American Idol’s top 10

With approximately 70,000 aspiring American Idols now out of the way, we are down to the Final 10 contestants as Idol’s 15th and final season has reached the point where viewer votes will determine who advances and who goes home to watch the show with the rest of us.

Included in the remaining 10 are two Californians – Avalon Young from San Diego and Olivia Rox from Agoura Hills.

The 10 finalists were revealed Thursday night. The winner will be crowned April 7.

Here is the schedule going forward:

*The competition moves to the final crown on March 3 (8-10 p.m.), when the competition airs only one night a week until the Grand Finale week.

*The three-night Grand Finale week kicks off on April 5 (8-9 p.m.), with “AMERICAN IDOL: American Dream,” a one-hour retrospective episode, featuring Ryan Seacrest, current and former judges, contestants and the behind-the-scenes team sharing their Idol memories.

*Then, the series will bid farewell when the remaining finalists compete live from the Dolby Theatre in L.A. on April 6 (8-9 p.m.).

*On April 7 (8-10p.m.), the final and 15th American Idol will be crowned and the farewell celebration will continue, as Idol pays tribute to the past 15 seasons.

The Top 10 and their hometowns:

Avalon Young – San Diego

Dalton Rapattoni – Sunnyvale, Texas

Gianna Isabella – Jackson, N.J.

La’Porsha Renae – McComb, Miss.

Lee Jean – Bluffton, S.C.

MacKenzie Bourg – Lafayette, La.

Olivia Rox – Agoura Hills

Sonika Vaid – Boston, Mass.

Trent Harmon – Amory, Miss.

Tristan Mcintosh – Nashville, Tenn.

Four who were eliminated:

Manny Torres – Flushing, Mich.

Jeneve Mitchell – Crawford, Colo.

Thomas Stringfellow – Bentonville, Ark.

Jenn Blosil – Orem, Utah

Shelbie Z performs “Bohemian Rhapsody” with All-Star Constantine Maroulis. Despite a stellar performance, the Idol hopeful did not make it into the Top 14. (Ray Mickshaw/FOX)

With approximately 70,000 aspiring American Idols now out of the way, we are down to the Final 14 contestants as Idol’s 15^th and final season has reached the point where viewer votes will determine who advances and who goes home to watch the show with the rest of us.

Included in the remaining 14 are two Californians – Avalon Young from San Diego and Olivia Rox from Agoura Hills.

Seven finalists were revealed Thursday night. The winner will be crowned April 7.

Here is the schedule going forward:

*The semifinalists will be narrowed down by the judges (8-10 p.m. Feb. 24), leading to the announcement of the Top 10 on Feb. 25 (8-10 p.m.), and their first performances.

*The competition moves to the final crown the following week on March 3 (8-10 p.m.), when the competition airs only one night a week until the Grand Finale week.

*The three-night Grand Finale week kicks off on April 5 (8-9 p.m.), with “AMERICAN IDOL: American Dream,” a one-hour retrospective episode, featuring Ryan Seacrest, current and former judges, contestants and the behind-the-scenes team sharing their Idol memories.

*Then, the series will bid farewell when the remaining finalists compete live from the Dolby Theatre in L.A. on April 6 (8-9 p.m.).

*On April 7 (8-10p.m.), the final and 15^th American Idol will be crowned and the farewell celebration will continue, as Idol pays tribute to the past 15 seasons.

The Top 14 and their hometowns:

Avalon Young – San Diego

Dalton Rapattoni – Sunnyvale, Texas

Gianna Isabella – Jackson, N.J.

Jeneve Mitchell – Crawford, Colo.

Jenn Blosil – Orem, Utah

La’Porsha Renae – McComb, Miss.

Lee Jean – Bluffton, S.C.

MacKenzie Bourg – Lafayette, La.

Manny Torres – Flushing, Mich.

Olivia Rox – Agoura Hills

Sonika Vaid – Boston, Mass.

Thomas Stringfellow – Bentonville, Ark.

