Keith Urban Performing on Idol - H 2014
FOXWith just seven weeks before the American Idol season finale, judge Keith Urban still doesn’t see a clear winner.
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“I don’t have a personal front-runner because we’ve already seen, for me, the surprise of who ends up in the bottom three next week, and it’s not really been consistent. What I am liking about this season is America’s responding to the performances from night to night,” he told reporters in a teleconference last week, according to Billboard.com.
“It doesn’t seem like there is an intense fan club for any particular artist where those will override the performance, and I like that. I think that’s what makes the show interesting for me from week to week right now, is that anybody can be the front-runner. It’s going to be interesting to see who’s in the top three, let alone one or two. I really don’t know who that will be.”
Urban said he is pleased with the diversity of this year’s group, pointing to Southern contestants C.J. Harris and Jess Meuse as singers who may be geographically similar, but musically different when it comes to the country genre.
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“Country has always been fairly well-represented — I think it might be a little more prominent now, I don’t know if that’s because I’m there or what it is,” he added. “We’ve got diversity in the country area this year because you’ve got somebody like C.J. or Jessica who can fit into that genre. I like the diversity that we’ve got.
“I also think that Idol has always played very, very well in those places — the Midwest and the sort of rural states that have huge country audiences — so I am really grateful to be on the panel because of that,” he continued. “Hopefully we can discover some exceptional country talent this year too.”
American Idol continues Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST on Fox.
Twitter: @MicheleAmabile, @Idol_Worship
