American Idol: The Top 13 Are Here, and We're Somehow Still Watching

Putting aside last year's result—which was the result of overt producer manipulation that resulted in the male finalists resembling a cast of extras from a Harrison Bergeron-themed episode of Glee—white dudes have ruled American Idol these past few years, their adorableness being seized on by those viewers who vote with their eyes as much as their ears. This season's Idol cast, which was culled down to its final 13 members this week, had at least the small promise of some change—the final 10 males included three dudes who were straight-up R&B singers

But the first week of voting from the viewers at home led to all of the white dudes up for inclusion being shuffled through on the strength of the audience's vote. At the end of last night's episode, those singers who hadn't been voted into the final stretch of episodes and who hadn't been given a chance to sing for a Wild Card spot were huddled on a couch, and the tableau was pretty striking—three African-American guys were among those left out in the cold thanks to the choices of viewers at home (who voted in 10 of the final 13) and the judges.

This is partially due to a couple of bad choices on the parts of the singers left behind. Marrialle Sellars, whose buzzcut and sparkling personality helped her torchy "Grenade" be the producers' choice to lead off the entire season, botched things on Tuesday night by choosing to sing "Roar." (Just don't sing Katy Perry, kids, unless you really need to sound like you're constantly gasping for air.) Emmanuel Zidor, whose audition showed off a just-rough-enough vocal that could make heads turn in the right context, went way too campy with the Emotions' "Best Of My Love"—certainly a bettersong than "Roar," but weirdly truncated in a way that only added to the mania of his performance. George Lovett decided, against advice, to go back to the "Grenade" well, and the weight of comparison to so many other singers from this season didn't do him any favors.

Still, Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban, and Harry Connick, Jr., could have shown any of those singers some kindness and given them another shot instead of Kristen O'Connor, who seems headed for an early exit thanks to her lack of memorability, or Spencer Lloyd, whose villain edit from Hollywood Week might have hurt his chances as far as progression beyond the semifinals. True, 2013 was yet another not-great year for R&B in the American pop marketplace, from the lack of African-Americans reaching the top spot on the Hot 100 to the stony reception given to solid albums by the likes of Idol winner Fantasia. But recent trends—"Happy" getting close to the top of the charts, Ne-Yo declaring that his next album would sidestep EDM, the success of Beyoncé­—have suggested the beginning of a shift. Would it have killed the judges to at least give George a shot to sing something less overexposed? Or were they so aware of the patterns of voting on behalf of Idol's audiences that they knew putting any male R&B singers through to the Top 13 would be a fool's errand?

This is and isn't a minor quibble. Certainly the slate of Idol finalists is a lot stronger than it was last year, and it might even be the most solid top-to-bottom since Season 8, when folk cutie-pie Kris Allen bested the bombastic Adam Lambert while Danny Gokey screamed the closing note of "Dream On" and Allison Iraheta got royally jobbed by the male-preferring public. There's stylistic variety; CJ Harris's blend of country and soul is carried along by his booming voice; Majesty Rose's ability to turn down the volume and still make for compelling television is a quality often underrated by (if not completely absent from)Idol; Jena Irene's pitch to be the show's very own Christina Perri got a solid head start when she performed an original during the Wild Card round. But it's still troubling that African-American guys singing R&B are seen as not viable for progressing any further in the competition than the last semifinal—just when the voting gets handed over to the public.

THE BEST PERFORMANCES:
MK Nobilette sang a stunning version of John Legend's "All Of Me" that had her parents sobbing in the audience; Majesty Rose took "Happy," which seems like one of those hard songs to sing thanks to its circularity (ever tried to sing "Personal Jesus" at karaoke?), to joyous heights; Alex Preston turned in an intense performance of Damien Rice's "Volcano" that probably won him a plurality of the white-guy-with-guitar voters. There was one more, but we'll get to that in a minute.

WHO GOT THROUGH:
Intense strummer Alex Preston; happy-go-lucky country boy Ben Briley; big-voiced Alabaman CJ Harris; raspy-voiced bro Caleb Johnson; tractor-driving Dexter Roberts; beyond-her-years Emily Piriz; piano girl Jena Irene; pink-streaked folk-punk Jessica Meuse; aggressively bland Kristen O'Connor; incredibly intriguing Majesty Rose; tuba-playing spitfire Malaya Watson; quietly intense MK Nobilette; and probable heartthrob-by-default Sam Woolf.

WHO PROBABLY DIDN'T DESERVE TO GET THROUGH:
Kristen squeezed into the top 13 as a Wild Card pick, and her selection inspired conspiracy theories to pop up. She sang Katy Perry's unbearable syllable-masher "Unconditionally" as her Wild Card audition, and it was atrocious even if you take aside the fact that the song is unpleasant to listen to thanks to the way it mangles nearly every syllable of its lyrics.

WHO WAS ROBBED:
That none of the R&B singers were given another chance to sing when the unctuous worship leader Spencer Lloyd was is a crime in itself. But the glitter-loving, superconfident Bria Anai turned in a compelling take on "It's A Man's Man's Man's World" for her wild-card performance, and to say that it mopped the floor with Kristen's might be understating the case. (Perhaps you could add a James Brown-style cape into the floor-cleaning arsenal in order to be slightly more accurate.) It was one of the best performances of the week, which had 25 of them, and it's a shame that she got the boot so soon. Here's hoping she does great things and shows that there's life after Idol—hell, if anything, the inclusion of Adam Lambert and Chris Daughtry as the coaches for the hopefuls shows how winning doesn't necessarily mean victory in the American marketplace.

WHO DAT DADDY:
Harry's dressing-down of the just-turned-18 Emily for singing Grace Potter's saucy (and kind of annoying) "Paris (Oo La La)" came off like "slut-shaming" to some, but I did think that his point about knowing the meaning of the words one is singing is a salient one that too often Idol has dropped the ball on—particularly when it comes to younger contestants quite obviously singing about matters out of their emotional (or in this case physical) depth. Idol works better than other televised singing competitions—and I'm including the likes of America's Got Talent here as well—because most of the people who have gone far have been able to sell the songs they're singing in a way that, to borrow a phrase from an old Idol pal, goes beyond the "cruise ship" mantel of your Bianca Ryans and your Jackie Evanchos. Even Jordin Sparks, who was Emily's age when she walked away with it all, managed to imbue "I (Who Have Nothing)" with some actual pathos back in 2007.

NEXT WEEK:
The chaos of the winnowing-down process, from auditions Rush Week, has finally cleared—although the slight incoherence of the first week's theme, "This Is Me," means that it isn’t completely absent from the proceedings.

Maura Johnston is still somehow watching American Idol. She's on Twitter — @maura