Trent Harmon – Amory, Miss.

Tristan Mcintosh – Nashville, Tenn.

Avalon Young of San Diego sings with past American Idol winner, Ruben Studdard. (AMERICAN IDOL)

Thousands have tried over the past 15 years, but no one from San Diego County has ever been crowned the winner of American Idol. Now in season 15, the final Idol season, San Diego’s last chance at the title rests on the talents of a former waitress at Applebee’s in Mira Mesa.

Avalon Young, 21, from Tierrasanta survived a sixth round of cuts Thursday night and made it to the Top 14 as the show winds its way to an April 7 finale.

“That puts a lot of pressure on me, doesn’t it?” Young said with a laugh when informed she had a chance to do something even Jessica Sanchez and Adam Lambert (both were runnersup) couldn’t do. During the show’s run only four San Diegans have made it to the Top 10.

This week, the Top 24, which included El Cajon’s Stephany Negrete who was cut, were divided into two groups of 12, one group performed this week, the second dozen will go next week. Following solo performances Wednesday and duets the following night, five contestants were cut Thursday. Using the same format, five more will be eliminated next Thursday bringing the remaining total to 14. Approximately 75,000 tried out initially at sites around the country last summer. Young’s first audition was at the Cow Palace in San Francisco.

Holding a skateboard and admitting “I’m not a girlie-girl” in a taped introduction, Young sang Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself” in a Wednesday performance.

“That was a really strong performance,” Idol judge Harry Connick, Jr. said.

“You had the audience in the palm of your hand,” added fellow judge Jennifer Lopez. “You picked the perfect song.”

Young tried out for the show one other time when she was 17 and a student at Serra High.

“I didn’t make the cattle call (initial audition) then,” she said. “I guess I’ve improved a lot.”

Making it through the cut to the final 14 were La’Porsha Renae, Sonika Vaid, Gianna Isabella, Thomas Stringfellow, MacKenzie Bourg, Jeneve Rose Mitchell and Young.

The five cuts were James VIII, Jordan Sasser, Emily Brooke, Jenna Renae and Negrete.

Stephany Negrete

As Idol winds its way toward an April 7 finale of its 15^th and last season, Stephany Negrete (Granite Hills High) and Avalon Young (Serra High) find themselves three steps along the journey to the title. On Thursday night’s taped show, both were featured as they made it through the second or “Group” portion of Hollywood Week.

“I’ll say one thing, you can really sing,” Idol judge Harry Connick, Jr. commented to Young after her performance on Thursday. The former sandwich shop employee tried out for Idol one other time and didn’t get beyond this round. “But I know this is it,” she said in a phone interview Thursday. “No more Idol after this season but no matter what I’m pursuing music as a career.” She now lives in Tierrasanta.

Avalon Young

Negrete, currently a student at Cuyamaca CC, is also in her second Idol go-round after gaining initial acceptance during an audition at San Francisco’s Cow Palace. “I learned a lot from the first time when I was cut during the Hollywood week. I think I’m a much better singer now,” said the El Cajon resident.

Amid declining ratings, including another dip this week, Idol announced after last season that this year would be its last. The show continues next Wednesday as the countdown to a Top 24 goes on. Idol will be live when the list dwindles to a Top 10 by mid-March.

We are well into our 15th and final season of American Idol. Keep an eye on a pair of singers from San Diego and another from Danville. Just sayin’.

More, much more to come real soon…

There they were, the Idol Top 5 at Humphreys in San Diego Tuesday night.

In order from 1 to 5: Nick Fradiani, Clark Beckham, Jax, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones.

Based on one night, one performance…

Tyanna: Big voice, young, with lots of hard work and polish can see that personality winding up on Broadway some day.

Rayvon: Gospel star one day. You can see it in his eyes.

Jax: Still a teenager. Probably three years ahead of where most performers her age are right now. Has potential. Knows how to connect to an audience. If this were baseball she’d be playing AA and in need of a few more at-bats. But the potential for the big leagues is there.

