American Idol Rankdown 2.0

[sublymonal]

32 minutes ago, The Ghost of Weedy Speedy said:

Jena winning her season 

Agreed 

[Elliott]

51 minutes ago, miss denise said:

 

 

 

  

I would’ve just ghost written a write-up for her anyway.

[Alex95]

Jena robbed of course! But I also expected it lol so I’ll live. I’m just grateful Ryan got cut so great too 24 overall (except two winners who I’m sure y’all could guess who I’m referring to)

[Elliott]

Just now, Alex95 said:

(except two winners who I’m sure y’all could guess who I’m referring to)

[~Tom~]

I guess I'm the only one sad about Paris not making it.

 

Jena and Tiffany Montgomery not making it though.  

[Elliott]

7 minutes ago, ~Tom~ said:

Jena and Tiffany Montgomery not making it though.  

[~Tom~]

1 minute ago, Elliott said:

IKR? Tiffany should’ve been eliminated 200 spots ago, the disrespect to all the contestants she robbed...

[Elliott]

[Elliott]

TOP 30 AMERICAN IDOL RANKDOWN CONTESTANT,

RYAN STARR

 

Ryan Starr is a contestant from the influential first season of American Idol, where she made it all the way to seventh place. She first rose to prominence for the viewers when she received the first "yes" audition in the premiere season's first and only audition episode (oh how I wish we could go back to just one audition episode...), and continued to make an impression during Hollywood week.

 

In the semi-finals, she sang "The Frim Fram Sauce" and delivered one of the best performances from her group, which easily earned her a spot in the Top 10 alongside Tamyra Gray and Jim Verraros. As the finals loomed, she began to rehearse her upcoming performances and realized she didn't really want to be on American Idol... She got started in the finals with "If You Really Love Me," a solid - but not outstanding - performance. After surviving the double elimination unscathed owing to EJay, Nikki and Jim all turning in bad performances, Top 8 week saw Ryan with a pimp spot where she gave a truly legendary performance as part of her self-sabotage.

 

Queen of delivering Idol's first hot mess finals performance

 

Sadly for her, the late performance spot and it being her first bad performance helped her get some sympathy votes, and she thankfully survived the vote over A.J. Gil, who really had no business even being in the Top 8. After that, she performance a jazzed-up Last Dance for Top 7 week, where she was eliminated after being placed in the bottom two against frontrunner (unfortunately for us) Justin Guarini. Imagine if she had managed to get enough votes to survive over Justin Guarini. Whoo, chile, maybe Nikki McKibbin wouldn't have been the most hated woman in America that year!

 

Post-Idol, Ryan was signed to RCA Records alongside most of the finalists after RCA was hoping to capitalize on the success of the show. Unfortunately for Ryan, RCA wanted Ryan to release an album in the same vein as Avril Lavigne, despite Ryan wanting to make a rock album. Well, at least they didn't sign her wanting her to record two country albums.  After being stuck in a three-year legal battle with RCA Records, she was finally released from her contract and turned towards recording independent singles. The first of those was My Religion, which earned a Guiness World Book record for selling the most of iTunes-exclusive singles at the time. ICON.

 

In addition to My Religion, she also recored Blue and Broken for the American Idol: Curtain Call CD, and released a few demos from her scrapped album on her MySpace. Sadly for us, those songs no longer exist owing to MySpace losing their music files pre-2005 because nobody knows what they're doing with that website anymore. Outside of recording, she also appeared as a lead in the 2004 "horror" film Ring of Darkness, and continued her foray into reality television with a stint on The Surreal Life, as well as returning for commentary on American Idol Rewind back when that was a thing.

 

She disappeared for a few years before returning a couple of years ago as a travel blogger. With her own website and YouTube channel under the moniker She is Ryan, Ryan travels the globe and talks about her experiences in different cultures and finding her inner happiness a la Lauryn Hill. She's also built up a decent following on her Instagram account of the same name: @she_is_ryan. She doesn't seem to be doing music anymore, but she seems happy, which is good to hear. Recently, she took part in the S1 mini-reunion that featured the Top 10 from S1 minus Kelly (for obvious reasons) and Nikki McKibbin. #awkward

 

Though I wouldn't say she's one of the best contestants of all time, I personally do rank her pretty high in my own ranking of the contestants. After all, she was my first-ever American Idol favourite, which means she's always had a special spot in my American Idol-filled heart. (Nikki became my favourite after her early elimination, and Kelly is obviously my favourite nowadays, but Ryan is still in my Top 4 alongside them + Jim Verraros. don't @ me). I obviously didn't expect her to make it this far and was more-so just saving her for the lulz, but when Solaris also kept saving her, I was committed to bringing her as far as possible.

 

Thank you for the memories, Ryan.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Elliott

[Crisis]

 at Allison, Brooke, Elise, Melinda, and Tamyra making it.

 

 at Pia missing out.

[JC]

UGH CLAY WAS ROBBED! Glad Trenyce made it through though  

 

I also voted for Adam and Tamyra but regretting it if it kept Clay out  

[Elliott]

1 minute ago, JC said:

UGH CLAY WAS ROBBED!

[Bk1234]

22 minutes ago, Elliott said:

TOP 30 AMERICAN IDOL RANKDOWN CONTESTANT,

RYAN STARR

 

Ryan Starr is a contestant from the influential first season of American Idol, where she made it all the way to seventh place. She first rose to prominence for the viewers when she received the first "yes" audition in the premiere season's first and only audition episode (oh how I wish we could go back to just one audition episode...), and continued to make an impression during Hollywood week.

