American Idol Unpopular Opinions Thread

[Wallowalle]

I like Francisco and I really didn't care for River

 

Sam's Disney performance was my favorite Sam performance

[wgm]

the judges need to stop comparing contestant's to alejandro

[KelseyW]

2 hours ago, wgm said:

the judges need to stop comparing contestant's to alejandro

I LOVE HIM AND I AGREE.

 

It's not cool to compare to past Idols because their current crop of contestants is what the focus should be on. Not living in the past! IMO

[MargoK]

Yes, I agree. It’s not fair to anyone.

[mytake1]

Fans need to stop proclaiming that their favorite will be the next big star. Truth is, these contestants will be forgotten once the show is off the air.    Last year at this time, it was Laine this, Laine that.  Not so much anymore.

[MargoK]

I think Arthur is one of the worst singers ever on Idol — and he is going to win.

[Bsti]

21 hours ago, mytake1 said:

Fans need to stop proclaiming that their favorite will be the next big star. Truth is, these contestants will be forgotten once the show is off the air.    Last year at this time, it was Laine this, Laine that.  Not so much anymore.

 

True, in fact this year they're all pretty much forgotten already. Except Arthur and Francisco, and that's only because of international fans.

 

I thought after Top 20 night that the format wasn't too bad, some of the contestants still connected and were creative with their performances...but it's clear now that this format is dead. There's just no performance aspect, no excitement. It's top 5 tomorrow and there haven't even been any 5-star performances yet. Not sure if this or The Voice's "everyone's a lounge singer now" approach is worse, lol.

[NoBoundaries]

speaking of international fans, they are fighting now on FB...lol

VPN...Unfair...blah...

[ScarletDevilCCX]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:11 AM, wgm said:

the judges need to stop comparing contestant's to alejandro

This is the unpopular opinions thread. This opinion has no place here. 

[holinessss]

On 5/17/2020 at 2:40 AM, NoBoundaries said:

speaking of international fans, they are fighting now on FB...lol

VPN...Unfair...blah...

it's funny those same fans who declare "RIGGED" are trying to vote through VPNs lololol

[Calvin]

Jonny should have win 

[KelseyW]

THE BITTERNESS IN THIS UNOFFICIAL IDOL FACEBOOK FANPAGE I FOLLOW... PEEPS ARE SO MEAN OVER THERE.  

 

 

That's code for... I'm happy for Sam! Someone who truly deserved a record deal and a proverbial roof over her head got it.

 

I'm not worried about Arthur, Jonny, Dillon, Francisco, and even Makayla!

Edited May 19, 2020 by KelseyW

[kresslia]

On 5/15/2020 at 1:11 AM, wgm said:

the judges need to stop comparing contestant's to alejandro

what is with their obsession over him? they usually thirst over the successful contestants and it doesn't look like his album even charted in the BB200.

[MargoK]

24 minutes ago, kresslia said:

what is with their obsession over him? they usually thirst over the successful contestants and it doesn't look like his album even charted in the BB200.

Alejandro was different but I still find some of his music boring. His voice was not anything special. I thought he was very weak until he finally started singing out a little bit. But he was miles better than Arthur.

[Cranberrys]

Anti-Carrie Underwood fan here.  Besides the other things I'm going to mention I don't care for Underwood's one dimensional vocal technique or wall to wall belting.  Underwood clubs songs to death with volume.  Most of her fans believe that's her biggest asset.  I jthink she's got a loud mouth.  Subtlety and nuance are foreign words to Underwood's narrow musicality.  Tenderness and meek vulnerability don't mix well with all the monotone belting she does.  What little versatility she has doesn't appear in her catalog. 

 

Carrie Underwood has done more to hurt the careers of her female country peers than anyone in any era of Country Music history.  Every country songwriter in America sends CU their best work - leaving nothing but scraps for most other great country females singers out there - Martina McBride included.  Beginning with her second album Carrie's been changing a word or two on other writers work and taking writing credits she doesn't deserve.  Underwood has never written a single melody for any song she has ever recorded that reached the top 10 on the country charts.  Underwood often participates in the writing process but only as a sounding board to help the real writers work out the phrasing.  Underwood's music & squeaky clean persona fit the widest available female country radio niche and Country radio gave it to her 15 years ago.  Carrie won that slot with her American Idol win and, most importantly, with her first album "Some Hearts".  Carries biggest career making hits are on "Some Hearts".  Of the 13 songs on that album Carrie had one tiny co-writing credit with two other writers on ONE (1) track - the last track on the album. 