Clark: Absolute best voice of the bunch, hands down. Christian music is his route to success. Think Michael Buble 15 years ago. Talented, very talented.

Nick: He won not because he had the best voice or the best showmanship or the most talent. But he won cause he had just enough of all three. Oldest, most mature participant on the show. Seems out of place with this group. Needs to be out on his own doing his own thing on this big of a stage. Would do him well to be an Opening Act for a headliner. He’d improve and do so rapidly.

Nick Fradiani performs live in San Diego on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. (BILL PINELLA)

For the 14th time, and the first under a new format, the American Idol summer tour rolled into California Tuesday night for the first of six concert stops in the Golden State.

That new format, showcasing the reality show’s top five finalists instead of a Top 10, went on display at Humphreys outdoor stage.

Clark Beckham smiles at the crowd in San Diego on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. (BILL PINELLA)

The result of the 2-plus hour performance by Idol Season 14 winner Nick Fradiani and his quartet of support from Clark Beckham, Jax (aka Jaclyn Cole Miskanic), Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones was … mixed.

Mixed because if you enjoy covers of recent popular songs, original songs with a twist of autobiographical nuances (“I owe everything to my mother” was a common refrain) by five musicians who may or may not become successful in the music industry, then you will really enjoy this.

Mixed because while there was sporadic energy the show had a lot of stop ‘n go to it each artist doing his/her best to push it all forward. But if there ever was a time when Idol missed the boat by not allowing a Top 10 to tour this was it. Among others, Quentin Alexander and Qaasim Middleton, both of whom who finished in the Top 10 this past season, could have/would have pushed this show into the realm of one of the best Idol summer tours ever with their showmanship. But they weren’t here and apparently they were back home awaiting another big break in an industry incredibly difficult to break into.

To the Idol executives’ credit, they undoubtedly had no idea Alexander and Middleton would be so gifted and so missed when the decision to go with a Top 5 was made.

Jax performs live in San Diego on Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015. (BILL PINELLA)

And to their credit, the Idol Five, brought a standard tour ingredient – despite what you might have heard on the show, all five can sing better than that. Maybe it’s the live show, maybe the backup band, or maybe the simple fact that they sing songs longer than 90 seconds. But all five are good. How good? Time, talent, work ethic and a lot of luck will answer that question.

The crowd of approximately 1,000 in the 1,400-seat venue roared its approval all the way to the end of the no-intermission performance and at least for this one night that’s all the Idols needed to hear. Then it was back on the bus for a concert in Los Angeles on Thursday night as the 37-city cross-country tour starts to wind down.

This Saturday, the tour is coming to Santa Rosa’s Wells Fargo Center.

AMERICAN IDOL LIVE
Cast: Top 5 Idol Season 14 finishers: Nick Fradiani, Clark Beckham, Jax, Rayvon Owens and Tyanna Jones
When: 8 p.m., Aug. 22
Where: Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa
Tickets: $63
Phone: 707-546-3600
Online: wellsfargocenterarts.org

After 14 seasons, thousands of contestants, astronomical television ratings and millions of dollars in a lot of wallets, American Idol is about to call it a day and Nick Fradiani and Jax are along for the long last (or next to last) ride on the American Idol Live summer tour bus.

“It wasn’t going to last forever, nothing ever does,” said Fradiani, the winner of the recently completed Season 14. “It changed pop culture. It’s been a huge addition to pop culture in this country for more than the last decade.

“It just had to end sometime. It will go down as one of the greatest shows in TV history. Fourteen seasons is a long, long time,” said Jax (i.e. Jaclyn Cole Miskanic), the third place finisher this season and the highest placing female contestant on the show that announced its closure on FOX will come next spring.

Fradiani, 28 and the seventh male winner in the show’s last eight seasons, and Jax, a 19-year-old from East Brunswick, N.J., were talking from a tour bus recently somewhere between Bethlehem, Pa. and Worcester, Mass. That same bus will roll into Santa Rosa this month for the 31st stop on the 37-city cross-country tour. It hasn’t been announced yet if there will be a tour next summer. Only difference this time is that there will be more empty seats on the bus.

