All American Idol contestants dream of winning the competition, but there can only be only one winner each season. Every other contestant is voted off, or as Ryan Seacrest might more gently put it, sees their Idol journey come to an end.
With American Idol‘s Season 22 finale set for Sunday May 19, we decided to revisit the performances that got some well-known Idol contestants voted off the show. All are contestants that finished in the top 10 for their season, but did not advance so far in the competition that they performed multiple songs on their final night on the show. (If a contestant performs two or three songs, you can’t say with certainty which performance it was that didn’t find favor with audiences.)
Some of these contestants may have just run out of steam in the competition and would have been voted off even with a different song selection or a different performance approach. But, being human, many have probably wondered over the years if only they’d done something differently, would they have made it to the following week?
Several of these contestants went on to do just fine, thank you. Jennifer Hudson is an EGOT winnter, something no Idol champion can claim. Constantine Maroulis received a 2009 Tony nomination for best actor in a musical for Rock of Ages. Kellie Pickler has received two nominations at both the Country Music Awards and the Academy of Country Music Awards.
Here are the final performances by these 11 contestants, the ones that brought their dreams of becoming the next American Idol to an abrupt end.
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Jennifer Hudson
Season 3, 7th Place
Date voted off: April 21, 2004
Run-ending performance: Barry Manilow’s “Weekend in New England”
Notes: Hudson sang this song for Barry Manilow week, during which Manilow was mentor and guest judge. Voters didn’t respond to her performance of his 1977 ballad hit, which was written by Randy Edelman. The likely problem: The transition to the big, powerful finish was too abrupt in this truncated version of the song. The super-tight edit didn’t give Hudson enough runway to build. Manilow’s version reached the top 10 on the Hot 100 in February 1977.
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Katie Stevens
Season 9, tied for 8th place
Date voted off: April 13, 2010
Run-ending performance: Elvis Presley’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do”
Notes: Stevens sang this song for Elvis Presley week, during which former Idol runner-up Adam Lambert was guest mentor. Presley had performed this 1959 Jimmy Reed song on his legendary ’68 Comeback Special. The likely problem for Stevens: The song wasn’t a Hot 100 hit and as such probably wasn’t as familiar to the Idol audience as other Presley songs. Stevens was voted off alongside Andrew Garcia, who performed Presley’s monster hit “Hound Dog.”
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Kellie Pickler
Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/WireImage for Fox Television Network Season 5, 6th Place
Date voted off: April 26, 2006
Run-ending Performance: The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody”
Notes: The theme this week was love songs. Andrea Bocelli and David Foster were guest mentors. This classic song by Alex North and Hy Zaret dates to 1955, when it was written for a little-remembered film called Unchained (receiving an Oscar nod for best original song). The Righteous Brothers’ 1965 version, memorably featured in the 1990 film Ghost, is considered definitive. Pickler told Bocelli and Foster in her workshopping session that she was influenced by LeAnn Rimes’ version, the title track of her 1997 album Unchained Melody: The Early Years.
Foster made an interesting comment in working up the song with Pickler: “It’s such a great song, but if it’s sung without passion, it can be one of the most boring songs on the planet.” The judges, Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell, were harsh in their evaluations, which probably influenced the audience vote. Cowell’s comment: “I thought it was like the never-ending song, to be honest with you. It was like it was never going to finish. It was so monotonous and so bland. There was no heart, no warmth from your vocal at all.” Cowell’s role on the show was to tell the unvarnished truth. Even so, that was brutal.
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Daniel Seavey
Season 14, 9th place
Date voted off: April 2, 2015
Run-ending performance: Daryl Hall & John Oates’ “You Make My Dreams”
Notes: Hall & Oates’ smash, a top five hit on the Hot 100 in 1981, fit right into the week’s theme – Music From the ’80s. The bouncy toe-tapper was an ideal song choice for Seavey, who was 15 at the time and cute as a button.
Sara Allen, who inspired Hall & Oates’ 1976 hit “Sara Smile,” co-wrote “You Make My Dreams” with the duo. Boy George was guest mentor for Music From the ’80s week. Harry Connick Jr., a judge that season, wore a “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” T-shirt in homage to Culture Club. Connick also gave Seavey some good advice: “Take the choreography and throw it away. Have fun. The little moves are so choreographed and planned. Just go out and have a good time.”
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Anoop Desai
Season 8, tied for 6th place
Date voted off: April 21, 2009
Run-ending performance: Donna Summer’s “Dim All the Lights”
Notes: Desai chose this 1979 song for Disco Week. The song, which like many of Summer’s disco hits started out as a ballad, was the third smash from her Bad Girls album. It was Summer’s biggest hit that she wrote all by herself.