 

Carrie Underwood's  Idol victory, first album's mega success, and strangle hold on country songwriters is the backbone of her success and why there are so few opportunities for other females artists on country radio.  Underwood's attractive features and petite figure combined with keeping her private life wholesome and controversy free make her an easy, safe, and popular choice for country radio programmers to choose her over other country female artists.

 

I can't argue with Underwood's chart and touring success.  But I wouldn't walk across the street to hear her drone boring caterwauling.  

Edited July 28, 2020 by Cranberrys

[Bk1234]

Chris Daughtry’s performance of Hemorrhage (In My Hands) is one of the most overrated performances in Idol history. 

[blackfield]

3 hours ago, Cranberrys said:

Anti-Carrie Underwood fan here.  Besides the other things I'm going to mention I don't care for Underwood's one dimensional vocal technique or wall to wall belting.  Underwood clubs songs to death with volume.  Most of her fans believe that's her biggest asset.  I jthink she's got a loud mouth.  Subtlety and nuance are foreign words to Underwood's narrow musicality.  Tenderness and meek vulnerability don't mix well with all the monotone belting she does.  What little versatility she has doesn't appear in her catalog. 

 

Carrie Underwood has done more to hurt the careers of her female country peers than anyone in any era of Country Music history.  Every country songwriter in America sends CU their best work - leaving nothing but scraps for most other great country females singers out there - Martina McBride included.  Beginning with her second album Carrie's been changing a word or two on other writers work and taking writing credits she doesn't deserve.  Underwood has never written a single melody for any song she has ever recorded that reached the top 10 on the country charts.  Underwood often participates in the writing process but only as a sounding board to help the real writers work out the phrasing.  Underwood's music & squeaky clean persona fit the widest available female country radio niche and Country radio gave it to her 15 years ago.  Carrie won that slot with her American Idol win and, most importantly, with her first album "Some Hearts".  Carries biggest career making hits are on "Some Hearts".  Of the 13 songs on that album Carrie had one tiny co-writing credit with two other writers on ONE (1) track - the last track on the album. 

 

Carrie Underwood's  Idol victory, first album's mega success, and strangle hold on country songwriters is the backbone of her success and why there are so few opportunities for other females artists on country radio.  Underwood's attractive features and petite figure combined with keeping her private life wholesome and controversy free make her an easy, safe, and popular choice for country radio programmers to choose her over other country female artists.

 

I can't argue with Underwood's chart and touring success.  But I wouldn't walk across the street to hear her drone boring caterwauling.  

 

you forgot the most important thing that carrie failed to achieve an international crossover to non country-music markets.. unlike taylor swift whom can be heard and had major success in countries that are not country music fans. and taylor writes her own songs. carrie's success is only in the US, domestic. internationally it is very minor. 

[Weedy_Speedy]

Season 12 is one of the best seasons talent-wise imo and I find the vitrol it receives to be kind of misogynistic tbh. This forum pleaded for years for them to make a season where female contestants can do better, then when it happens they don't want it. I don't care about the judges or their "feuds", talent-wise it wasn't bad all in my opinion, giving me some of my favorite contestants of all time (and I even liked/was a fan of two of the guys). I guess I can understand it being someone's least favorite of the first 12 seasons, but it is definitely better than everything that followed it.

 

Speaking of which, this site also wanted Nigel to be sacked for s12 and I foresaw him being gone would lead to the show just nose diving off a cliff...which is exactly what happened. 13 was absolutely dreadful, with only one contestant (Caleb) even being close to talented enough to compare to contestants in seasons past. I enjoyed Jessica within the S13 bubble but she's rather underwhelming in the grand scheme of things. I didn't care for Alex at all and he is my measuring stick for indulgent performers who get too far on Idol because they play an instrument, and Jena ranks up there as one of my least favorite contestants of all time. I don't at all understand the hype they drummed up on this forum.