For the first time, the Idol front office staff decided to whittle the performers, for 13 seasons it was a staple of the Top 10, down to five. That changed everything on a Summer Tour that had gotten to the point where some shows had been cancelled in recent years.

And it wasn’t like Fradiani or Jax were throwing their fellow Nos. 6-10 finishers under the bus, but….

“Sure, I felt bad that they didn’t get to go on tour with us,” Jax said, “but I think with just five it is working out very well. We get to perform more than they did in the past and tell our individual stories so the fans really get to know us.”

The tour had reached a low-point last summer when producers even used recorded music instead of a live band, presumably to cut expenses.

“That makes a huge difference,” Fradiani said. “I do five solo songs and it wouldn’t be nearly as good without the terrific band we have. I mean I loved everyone in the Top 10 but I think with just five of us it is working very well.”

Performing along with Fradiani (Guilford, Conn.) and Jax are Clark Beckham, Rayvon Owen and Tyanna Jones.

“I’m really excited to see more of California,” Fradiani said. “We were in L.A. a long time but we never got to explore other parts of the state. I had only been out there once prior to Idol and that was when I tried out for America’s Got Talent.”

American Idol, which returns in January 2016 for the final time, held the No. 1 ratings slot from 2003-’11. During Season 5 the show averaged 39.5 million viewers and held onto an average of 30 million for a season until recent years when ratings dipped and expenses increased. For example, host Ryan Seacrest’s salary jumped from $5 million annually to a $15 million deal a season for the past three years.

As the next-to-last winner, will Fradiani be included anywhere along the way during the finale season?

“I don’t know,” he said, “but I sure hope so. I’m certain they will have a lot of surprises. I even heard that Simon Cowell might come back as a guest judge one week.”

And would he have enjoyed being critiqued by the acerbic Cowell?

“I would have loved it,” he said.

AMERICAN IDOL LIVE
Cast: Top 5 Idol Season 14 finishers: Nick Fradiani, Clark Beckham, Jax, Rayvon Owens and Tyanna Jones
When: 8 p.m., Aug. 22
Where: Wells Fargo Center for the Arts, 50 Mark West Springs Road, Santa Rosa
Tickets: $63
Phone: 707-546-3600
Online: wellsfargocenterarts.org

As ratings continuing on a downward spiral and with 14 seasons down and one to go, 29-year old Nick Fradiani, from Guilford, Conn. was announced as the winner of American Idol XIV Wednesday night at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

Fradiani outdistanced Clark Beckham, 22, from White House, Tenn., in the season finale. Rating numbers were not available Wednesday, but a 1.2 rating of Tuesday’s first of two shows this week, was the show’s lowest ever as less than 6 million viewers tuned in. In the show, third-place finisher Jax, from East Brunswick, N.J., was eliminated at the show’s opening before the two finalists performed.

Two weeks ago it was announced that next season, the show’s 15th, would be its finale. On-line auditions are already underway, a bus stop tour (venue to be determined) audition in San Diego will be held on June 22 and the closest regular audition site will be in San Francisco at a date and site to be determined later.

The American Idol Summer Tour, although reduced from 10 to the Top 5 contestants will continue with 37 stops around the country starting July 7 in Clearwater, Fla.  This season’s Top 5 – Clark Beckham, Jax, Nick Fradiani, Rayvon Owen, and Tyanna Jones – will perform at the Wells Fargo Center Aug. 22.

Tyanna Jones exit interview

Moderator: First question will come from the line of Jamie Ruby of SciFi Vision. Please go ahead.

Jamie: Hi, Tyanna. Thanks for talking to us today.

Tyanna: No problem. Thank you for having me.

Jamie: So, what’s the one best piece of advice that one of the judges gave you that you’ll take with you?

