Four more contestants will be eliminated on “American Idol” on Wednesday, March 11. Nick Fradiani of Guilford will know by the end of the evening if he is in the Top 12 on the TV singing reality show or if he is going home.
Five contestants per gender will be chosen to go through as a result of audience voting, for a total of 10 finalists. The two remaining spots in the Top 12 will be filled by the judges.
All who make the cut Wednesday will return to the show Thursday, March 12. The show is broadcast from 8 to 9 p.m. on Fox.
On March 4, Fradiani, 29, survived the reduction of male contestants from 12 to eight, in a show broadcast live from the Fillmore Detroit Theater. After his name was called, he took the stage and sang “Signed, Sealed, Delivered (I’m Yours)” by Stevie Wonder. All the men and women who made the cut got to sing a classic Motown song. The audience voting that determines this week’s eliminations is based on the Detroit performances.
In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Fradiani said that whoever is chosen on Wednesday night will perform for the audience.The songs they sing will be the first songs they sang at their regional auditions. Fradiani’s was “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel.
“Nobody expected we’d be repeating our songs. Some people are excited for it. Some aren’t,” he said. “I think it’s kind of cool, to put a different spin on what you’re doing to show your growth.”
He said the contestants have not been told yet what form the Thursday performances will take.
In Detroit and in Los Angeles, Fradiani has been roommates with fellow contestant Mark Andrew. He said they have become friends and don’t think about the competition.
“It’s out of our hands and there’s nothing we can do about it. We all hope everybody performs well. We’re not watching each other or anything,” Fradiani said. “It’s like comparing a center to a point guard in basketball.”
Fradiani’s father and uncle were with him in Detroit to cheer him on. No family members will be there Wednesday, he said, but they will on Thursday, if he makes the cut.
“They’re hoping. They booked it. I said ‘If I get cut I hope you guys don’t get mad,'” he said. “It’ll be my mother and sister, my father and aunt, and I think my sister’s boyfriend.”
Other men in the Top 8 are Daniel Seavey of Portland, Ore.; Rayvon Owen of Richmond, Va.; Mark Andrew of Eden Prairie, Minn.; Adam Ezegelian of Wantagh, N.Y.; Clark Beckham of Whitehouse, Tenn.; Qaasim Middleton of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and Quentin Alexander of New Orleans.
The Top 8 women are Loren Lott of San Diego; Adanna Duru of Diamond Bar, Calif.; Maddie Walker of Ankeny, Iowa; Tyanna Jones of Jacksonville, Fla.; Jax of East Brunswick, N.J.; Joey Cook of Woodbridge, Va.; Alexis Gomez of Dayton, Ohio; and Serina-Joi Crow of Columbia, Tenn.
Before gaining solo fame on “American Idol,” Fradiani gained local and national recognition as the front man for Beach Avenue, a band he formed with his friends Ryan Zipp and Nick Abraham, his roommates in West Haven. The band got a publicity boost with a performance last summer on “America’s Got Talent.” But they were eliminated during “Judgment Week.”