 

Season 15 served as somewhat of a return to form after the previous two disasters, with better screening for contestants/leaving most of the ordinary trash out of the voting rounds where they belonged/etc. Some squeezed their way into the top 10 regardless, but America decided to vote correctly that year for a change. I think the entire top 4 all brought something unique to the show, I can remember performances each of them did along with their backstories. Sonika and Avalon were fine enough I guess, but outside of one performance from each I don't think they had what it took to compete with the big guns.

 

Season 8 was pretty sh!tty all things considered. That was the year Nigel first left, and they made Simon an executive producer because they wanted him to stay on Idol and not go off once his contract was up. This led to him basically pre-selecting the entire top 12 by himself before the semis even started, and as X Factor can attest to...I usually don't care for the contestants that Simon decides to "grace" us with. Thank god that Kris and Allison managed to escape from fodder land and do well, if it hadn't been for them S8 would rank as one of the absolute worst in my mind.

 

May come back with more sometime later.

[Weedy_Speedy]

-Christina Christian was pretty overrated in retrospect. "Ain't No Sunshine" was her best performance I guess, but it's been done better by other Idols since (Kris, Aaron).

-None of the season 1 guys were anything super amazing, but RJ had the best voice of all of them.

-Nikki McKibbin deserved her spot in the final 3. Justin Guarini did not.

-I liked Chip Days' voice and consider him somewhat robbed honestly. I don't understand the judges' verdict that he was "cheesy" and then championed Corey Clark later that same night. Chip definitely should've made the top 12 over him.

-Aliceyn Cooney was also super robbed, even if she could literally only sing one song apparently lmfao.

-Vanessa and Rickey were two of the most talented contestants in season 2's top 12 and both should've lasted waaay longer. They were nowhere near the worst performers of their respective nights on the weeks they were eliminated.

-Kimberly Caldwell lasted too long based solely on the premise of her "potential." There becomes a point where you have to start delivering the goods to justify keeping you around, and she failed to do so imo. She definitely had her share of absolute duds, should've been eliminated at the top 8 or so.

-Carmen also lasted too long, but I guess I understand Simon's logic of wanting to add someone unique to the top 12 that year.

-Josh Gracin was Idol's first faux country singer, too funny how he talked normally/sang normally for his first two performances, then out of nowhere he starts singing with this obnoxious twang that only Simon had enough sense to call him out on. His "Ain't Goin' Down 'til the Sun Comes Up" was an absolute trainwreck that he deserved to be eliminated for. Sadly, he made it all the way to top 4, robbing a handful of much better singers in the process. Oh well, as he and Gabby prove, if you pander to the country crowd enough, you'll get somewhat of a career I suppose.

-Kimberley Locke has one of the best personalities of any contestant that's been on this show. I've never forgotten her telling Simon "I thought you were sexy, but you suck!" and admitting that she outright hated Randy's song choice for her in the top 3.  

-There's no denying that the division of the season 3 groups was handled terribly (absolutely stacking group 1, putting all terrible people in group 2) but Matt Rogers deserved to advance more than Camile Velasco imo. The first spot should've gone to Lisa Leuschner, of course.

-Eric Yoder, Marque Lynche, and Erskine Walcott were all better than most of the guys who made top 12 that year. They just chose poor songs for themselves in the semis. All three deserved to sing again for the wildcard over Matthew Metzger.

-I enjoyed Jon Peter Lewis' personality, but his singing was lol.

-Jasmine Trias received too much hate, yes her Nightmare on Disco Street was legendary but that was really her only subpar week imo. Hopefully she gets remembered better nowadays in hindsight, especially with all the horror stories who ended up making top 3/the finale in later years.

-Constantine was the only blight on season 4's top 12 in my opinion. It's such an injustice that he's probably had the best career out of all the season 4 contestants after Carrie. That's probably the most talented set of finalists in the show's history, and all of them deserve to be remembered more fondly than him. His eliminations is one of my favorites, even if it should've happened in the top 20 rather than top 6. I'll never forget the look on Conny's face and Paula's tears  

-Aloha Mischeaux had one of the best performances in the semis with "Work It Out," too bad her second performance was terrible. I wouldn't consider her robbed as much as she wasted her own potential.

-Someone who wasn't robbed was Ayla Brown. One of the most basic robots to ever set foot on the Idol stage.

-Melissa McGhee had one of the most interesting recording voices of season 5. She didn't really help her case by forgetting the lyrics as much as she did, but she deserved better treatment from $imon.