Tyanna: I would have to say during Hollywood week when JLo told me that if I just keep being Tyanna and keep going on the stage and doing what I love to do, that I’ll be okay.

Jamie: Okay, great. And then, what do you see your album looking like?

Tyanna: I think I’ve mentioned this a couple of times that I’m not the type of artist that puts myself in a box. Whatever I can sing or whatever I can do to connect with the audience at that moment, I’ll do it. I’ll sing R&B, soul, pop, anything that connects with the audience.

Jamie Okay, great. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Tyanna No problem.

Moderator We’ll go next to the line of MJ Santilli of mjsbigblog. Please go ahead.

MJ Hi, Tyanna. How are you?

Tyanna Hi, I’m good. How are you?

MJ I was wondering, what was the other song you were prepared to sing last night?

Tyanna Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus, Take the Wheel”.

MJ Okay. I was wondering, the first time you were in the bottom two, were you surprised to be eliminated?

Tyanna I can’t

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, because I don’t think that

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, you go home, you know, make it through, so as everybody who’s there has such great talent, and just such an individuality about themselves, and we all

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, so—

MJ What was running through your mind when you prepared to sing your sing-out song? Did you know ahead of time that if you were eliminated, you would have to sing a song anyway?

Tyanna Well, we already know that we get a chance to sing a goodbye song from here on out, so we know that we get to sing a song anyway. I think being in that chair and waiting for it to turn green is probably the most nerve-wracking part about the whole thing. But then, going up on stage is just the easiest part for me.

MJ So, once you hit the stage, you felt okay?

Tyanna Yes, I was comfortable, and I was just ready to sing my song.

MJ Okay, thank you.

Moderator Thank you. We’ll go next to the line of Beth Kwiatkowski with Reality TV World.

Beth Hi, Tyanna. How are you?

Tyanna Hi, I’m good. How are you?

Beth Good. So, I know you just said you were on stage and ready to sing your song, but obviously after they showed that little montage of your moments throughout the season, you got very emotional. I mean, how tough was it to get through that song? It wasn’t even a ballad where getting emotional would help you during it. You know what I mean?

Tyanna Right. I think the reason why I started to break down was because I was watching how far I had come, and I realized that—it finally hit me. It takes a while to hit you, how far you actually come in the competition and how much you’ve grown, and just seeing the clips from Hollywood week and from my first audition and just how much I moved on and everything from those places, it really showed me how much that I’ve grown. Even though people have been constantly telling me that, I saw it myself when they showed me that montage. And I realized also that all of the things that I was going to leave behind, the people that I’ve grown to love and everything, so, yes.

Beth Okay, and I want to get your thoughts on Clark’s little confrontation with you there with your mentor, Scott Borchetta. It seemed like Clark was getting a little frustrated that people were sort of trying to change him, but it seemed like Scott just kind of wanted to make him more capable of going mainstream. Like, how did you view that whole thing?

Tyanna I think that, knowing Clark personally, I know what he meant by what he said, because a lot of the time, well, all the time being on a show like this, a lot of people want to tell you what they think you should do with the song or how they think you should take on the song. And really, in the end, it’s about how you feel, and how you feel like if you do go home next week, you want to leave it all out on the stage and make sure that you go home satisfied with yourself.

So, I completely understand where he was coming from, and I don’t think that he meant it in a way to offend anybody when he said that.

Beth Okay, thank you, Tyanna.

Tyanna No problem.

Moderator We’ll go next to the line of Katie Duarte of YES TV.

Katie Hi, Tyanna. We just want to say congratulations on your American Idol journey. We’ve loved watching you sing and perform each week. We were wondering how your upbringing in the church has shaped your perspective or played a role in your American Idol competition journey.

Tyanna Oh, excuse me, I’m sorry. It’s definitely had an impact on my faith in there, because at times it can get really hard, and you’ll start to struggle with yourself and start thinking maybe this isn’t for me, maybe I won’t win, maybe I will win. And then times you feel really down because you didn’t like your performance of that week, so just me being brought up in the church has really had an impact on my life in general, not just with the show. My faith and my beliefs have just helped me through a lot of this.

