being too low in the beginning. However, they gradually gained a few yards until he reached the chorus, where things went downhill. The notes he hit in that section would have had him surrounded with more flags than a United Nations convention. He brought the bad habits from the practice to the field, which is not ideal to say the least. Moreover, his stage movements still looked forced, and it appeared he overthought everything like Tori pointed out. He still had a chance to salvage the performance by finishing it strong, but he fumbled just short of the goal line.   OVERALL: Blake put up a valiant effort in his one showing. However, his opponent, being the song choice, slowed him down enough to prevent him from scoring any points with the voters and hence, his time in the S22 divisional round came to a swift end. With that said, the tools are there and if he has the discipline to continue working on his craft, he can be much better at catching notes than passes.   -----   HAILEY MIA Based on a quick Google search, it appears Hailey competed in S21 of The Voice where she made it all the way to fourth place. A little over three years later, the adrenaline of participating in another reality TV singing competition rushed through her body again and therefore, she sung her way into the Top 24 in American Idol. Unfortunately, things did not go as well for her in this endeavor.   POSITIVE: She had a very mature tone to her voice, and her pitch was mostly on point.   NEGATIVE: There wasn’t much about her that differentiated her from the other contestants. As with Blake, she also appeared to be in her head which hindered her some.   SHE'S ALL I WANNA BE As much as I want to rag on the song choice and artist not being great, I will give her credit for picking something age appropriate. Vocally, she was fine as she didn’t hit too many bad notes. However, the main issue was the performance went nowhere. She didn’t add anything new to the song; it was virtually a carbon copy of the original. There are some songs that are better off sung straight, but this wasn’t one of them. In addition, she experienced one of the Idol traditions of being drowned out in parts which in her case happened to be being overpowered by the backup singers in the choruses. She tried to finish on a strong note, but she didn’t quite get there.   OVERALL: Hailey was a young girl with a nice voice and a lot of potential. However, her lone performance while competent was forgettable, which as I have said plenty of times in the past is one of the worst things someone can be early in the competition. Combined with her performance airing first, it’s easy to see how she slipped through the cracks and became one of the first S22 hopefuls eliminated. Although she didn’t do as well on Idol as she did on The Voice, the tools and potential are there. She might have done better with a song that highlighted her best qualities, but I guess we will never know.