-I wasn't even his biggest fan, but there's no question that Elliott should've won season 5 imo.

-David Archuleta shouldn't have made it nearly as far as he did. Season 7's cast was so great and it still kinda makes me mad that everyone was turned into fodder for "the great battle of the Davids." That was a pretty interesting year for IDF though, with everyone jizzing their pants that Syesha kept surviving over their sh!tty favorites. Syesha's ghosts  

-Jason Castro is the first contestant who made it too far because he played an instrument. He was good in the semis I guess, but with the exception of "Travelin' Thru" I was just over it when it came to the finals. Dolly Parton's music can make anyone good I suppose (didn't stop Ramiele from being terrible).

-Kristy Lee Cook deserved to make it as far as she did. Nothing but respect for Idol's great prophet.

-Kendra Chantelle was terrible and in no way robbed. Considering she gave one of the four worst performances on opening night, her wildcard slot was more than she deserved. As one of my favorite IDFers once put it, the only thing she was robbed of was the ability to choose songs that were a good fit for her voice, and thinking she was some sort of diva. It just didn't work.

-I suppose the three wildcards the judges chose in S10 were the right choices, however I still kinda wish they had advanced Robbie Rosen over Stefano. He was one of my Hollywood favorites, and while "Angel" wasn't his greatest showing I thought he redeemed himself with "Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word." He just had a very pleasant tone to his voice/didn't think he was better than he actually was/wasn't an utter tool who lasted far beyond his expiration date, so yeah he should've been in the top 13 in my opinion.

-Naima Adedapo is my S10 favorite, and to this day I still consider her the greatest performer that year. Steven Tyler knows what's up, saying that she should've lasted a lot longer.

-Pia Toscano is definitely one of the most overrated contestants of all time. Good vocally I guess (NOT the best, as her legion of stans attested to) but there was absolutely nothing unique or distinct about her voice. That combined with her lack of stage presence, unoriginality, stiffness as a performer, black hole of a personality, etc. and I kind of commend America for realizing her basicness and canning her super early tbh. IDF definitely reacted over-the-top to her elimination. People acted as if someone had died.

-I was a big Haley Reinhart hater back in the day, but a few of her early performances have grown on me in retrospect. Still don't understand all the hubbub about "House of the Rising Sun," though. "I Who Have Nothing" was her best imo.

-Season 11 had the potential to be a top-tier season, and I guess it still sort of is, but for me? It gets ruined by the elimination order. I wasn't the biggest fan of Jessica or Joshua, and outright detested Hollie. I still don't understand how her or her soulless shouting was able to rob great contestants like Erika, DeAndre, Colton, Elise, Skylar, etc. Boggles my mind.

-Finally, I don't mind so much the shortened format of Idol nowadays. Granted it should be longer than season 18 was, but 17 got it just about perfect I think (although that season was terrible thanks to the "talent" or lack thereof). Idol can't get away with having 12 contestants and picking them off one by one anymore. Having a top 10 or 12 and doing double eliminations is probably for the best I think. Definitely never want another repeat of season 13 or 14, both of which lasted WAY too long and were seemingly never-ending despite not being any longer than the classic seasons.

Edited September 23, 2020 by The Ghost of Weedy Speedy

[Elliott]

On 9/18/2020 at 8:37 PM, The Ghost of Weedy Speedy said:

Season 12 is one of the best seasons talent-wise imo and I find the vitrol it receives to be kind of misogynistic tbh. This forum pleaded for years for them to make a season where female contestants can do better, then when it happens they don't want it.

 

Speaking of which, this site also wanted Nigel to be sacked for s12 and I foresaw him being gone would lead to the show just nose diving off a cliff...which is exactly what happened.

My issues with this are kind of related, so I'll just talk about it as a whole.

 

The themes in season 12 were pretty horrific, imo, and it made many of the song choices uninspired. (S13, for all of its many faults, at least felt fresh musically, since the themes were much more "current" and the songs weren't songs we'd heard over and over and over again.) Compared to S12, where like... they all picked the same Motown songs we'd heard in every other season, or when they were picking ballads for a rock week that specifically said No Ballads. (Or, in regards to some of his weird production decisions, was to have the top four in S11 do two solo songs, a duet and a group performance in the performance show (11 performances, and 4 total songs for the cast) rather than just having them do 3 solo songs.)