Katie Wonderful. Thank you. And I have one more question, if that’s okay. You picked a number of songs this season that were originally sung by strong female vocalists or powerhouses. Who would you say one of your main musical influences is?

Tyanna One of my main influences is Beyonce.

Katie Okay, awesome. Thank you so much.

Tyanna You’re welcome.

Moderator We’ll go next to the line of Sarah Batcheller of CupidsPulse.com.

Sarah Good day. So great to speak with you.

Tyanna Oh, thank you so much.

Sarah [Indiscernible] this question. [Indiscernible] Beyonce’s “Run the World” as your sendoff. A little curious, what inspired that song choice?

Tyanna I’m sorry, can you repeat yourself? You’re breaking up.

Sarah So, since last week, you chose Beyonce’s “Run the World” as your sendoff. I’m just curious as to what inspired that song choice.

Tyanna You’re curious as to why it was my song choice?

Sarah Yes, who inspired it. Who inspired it as well?

Tyanna Okay, I have wanted to do that song for so long on the show. I’ve had it on my list a couple of times, and every time it got pushed to the side because I ended up doing something else. So, I was just really happy I got to do it, and when I did it, I knew that I had to make sure that it was one of the best things that I’ve done on the show because of Beyonce and how iconic that performance is. Every time she does it, it’s just amazing, so I had to make sure that I put my all into it.

Moderator Let’s go on to the next question. This is Joy Parris with Rich Girl Production.

Joy Hi, Tyanna. Congratulations on coming so far.

Tyanna Thank you so much.

Joy My question to you is, knowingly or not, you’ve become a role model to a lot of young people out there, so how do you see yourself as a role model? And what is the message you would have wanted to impart to all your fans out there?

Tyanna I think that me being so young and me pursuing my dreams, and a lot of young people, people that are my age and even younger, want to be where I am right now, and that’s why I’m so thankful. But they want to be in this position, and they have dreams to be in this position, whether it’s with American Idol or not. And just seeing someone their age actually get to do it and make it through the tour and be successful, even though most people didn’t believe that she could or believe her or whatever, a lot of teenagers go through that, too. So, I think that’s

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.

Joy Great. Well, thank you so much, and continue all the good work. Thank you.

Moderator (Operator instructions.) We’ll go to the line of Michele Angermiller with Billboard magazine.

Michele Hello, Tyanna.

Tyanna Hi.

Michele Yes, Tyanna, I’m going to miss you. I’m going to miss your mom. I’ve been like the biggest fan of watching your mom every week.

Tyanna Thank you.

Michele Is she coming with you on tour, maybe?

Tyanna I believe she is, for either the whole time or most of the time.

Michele What was it like being so young in the competition? Did you get a lot of advice from some of the older contestants, or did any of the Idols kind of take you under their wing, kind of as a little sister kind of thing?

Tyanna Of course. All of us actually took each other under our wings, and we just all gave each other advice to helped each other out with our songs and arrangements and things like that. And those like myself, I don’t play instruments, so someone like Clark or Jax, they play instruments, and we kind of all just get together and sing sometimes and just jam out sometimes, so—

Michele What did you learn in Nashville? I think that going to the Big Machine’s offices is probably one of the coolest things that you guys got to do.

Tyanna Yes. It was a lot of fun. I was happy that

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to the place where we could possibly have been for the next year of our lives and working with him, so he wanted to show us where we would be and the people that we would work with, and everything.

Michele

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think you got the studio, just going in there and just getting the feel for things, that’s a big thing for someone your age.

Tyanna Yes, it really was. I’m used to working—the studio here on American Idol was just a smaller studio, but his had all of these buttons and knobs and things, and it was just a huge studio with instruments in it. It was really cool.

Michele

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Jax found out she was singing with Steven. Did you find out anything about who you might be singing with?

Tyanna No, I haven’t. They haven’t told me anything yet.

