Murfreesboro, Tenn. native Colton Dixon was revealed to be the lowest vote-getter during last night’s American Idol results show.
Well, that was certainly unexpected.
The 20-year-old singer who performed Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” and Earth Wind & Fire’s “September” Wednesday night told the judges after his elimination, “I wasn’t myself last night, and I get it, and I appreciate what you told me last night. I’ll take that when I’m making a record.”
I thought Colton would be going all the way to the finale with either Phillip Phillips or Jessica Sanchez. The conspiracy theorist in me can’t help but to think that he got the boot to make way for one of the ladies to win it this season. How else can you explain a contestant that has been building a solid fan base since season 10 and was considered a season 11 front-runner getting ousted in the Top 7?
I’ll admit that I was really surprised to learn Wednesday afternoon that Colton would be performing a Lady Gaga song that night, but I thought he really pulled off a solid performance. It was a different kind of song than what most would expect from Colton, but I actually kind of appreciated that he was willing to challenge himself with riskier song choice.
Unlike the judges, I felt that the stronger of Colton’s two performance’s Wednesday night was “September.” Steven Tyler thought he should have gone with a song that showcased his voice a little more. Randy commented, “You sound good, but it’s not exciting as we would’ve have liked.”
I thought Colton executed an extremely original and fresh take on a song that I wouldn’t have pegged him to sing. He had a strong vocal performance, which included some very clean and powerful drawn out notes. I thought “September” showcased his vocal ability quite nicely.
Judges comments aside, I have a bone to pick with Idol’s in-house mentor, Jimmy Iovine. Wednesday night during the video package before Colton’s performance of “Bad Romance,” Jimmy talked about the singer needing “to hit a high when the chorus comes in” and the only advice we hear him solicit is to “get the arrangement right with the band and be careful of the tempo.”
Here’s the thing, last night during the results show, Jimmy said that he didn’t like anything about Colton’s performance of “Bad Romance” and in order to get to the finale, he needed to “regroup and find better songs.” And therein lies my issue.
Why does the audience always find out how much Jimmy doesn’t care for the contestant’s song choice after the fact? He’s their mentor, and he should be bringing issues he has with their song choices during rehearsals. Not that I want to see him shoving his own song choices for the contestants down their throats, but maybe there needs to be more of a collaboration process with Jimmy and contestants when it comes to picking songs each week. He’s not doing them any favors by telling them what he thinks about their song choices after the fact, by then it’s too late. And in this case, one of the strongest and vocally consistent contestants of the entire season was sent home prematurely.
With the elimination of a perceived front-runner last night, it will be interesting to see how the rest of the competition pans out. With so much talent this season, the American Idol title is really anyone’s for the taking.
Let’s hear it, y’all! What did you think about Colton Dixon’s elimination this week? And, do you feel Jimmy Iovine needs to express his concern about the contestant’s song choices prior to them taking the Idol stage?
Originally posted on Blogcritics as American Idol Elimination Shocker.
Wait...WHAT? 
Conspiracy Theory.
It’s hard to come up with a conspiracy theory for Colton Dixon when he was sitting at the bottom of DialIdol. Even though voters have other ways to vote, it’s still a dangerous place to be. But I’ll offer a theory anyway.
The conspiracy theory is simply based on this: Discord between Colton and American Idol.
There were reports many weeks ago about Idol asking Colton to downplay his Christianity, yet Colton did not hide the fact that he wants to be a Christian artist. Thus there may have been an ongoing struggle behind the scenes between Colton and Idol over song choice.
Colton may have become increasingly agitated with Idol over the issue, which culminated in his “I don’t care” proclaimation over the judges’ critiques.
We also have Jimmy Iovine one day telling us about Colton’s solid female voting bloc, then trashing his performance the very next day, as if to set up his ouster.
That’s pretty much it. Colton wanted out, so Idol let him go.
I did see that he was at the bottom of Dial Idol, but they only track phone calls, not texts & AI.com votes, so I usually take their predictions with a grain of salt. I actually think the judges comments last night did him in. I wrote the column last night, while I was still in a little bit of shock that he was eliminated. So my mind was kind of throwing around different possibilities/theories about his elimination. Obviously, it just came down to a lack of votes. I hate to think people bailed on him for his song choice, because I thought the Gaga performance was pretty good. Plus, his studio track for the song is fantastic.
I don’t think the religious thing was hurting him too much. To me, he was just keepin’ it real, so it never bothered me.
But yeah, I really think Jimmy not putting in his two cents before it’s too late to do anything is just not right. I think if he has reservations about what the contestants are performing, he needs to give them his input beforehand, because I am sick of hearing how much he didn’t like the song choice after the contestants have already performed. It doesn’t do them any good.
“Here’s the thing, last night during the results show, Jimmy said that he didn’t like anything about Colton’s performance of “Bad Romance” and in order to get to the finale, he needed to “regroup and find better songs.” And therein lies my issue.
Why does the audience always find out how much Jimmy doesn’t care for the contestant’s song choice after the fact? He’s their mentor, and he should be bringing issues he has with their song choices during rehearsals. Not that I want to see him shoving his own song choices for the contestants down their throats, but maybe there needs to be more of a collaboration process with Jimmy and contestants when it comes to picking songs each week. He’s not doing them any favors by telling them what he thinks about their song choices after the fact, by then it’s too late.”
THIS. THIS SO MUCH THIS!!!!
I dot mind Jimmy’s bluntness but it comes off harsh and scripted in a video package after he’s presumably seen the results. Of course he said Colton made a bad song choice after he saw that Colton was going to get eliminated. I doubt he had any reservations about the performance beforehand especially considering Lady Gags is an Interscope artist.
Unfortuntely I think Colton got caught up in a perfect storm of bad circumstances. Going early in the show, criticism from the judges especially on the second song, the “I dont care” clip, Phillip having a strong week, and other motivated fan bases voting. I believe Phillip and Colton shared a lot of fans who would split votes between the two. They were not nervous about Colton so they voted for Phillip’s stronger week. I’m disappointed because Colton brought an element to the show that will be missing now and i know he could get even better. he got caught on a down night but every other contestant has been afforded a second chance (or more) after their down night. I know that’s the nature of the game though, people truly have to vote for their favorites every week. and I agree with you Kristen, I think both of Colton’s performances were very good on par with what he’d done before and I liked both. That just adds to the disappointment.
I definitely think voter complacency was a part of Colton’s elimination, which is disappointing. The whole situation is disappointing, because he was one of few contestants that were doing anything interesting week-to-week during the competition with their songs. And again, I thought he was great this week. If anything, Idol voters this season are proving to be an interesting, somewhat fickle bunch. The judges give Colton less than stellar reviews on one performance & he’s eliminated. Definitely lets you know that people are listening to what the judges have to say.
Also, I was shocked to see that Colton was performing in the number two spot for the second week in a row. I’m pretty sure everyone else performed at a different spot last week. Things that make you hmmmm.
But on the flip side, I am so excited to see what lies ahead for Colton. I hope the future brings big things for him.