 

My general apathy for Janelle and Amber aside, once we hit the F5 of S12, it got really good, but the first 2/3 of the season were irrelevant and I felt like this was when Idol started to turn into having the judges overshadow the contestants, since most of the press around that season was centred around the Mariah/Nicki drama or production's blatant (albeit warranted, since everyone was clamouring for a female winner) manipulation to get the results they wanted.

 

I do think Nigel has strengths as a show-runner, but I also think he has faults that he doesn't recognize. As someone who watches STYCYD (the show where he's the head judge, executive producer and show runner), it's been glaringly obvious how out-of-touch he is for a while.

[Weedy_Speedy]

13 minutes ago, Elliott said:

My issues with this are kind of related, so I'll just talk about it as a whole.

 

The themes in season 12 were pretty horrific, imo, and it made many of the song choices uninspired. (S13, for all of its many faults, at least felt fresh musically, since the themes were much more "current" and the songs weren't songs we'd heard over and over and over again.) Compared to S12, where like... they all picked the same Motown songs we'd heard in every other season, or when they were picking ballads for a rock week that specifically said No Ballads. (Or, in regards to some of his weird production decisions, was to have the top four in S11 do two solo songs, a duet and a group performance in the performance show (11 performances, and 4 total songs for the cast) rather than just having them do 3 solo songs.)

 

My general apathy for Janelle and Amber aside, once we hit the F5 of S12, it got really good, but the first 2/3 of the season were irrelevant and I felt like this was when Idol started to turn into having the judges overshadow the contestants, since most of the press around that season was centred around the Mariah/Nicki drama or production's blatant (albeit warranted, since everyone was clamouring for a female winner) manipulation to get the results they wanted.

 

I do think Nigel has strengths as a show-runner, but I also think he has faults that he doesn't recognize. As someone who watches STYCYD (the show where he's the head judge, executive producer and show runner), it's been glaringly obvious how out-of-touch he is for a while.

 

My opinion with S13 and the music being more "fresh" is that if you're singing songs that are on the charts at the moment, people are gonna compare you to the original, and if you're nowhere near as good then you're just making yourself look like the total amateur that you are. That's why people like Jena/Alex/Sam never worked for me, and one of like a million reasons why The Voice is such a godawful show. I suppose in a perfect world there would be somewhat of a mix, but at the end of the day it comes to the strength of the contestants to deliver. Compare Candice's "Ordinary People" to that Elijah kid's take on "Stay," for example.

 

As for the judging panel, they can just eliminate that aspect of the show at this point for all I care. Nobody listens to them anymore and unless you're name is Simon Cowell, nobody watches the show to see them. I don't watch SYTYCD so I'll take your word on Nigel when it comes to that show. I was reading the other day how he and Simon got into a huge fight during season 7 because Simon wanted to cast characters like Kyle Ensley (which is exactly what he did for season 8 ) while Nigel wanted to keep the show about the talent. Considering how much better season 7 was compared to 8 in my opinion, I'm still firmly on the Nigel train.

Edited September 23, 2020 by The Ghost of Weedy Speedy

[Weedy_Speedy]

Season 16:

-I like Katy, Lionel and Luke as individual judges, but the whole package of them together gets on my nerves. Still better than Keith/JLo/Harry and their love of mediocrity by a long shot. I am praying I never see any of those three on American Idol ever again.

-Maddie & Caleb Lee are one of my all-time favorite top 2s on the show. They both deserved to make it that far.

-Speaking of Caleb Lee, his personality is top-notch. I really enjoyed his dry sense of humor.

-Michael J. Woodard got on my nerves. I thought he sounded like a little kid who couldn't pronounce his words correctly. It just irritated me.

-Jurnee had a great voice but she lacked charisma/artistic identity imo.

-Catie Turner was great, yes Manic Monday was a mess but it wasn't one of the worst performances of all time like WNTS says it was. A 4?! I'd score it in the mid-20s.

-The original that Catie performed in Hollywood inspired by the "make me a sandwich" men is by far the best original song ever done on this show.  

-Dennis Lorenzo is a fantastic talent and was 100% robbed.

-I think both Gabby and Cade are awful, no matter how many times Gabby's one-hit-wonder song gets shoved down my throat. They deserve each other.  