Michele We can’t wait

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. Good luck to you, Tyanna.

Moderator We’ll go next to the line of Jen Johnson with RealityWanted.

Jen Johnson Hi.

Tyanna Jones Hi.

Jen Hi. So I was just wondering, so when you were saying that to Rayvon in the bottom two, did you think you were safe, or do you think that he is just not going home.

Tyanna Did I think he was safe, or did I think I was safe?

Jen You. You, sorry.

Tyanna Oh, I kind of already had the feeling that I wasn’t going to make it through. But of course, you still have a side of you that hopes that you do make it through because you don’t want it to end, but I’m just so proud of him, and I’m so happy for him, because he fought his way through the Twitter save so many times, and he’s still in it, and he’s going really, really strong with it, too. So, I’m proud of him.

Jen Yes, and why did you think that you wouldn’t be going through? What did you do, or what did you think that made you think that?

Tyanna No, it wasn’t that I was not satisfied or anything with my performances last week, but it was just a feeling that—it was kind of a feeling of me actually being satisfied with the performances, but knowing, because there’s so much great talent and that I’m still young and I don’t have as much experience and things like that, it was me being satisfied with whatever the outcome would have been.

Jen Yes, well at least you made the top five, so that’s awesome you get to go on tour for that.

Tyanna Right. Thank you.

Moderator We have a followup from the line of Beth Kwiatkowski from Reality TV World.

Beth Hi, Tyanna.

Tyanna Hi.

Beth You started the show so strong as a frontrunner, and you’ve killed your performances as of recently, but you had like a little bit of a rough patch in the middle when the judges kept kind of looking for something different from you. I guess, could you talk about that a little bit? Were you just sort of trying to find yourself, or maybe you were finding it a little bit difficult to deal with all the stress and criticism the competition brings?

Tyanna I don’t know. I guess you could say that was what the problem was. All of the stress that comes with the competition and all the things, everybody in your ear wanting you to stuff with certain things and you not really having time for yourself to just kind of regroup yourself, things like you would like to do, is kind of more stressful. It gets frustrating at times, but this is what I signed up for, so I still have to go out there and try my best and do my best at this stage. So, I guess my rough patch was just from all of that, all of the feelings that I was feeling at the time.

Beth Okay, and at this point, who are you rooting for to win? Are you leaning towards one person in particular maybe having more of a shot to win the whole thing?

Tyanna I can’t really say because everybody is just so good. Everybody’s just really deserving of the positions that they’re in, and whoever ends out on top deserves it as much as everybody else.

Beth Okay, and were you looking forward to maybe singing with anyone in particular in the finale? Based upon what you’re saying, maybe you were hoping Beyonce or somebody?

Tyanna Yes, I would like to sing with either Beyonce, Sia, Rhianna, Janelle Monáe,

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, just somebody that could be up there and kill a song with and just perform and do well.

Beth Awesome. Thanks, Tyanna.

Tyanna Thank you.

Moderator Okay, we have a followup from the line of Katie Duarte of YES TV.

Katie Hi, Tyanna.

Tyanna Hi.

Katie We’ve had the privilege of learning more and more about you each week, but what are three things or fun facts that your fans don’t know about you?

Tyanna I actually kind of tell them everything, but I don’t actually know. I’m Jewish. I guess they don’t know that. And I don’t

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makeup, and my favorite food is pizza.

Katie So is ours. Alright, thank you so much.

Moderator (Operator instructions.) We’ll go back to the line of MJ Santilli of mjsbigblog.

MJ Hi again. So, you’re going on tour, Tyanna, and I was wondering if you have in your—you’ve thought of a dream tour list, something maybe a few songs that you would love to sing on tour.

Tyanna What songs would I like to sing on tour? I’m sorry, is that what you—

MJ Yes.

Tyanna I really want to do a song by Sia on the tour for multiple

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and such, and maybe writer and artist, and I’m just

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.

MJ What did you learn from Scott Borchetta?

