Many people in the Weyburn area found themselves watching American Idol in the last couple of weeks, with local-grown talent Brayden King as a contestant in the initial go-round.
His journey to this rather big stage began when producers saw his music videos and contacted him about auditioning for their show.
He did a couple of virtual auditions, then they flew him and his dad to Las Vegas for four days, and he did a successful audition in front of the three celebrity judges, Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan.
Brayden had his golden ticket to go compete in Hollywood Week, and even though they never showed any of his performances, he was good enough to survive the two nights and advance to the top 55 group.
The “Showstoppers” round saw the competitors group cut down to 26, and unfortunately, Brayden was not selected for this group, who will now go to Hawaii to compete.
No matter what, we in Weyburn are proud of Brayden and to see his talent take him this far, to that competition viewed throughout the world. The unfortunate thing is that he’s Canadian, and wasn’t dramatic enough, apparently.
If you watched the shows, and didn’t record it so you could fast-forward through it later, some things became clear about the show.
One, it’s the ones who were all dramatic, or teary, or had the amazing back-stories, that ended up being shown, complete with footage shot in the singer’s home town.
And if you followed the ones who ended up being shown night after night, one might get the idea some of the contestants were pre-selected to go through, even when they very, very clearly showed they didn’t deserve it talent-wise.
Take the pair on duets night who forgot the words, and winged it onstage. Sure, they knew how to sing, but were very poorly prepared to perform in front of a TV audience. But did they get cut, as they deserved? No, they provided drama for the show, so they were shown, while Brayden was not, even though he clearly impressed the judges both times he was on stage.
In the end, you have to judge if the singer has actual talent, or if they’re just there for the drama.
