Why Sir Blayke Lost

[CarmenSandiego]

One week ago, I created a thread where I listed seven rules that Season 20 contestants on American Idol needed to follow in order to do well on the show.  With three eliminations down (and Kenedi Anderson's withdrawal, which I'm still unhappy with), it's now time to look at the contestants who have come and gone and figure out what they did right and what they did wrong.  I can't do an analysis on why Kenedi lost since that would be rather short ("She lost because she chose to withdraw, most likely to pursue a recording contract), so I'll start with the person who was eliminated from her group, which was Sir Blayke.  He did enough things right to make it to the Top 24, but after he performed "Breakeven" for his first performance where people could vote for him, he was gone.  What did Sir Blayke do right, and what did he do wrong?  Why did Sir Blayke lose?

 

Show Singing and Performing Talent

 

As I noted in my list of what Season 20's contestants needed to know, it's not enough to have singing and performing talent at this stage of the competition, you need to show it!  And how did Sir Blayke do with this rule?  Not so well, I'm afraid.  While Vincent Mandle from GoldDerby in his rankings of the eleven from Group 2 noted that Sir Blayke had a great vocal performance of "Breakeven", it seems that he had a problem with his performance skills, as the performance was rather forgettable, ranking him eighth overall.  The writer from the TooFab website also put his performance near the bottom (ninth of those who could be voted on, tenth overall), noting again that the main problem was Sir Blayke's performance skills.  And Lionel Ritchie also told him to remember to bring emotion to the stage, so there was definitely an issue with performance skills.

 

And how did those of us who rated the performances of the Top 24 rate Sir Blake's performance?  Not very good either.  Overall, the people on IDF ranked Sir Blayke's performance in twentieth, with only Danielle, Scarlet, Cameron and Dan lower than him.  And of those four, Danielle and Scarlet were also eliminated (and I'll explain why they lost later on), while Cameron was the only one from Sir Blayke's group that was worse.  But at least Cameron's performance was entertaining, albeit as a total train wreck can be entertaining to some people.  I gave Sir Blayke's performance a 5 out of 10, with only Cameron getting a lower score (3 out of 10).  In short, Sir Blayke had major problems with showing his performing talent, and that hurt him in the end.

 

Song Choice Is Key

 

How did Sir Blayke do with this rule?  Actually, he might have done better with this rule than some of the others.  The guy from GoldDerby actually thought that "Breakeven" was the perfect song choice for him.  And I do think that it was a better song choice than say, Lady K.'s choice of "Before He Cheats" (a Carrie Underwood song?  Really?)  Unfortunately, this wasn't enough to save Sir Blayke from elimination.  Still, he seems to have made no major mistakes here, so we'll move on.

 

Be Consistently Outstanding or Better Yet, Constantly Improve Every Week

 

While Sir Blayke didn't screw up with the second rule, he screwed up enough with this rule.  As I think about his performances up until his elimination, he had possibly only one really good performance, and that was his performance in the Genre Challenge of Hollywood week, so he certainly wasn't consistently outstanding.  In fact, he seems to have been (with the one exception) consistently forgettable.  And you can't afford to be consistently forgettable, especially in the early rounds!  When I rated Sir Blayke's performance, I noted that the only thing worse than being a train wreck on this show is to be boring (i.e., forgettable).  And Sir Blayke was forgettable.  So he screwed up this rule.

 

Stand Out By Being Unique, or By Being Memorable For Positive Reasons

 

And by being so forgettable in his performances, Sir Blayke also ran afoul of the fourth rule, which notes that the contestants need to stand out in some way, either by being unique or by being memorable for positive reasons.  Sir Blayke did have the fact that he was a homeless street singer going for him, but he was so forgettable that he couldn't really utilize it in the way that say, Lady K. could utilize her backstory.  She was more memorable than Sir Blayke, so she was able to survive a bad song choice while Sir Blayke couldn't survive a better song choice.

 

Remember, You Are a Package

 

Because Sir Blayke was so forgettable, he had a hard time with this rule as well.  He wasn't a county singer like Noah Thompson, Huntergirl, Mike Parker or even Dan Marshall.  He also wasn't a rock singer like Ava Maybee.  And while he did have a sad backstory, there were others who had sob stories (like Lady K.), and his weak performance skills and general forgettability meant that the package was mostly plain with maybe a nice bright bow on the top.  That wasn't nearly enough to get him very far.

 

Never Ever Argue With Any Of the Judges or Respond to Any Baiting From Ryan

 

At least, Sir Blayke didn't fall afoul of this rule.  He also tried to take the advice of his mentor, Bebe Rexha.  Unfortunately, that wasn't nearly enough to help Sir Blayke survive, so I'll move on from here.