Tyanna I think the biggest thing that I learned from him, from Scott, was that as a music producer, he really wants to work with someone who knows who they are as an artist or who they want to be as an artist and is really working towards that. So, he really wants you to have an understanding so that he can have an understanding and be able to work with you.

MJ

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competition longer, would we have heard a song from you?

Tyanna I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Can you repeat yourself? I’m so sorry.

MJ Yes. If you had stayed in the competition longer, would you have sung a Sia song?

Tyanna Oh yes, I was actually planning to do one next week. I was going to do Titanium, but on the tour, I’m definitely going to do one of her songs.

MJ Okay. Thank you. Good luck.

Tyanna No problem.

Moderator We’ll go next to the line of David Crumpler with The Florida Times-Union. Please go ahead.

David Hi, Tyanna. How are you doing?

Tyanna Hi.

David Listen, it’s good to talk to you, and I wanted to ask you this: I know the experience has meant a lot of hard work, but what’s been the most fun part of the American Idol journey for you so far?

Tyanna I think the best part about it was two things, actually. Of course, performing, performing was the overall best part. It just was something that I was able to do and something that, even personal feelings, and I was feeling down, I could always count on getting on stage and performing and just being in love with it. And also, just meeting so many wonderful people along the way, like the contestants and the people who work on the set, so kind and amazing, and I couldn’t have asked for

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.

David Absolutely, absolutely. So, will you be coming back to Jacksonville for a little bit before you start preparing for the tour?

Tyanna Yes, I come back Saturday, I believe. And then, I only stay for Saturday and Sunday, and then I come right back out here Monday to prepare for the finale. Short trip, but it’s something.

David Well, there’s a lot of people looking forward to you coming back. Okay, great, thank you.

Tyanna Thank you.

Moderator We have a followup from the line of Michele Angermiller with Billboard magazine.

Michele Ever done any acting? Do you have any plans to maybe try doing anything like that?

Tyanna Oh, of course. I actually really, really want to be on that

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. I just love that show so much, and

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would be a dream come true.

Michele It cut out.

Tyanna I’m sorry, can you hear me now?

Michele Yes, yes, it cut out. What show did you want to be on?

Tyanna Oh, I said I really love the show Empire, and to work with all of that cast would be such a dream come true for me.

Michele [Audio disruption] that scene for Cookie?

Tyanna I love her. I love Tiraji. She’s amazing.

Michele Did you get to talk to the guys when they were on the show?

Tyanna No, we didn’t get a chance to talk to them, but it was great seeing them perform, though.

Michele Oh, that must have been awesome. But, okay, thank you, Tyanna.

Tyanna No problem.

Moderator And we have a question from the line of Bill Pinella with San Diego Union Tribune.

Bill Hi, I had a couple of questions about the summer tour. One, have you ever gone to see a summer tour yourself?

Tyanna No, I never have seen American Idol on tour, any of the tours, but I’m glad that I actually get to be a part of them, because I know many of the people that I look up to now were a part of those tours. And now I’m going to be one of those people that people look up to.

Bill Okay, and secondly, knowing that the cut is from ten down to five, do you think that was a good thing in the fact that you’ll get to showcase your talents more?

Tyanna Yes, I think that the whole idea was because there’s only five now, we have a longer period of time on the tour to do a set. So, it should be a lot of fun and a better way to show ourselves as artists.

Molly Okay. Thank you, everybody. With that, we’re going to wrap up this conference call for today. Thank you so much for joining us. As a reminder, American Idol airs Wednesday nights on FOX, and all photos can be found on foxflash.com.

At this point, I’m going to turn it back over to Tyanna for a quick, final remark, and then we’ll get some additional information and playback instructions from our moderator. Tyanna, go ahead.

Tyanna Okay, I just wanted to say thank you, guys, so much for this opportunity in letting me talk to all of you. This is actually way more fun than I thought it was going to be. But thank you for having me. Thank you for wanting to listen to what I have to

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. Thank you, guys, so much.