-I watched the audition/Hollywood episodes of season 16 and was surprised to see the judges be a lot more critical to Gabby/treat her as the wannabe Carrie that she was. Then top 24 hit and they started pretending she was amazing and none of the other contestants could touch her, despite the fact that literally nothing had changed for her performance-wise. Definitely suspect and I wouldn't be surprised if Uncle Sam was involved.

 

Season 17:

-Jeremiah is one of the best male contestants to ever be on this show. I don't at all care for Christian music/balladeer types and even then, he still won me over from his audition. Not many contestants perform with such emotion and I always felt every word he sang. I do want to shake him and tell him to ditch his loser family (they don't deserve him) and to this day I am still livid at his 6th-place ouster. Just utterly ridiculous and I refused to watch the rest of the season until recently (and I only did it to be a completionist).

-Outside of Jeremiah? Worst group of contestants to ever be on this show. I liked Walker a lot and he'd be my second favorite, and lmao no contestant has ever been as blatantly bussed as him. "Walker, Alejandro is God so sabotage yourself by whispering through your duet with him."  Tools.

-Laci and Madison are two of the biggest let-downs to ever be on this show. Laci didn't deserve the save and Madison was screwed over the judges, pretending that she was better than she actually was. I'm so sick of the "omg you're the next Kelly Clarkson/Carrie Underwood!!!" comments. Avalon Young put it best when she said she was only interested in being "the first me." We already have Kelly & Carrie, why would we want second-rate versions of them?

-I've never understood Uche's popularity on this forum. Diamonds was good/interesting and if he did more stuff like that I'd be a fan, but instead he decided to just come across as a bad wedding singer. He deserved to go when he did.

-Wade is terrible and proof that if you're a cishet white male with a backstory, you'll be celebrated over much more deserving talents. I refuse to believe that anyone legitimately liked him for his voice. He was put in the top 20 because the judges felt sorry for him and made the top 4 because the voters felt sorry for him.

-Alejandro is my third least favorite finalist to ever be on this show. Only Corey Clark and Daniel Seavey rank below him, and at least Daniel has the excuse of not finishing puberty yet. His voice is completely mediocre and the "omg he's amazing because he sings originals!!!" storyline was laughable because legit all of them sound the same. If only originals were allowed when Crystal Bowersox was on the show. She would've schooled all of these losers who came after her.

 

Season 18:

-This is the best of the ABC seasons thus far. Even the contestants I didn't like as much were huge improvements over the let-downs in season 17.

-Arthur is great, one of the most interesting contestants to be on this show in years. Am I surprised to see how much he's loathed on this forum? Absolutely not, lmao he could not be more anti-IDF if he tried. I like the fact that even though he has a rasp to his voice, he didn't use that as an excuse to sing terribly/off-key like so many mediocre male contestants before him. I wouldn't have been upset at all if he won and the IDF meltdown? Would've been glorious  

-Sam is also great and is one of the more deserving winners. I usually am irritated by the super spiritual/inspirational backstories, but like with Jeremiah it didn't bother me that much with her because she had the goods to back it up.

-Francisco would be my third favorite, he performed admirably throughout the season and really only let me down at the finale tbh.

-I liked Cyniah Elise/think she was robbed.

-Sooo many female contestants with forgettable pop voices this season. It is impossible to tell them apart from each other. I couldn't tell you what Julia or Makayla sound like off the top of my head. I can tell you what Sophia sounds like, but that's just because she was so throaty. None of them have anything special talent-wise. IDF loves to play make-believe saying that contestants like these girls deserve to fare well because they are ~marketable~. The truth? They get by on their looks.

-Louis was alright but was out of his depth by the top 7. Jonny was mediocre.

-The Genre Challenge was an interesting way to shake up Hollywood week, although I will forever lmao @ Idol turning "I play an instrument" into its own musical genre in singer/songwriter.

Edited October 6, 2020 by The Ghost of Weedy Speedy

[mikeyace16]

Not sure if this still exists but if not here’s a new one!

 

I’ll start: Carrie Underwood has got to be THE most overrated contestant ever, followed closely by Pia.

[redwood79]

Unpopular opinion: benson boone 

[Bk1234]

36 minutes ago, redwood79 said:

Unpopular opinion: benson boone 

You got your wish.