 

Gather a Fan Base -- And Sustain It

 

This was the final rule that Sir Blayke failed at.  He wasn't a country singer, so he couldn't get any fans from that group.  He wasn't a rock singer, so he couldn't get any fans from that group!  He wasn't a cute nonthreatening white guy with a guitar like Fritz Hager, but a black guy.  And his performances were very forgettable heading into the Top 24 round, with one possible exception.  With those disadvantages, the only thing he could do to survive was to sing and perform his heart out.  But instead, he had another forgettable performance.  Four strikes in this case, and you're out.

 

Sir Blayke was good enough to make the Top 24, and he had a backstory that could have tugged at the heartstrings.  Unfortunately, he had two major flaws.  The first was weak performance skills.  The second was utter forgettability.  And in his first opportunity to get people to vote for him, he failed to improve his performance skill enough to avoid being boring and thus get people to vote for him.  And that is why Sir Blayke lost.

Edited April 18, 2022 by CarmenSandiego
Sir Blayke has officially been eliminated

[Carrie_On]

I don’t think he should’ve made the Top 24, TBH. He seems like a nice guy who can sing but I don’t get any star quality from him at all. His stage name comes across as phony to me, very wannabe-pop-star-sounding. The first day of HW, he came out with a very long head wrap on and I thought he was going to be a flamboyant, theatrical contestant. That wasn’t the case and he just ended up being a guy who (decently) sings generic pop songs. “Breakeven” is a good song but it was overdone way back in 2010-2011. Nobody wanted to hear it again lol. 

[RTV]

from MJsBigBlog:

 

Two polls for the April 11 episode correctly predicted Sir Blayke's elimination. He was on top of the elimination poll with 36.97% of the vote, and his performance was the least favorite.

MJ Santilli wrote: "Sir Blayke is still delivering boring performances. He's probably leaving the competition on Sunday."

Multiple comments acknowledge Sir Blayke's likability.

One viewer thinks the early running order will contribute to Sir Blayke being forgettable.

Another said the performance "felt like he was trying too hard" and "was competent, but that's it."

A third person feels the "vocals just don't connect."

Someone else mentioned that Facebook reactions indicate Sir Blayke is in danger.

https://www.mjsbigblog.com/american-idol-2022-top-24-polls-predict-the-results-pt-2.htm

 

On her live recap of the performance itself, MJ Santilli wrote: "Lots of pitchy stuff in this performance. And still, he holds back. His timing is also off. Performance-wise, Sir has never been able to break through to the next level. The judges seem satisfied with the performance. Luke says he upped his game. Lionel feels like he finally connected, and gave a great performance. There is something missing in Sir's performances. He might be in trouble after that."

There are only a few comments about Sir Blayke's performance.

The expression "meh" was used once.

"I really like Sir Blayke but not sure his voice is good enough to make it far," remarked an individual.

One listener concluded, "I don't hate this, but I'm not feeling it either."

A post questioned whether the singer is acoustic pop or R&B.

https://www.mjsbigblog.com/american-idol-2022-recap-top-24-compete-in-hawaii-pt-2-video.htm

 

Sir Blayke and Danielle Finn tied for last place on MJ's April 6 poll for favorite Top 24 contestant.

https://www.mjsbigblog.com/american-idol-2022-top-24-polls-photos-reveal-who-performs-when.htm

Edited April 17, 2022 by RTV

[Winterfan]

I just wanted to say thanks for writing up your analysis for why Sir Blayke lost, according to the 7 rules you listed in that thread that contestants ideally need to follow if they want as good of a chance as possible to do well on the show. The main issue I had with him is that I really wasn't able to get a good sense of who he was as an artist. Plus, as you pointed out, his story just wasn't quite as compelling compared to some of the stories that some of the other members of the Top 24 have. Anyway, once again, thanks for writing this analysis up and I really look forward to reading more of your analyses about the contestants as we get further along into the season.

[erik g]

The only performance from Sir Blayke that peaked any interest from me was "True Colors", and. i forgot about it in like 20 minutes. 

[CarmenSandiego]

13 hours ago, Winterfan said:

I just wanted to say thanks for writing up your analysis for why Sir Blayke lost, according to the 7 rules you listed in that thread that contestants ideally need to follow if they want as good of a chance as possible to do well on the show. The main issue I had with him is that I really wasn't able to get a good sense of who he was as an artist. Plus, as you pointed out, his story just wasn't quite as compelling compared to some of the stories that some of the other members of the Top 24 have. Anyway, once again, thanks for writing this analysis up and I really look forward to reading more of your analyses about the contestants as we get further along into the season.

 

You're welcome.  I enjoyed reading David Bloomberg's analysis of why American Idol contestants lost on his Foxes on Idol website, and I like to think that I'm honoring him by doing my own analysis of why contestants lost.

 

Sadly, I have to agree that Sir Blayke didn't have enough of a sense of who he was as an artist, perhaps due to his problems with performance skills.

[KelseyW]

Where is he tonight???

[CarmenSandiego]

4 minutes ago, KelseyW said:

Where is he tonight???

 

Apparently, he is in the second group.