As a vocalist, Summer was a very hard act to follow. She always made it look easy, but she had power to burn. Desai was no match for such a powerful singer. Simon Cowell was merciless, as was his wont: “That was mediocre at best … It was a horrible version of that song. In my opinion, that was genuinely your worst performance by a mile.” The audience followed his cue. Desai was voted off alongside Lil Rounds, who had performed Chaka Khan’s smash “I’m Every Woman.”
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Mandisa
Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/WireImage Season 5, 9th place
Date voted off: April 5, 2006
Run-ending performance: Shania Twain’s “Any Man of Mine”
Notes: Mandisa was sent home after performing Twain’s 1995 breakthrough hit during Country Music week. Twain and Mutt Lange co-wrote the song, which was her first hit on the Hot 100. Kenny Rogers was guest mentor, and offered this quip: “She has chosen a song with more words in it than every song put together that I’ve ever recorded.”
You would think the idea of a Black, R&B-leaning singer performing a country hit would be an interesting twist that would have voter appeal, but 18 years ago country was a less welcoming place than it is today. Randy Jackson’s comment: “Weird song choice for me.” Simon Cowell’s comment: “I thought the song was horrible, Mandisa, to be honest with you.” When Cowell was booed by the audience, he responded, “Why is it I get booed for being constructive?” A moment later, Ryan Seacrest, to his credit, said “And if you read the dictionary, you’d know what ‘constructive’ means.”
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Bucky Covington
Season 5, 8th place
Date voted off: April 12, 2006
Run-ending performance: Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls”
Notes: Covington sang Queen’s 1978 hit during Queen week, with the group’s Brian May and Roger Taylor sitting in as mentors. The May song, released as the B-side of “Bicycle Race,” was featured on the band’s album Jazz. In Covington’s hands, it sounded more like Pure Prairie League than Queen, something that Paula Abdul picked up on: “You made ‘Fat Bottomed Girls’ a country/rock song.” But Simon Cowell, grumpy as ever, wasn’t impressed: “Overall, I would classify that as quite mediocre.”
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Ace Young
Season 5, 7th Place
Date voted off: April 19, 2006
Run-ending performance: Bobby Darin’s “That’s All”
Notes: Young chose this lovely ballad for Great American Songbook week. The week’s guest mentor was Rod Stewart, who had included the song on his 2002 album It Had to Be You: The Great American Songbook, the first of four albums in his multiplatinum series. Stewart was effusive in his praise: “It was fantastic. You did a better version than I did.” Even Simon Cowell liked Young’s performance: “It wasn’t bad … I thought it was a charming performance.”
“That’s All,” written by Alan Brandt and Bob Haymes, dates to 1952, but Darin’s recording (from his 1959 album of the same name) was the model for Young’s performance. Nat King Cole had the first notable recording of the song in 1953. The versatile Rick Nelson had a Hot 100 hit with the song in 1963. It has also been recorded by such artists as Michael Bublé, Peggy Lee, Frank Sinatra, Mel Tormé and Sarah Vaughan.
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Constantine Maroulis
Image Credit: Ray Mickshaw/WireImage Season 4, 6th place
Date voted off: April 26, 2005
Run-ending performance: Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me”
Notes: Maroulis tackled the band’s signature anthem, a No. 1 hit for four weeks in 2001-02, during Music From the 21st Century Week. Randy Jackson wasn’t impressed: “I felt like I was sitting at the bar at any town in America, not really caring who the singer was. It was mostly high on performing and low on vocals.” Simon Cowell was even more blunt, calling it “a very bad imitation of the original.”
You’ve got to love Maroulis’ sense of humor: He spoofed his disappointing 6th place finish on Idol by naming his future record label 6th Place Records.
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Thia Megia
Season 10, tied for 10th place
Date voted off: March 31, 2011
Run-ending performance: Elton John’s “Daniel”
Notes: Megia performed this 1973 smash during Elton John week. Elton co-wrote the midtempo ballad with his longtime lyricist Bernie Taupin. To have a woman sing the song put a fresh spin on it. The judges mostly liked it: Steven Tyler said, “You sang a great Elton John song well.” Randy Jackson said, “It was a very relaxed side of you” — though he cautioned, “Still, it was once again very safe.” The public voted Megia off alongside Naima Adedapo, who performed Elton’s 1983 hit “I’m Still Standing.”
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Han Hee-jun
Season 11, 9th place
Date voted off: March 29, 2012
Run-ending performance: Donny Hathaway’s “A Song for You”
Notes: Han performed this intensely personal ballad during Personal Idols week. His personal idol, Hathaway, recorded “A Song for You” in 1971. The Leon Russell composition has been memorably recorded by such artists as Carpenters, Ray Charles, Michael Bublé, Andy Williams and The Temptations, so Han had a lot to live up to. Stevie Nicks served as mentor during this week.