 

In the semi-finals, she sang "The Frim Fram Sauce" and delivered one of the best performances from her group, which easily earned her a spot in the Top 10 alongside Tamyra Gray and Jim Verraros. As the finals loomed, she began to rehearse her upcoming performances and realized she didn't really want to be on American Idol... She got started in the finals with "If You Really Love Me," a solid - but not outstanding - performance. After surviving the double elimination unscathed owing to EJay, Nikki and Jim all turning in bad performances, Top 8 week saw Ryan with a pimp spot where she gave a truly legendary performance as part of her self-sabotage.

 

Queen of delivering Idol's first hot mess finals performance

 

Sadly for her, the late performance spot and it being her first bad performance helped her get some sympathy votes, and she thankfully survived the vote over A.J. Gil, who really had no business even being in the Top 8. After that, she performance a jazzed-up Last Dance for Top 7 week, where she was eliminated after being placed in the bottom two against frontrunner (unfortunately for us) Justin Guarini. Imagine if she had managed to get enough votes to survive over Justin Guarini. Whoo, chile, maybe Nikki McKibbin wouldn't have been the most hated woman in America that year!

 

Post-Idol, Ryan was signed to RCA Records alongside most of the finalists after RCA was hoping to capitalize on the success of the show. Unfortunately for Ryan, RCA wanted Ryan to release an album in the same vein as Avril Lavigne, despite Ryan wanting to make a rock album. Well, at least they didn't sign her wanting her to record two country albums.  After being stuck in a three-year legal battle with RCA Records, she was finally released from her contract and turned towards recording independent singles. The first of those was My Religion, which earned a Guiness World Book record for selling the most of iTunes-exclusive singles at the time. ICON.

 

In addition to My Religion, she also recored Blue and Broken for the American Idol: Curtain Call CD, and released a few demos from her scrapped album on her MySpace. Sadly for us, those songs no longer exist owing to MySpace losing their music files pre-2005 because nobody knows what they're doing with that website anymore. Outside of recording, she also appeared as a lead in the 2004 "horror" film Ring of Darkness, and continued her foray into reality television with a stint on The Surreal Life, as well as returning for commentary on American Idol Rewind back when that was a thing.

 

She disappeared for a few years before returning a couple of years ago as a travel blogger. With her own website and YouTube channel under the moniker She is Ryan, Ryan travels the globe and talks about her experiences in different cultures and finding her inner happiness a la Lauryn Hill. She's also built up a decent following on her Instagram account of the same name: @she_is_ryan. She doesn't seem to be doing music anymore, but she seems happy, which is good to hear. Recently, she took part in the S1 mini-reunion that featured the Top 10 from S1 minus Kelly (for obvious reasons) and Nikki McKibbin. #awkward

 

Though I wouldn't say she's one of the best contestants of all time, I personally do rank her pretty high in my own ranking of the contestants. After all, she was my first-ever American Idol favourite, which means she's always had a special spot in my American Idol-filled heart. (Nikki became my favourite after her early elimination, and Kelly is obviously my favourite nowadays, but Ryan is still in my Top 4 alongside them + Jim Verraros. don't @ me). I obviously didn't expect her to make it this far and was more-so just saving her for the lulz, but when Solaris also kept saving her, I was committed to bringing her as far as possible.

 

Thank you for the memories, Ryan.

This was beautiful to read! 

[JC]

Just now, Elliott said:

It’s funny I don’t know if I would still be as big of a fan of his today but back then I was all about the oldies broadway and pop diva flavahs  His voice is just so beautiful and effortless

[Elliott]

That's 9 minutes and 41 seconds of my life I'd spend doing literally almost anything else.

[Bk1234]

It’s a shame she was eliminated...  (Me struggling to find an emoji that represents glowsticks...)

Edited August 8, 2020 by Bk1234

[NGM]

I never expected I could drag Adam Lambert to the finale so that’s all I care about rn

[*Wallace]

14 hours ago, ~Tom~ said:

I guess I'm the only one sad about Paris not making it.

 

Jena and Tiffany Montgomery not making it though.  

I'm sad for Paris too.  

 

About time Ryan is gone though, lol.

[Solaris]

4 minutes ago, *Wallace said:

I'm sad for Paris too.  

 

About time Ryan is gone though, lol.

 

 

[*Wallace]

Just saw the results....most sad about Paris, Pia and Ruben missing the Top 24.  

 

There's a few people I could have done without in the group but a strong group overall.

[*Wallace]

13 minutes ago, Solaris said:

 

 

You and Elliott did well bringing  her this far. You two should be proud of accomplishing that.  

[Solaris]

 

[Elliott]

37 minutes ago, *Wallace said:

About time Ryan is gone though, lol.

[Elliott]

14 minutes ago, Solaris said:

 

[NGM]

Clay Aiken



Yikes at me getting stuck with Clay, if anyone is a fan, I'm sorry in advance bc i didn't care at all for him lol. I was all Trenyce and Kim L that season (plus I didn't watch it fully live, I started around top 11 or so. Anyway, he's a really good vocalist, probably among the best ones Idol has seen. But he's a bore. So boring. That's part bc song selection for the early season was.... less than ideal (most people sounded like lounge singers at least once in their run for the first 3 or so seasons) and bc he only really did well in overblown ballads that ended up blending together for me once it was really deep into the season. He lost to Ruben, which a lot of people were shocked about (I legit didn't care either way). He has released music, but I think he's pretty much retired (last i could find was 2012?). Anyway, surprised he stuck around till now, bc I remember him going way earlier in AI 1.0, but at last out he goes.