Idol 87 - Ace Young

87. Ace Young

Season 5, 7th Place

Ha. Finally, it's Ace Young!

Well, when I first saw Ace's audition, I wasn't overly impressed. Like Simon, he only would've gotten a small yes from me as well.

But for some weird reason, I slowly started to change my tune on Ace, and going into the Top 24 he was probably one of the people I was sort of looking forward to. I thought he had a decent and marketable pop voice, so I wanted him to do well. A little boyband sounding? Sure. But I love me some good boy bands, and I'm not afraid to admit it. Haha.

He had an interesting sound to his voice, he was a good looking dude, the girls loved him. He seemed like a great person to rake in the money. Heck, I even thought he was a sure Top 3 finisher.

Unfortunately, it didn't take long for things to unwind with Ace. I mean, it seems that in most of the season's early frontrunners for some weird reason starts, well.. sucking. Haha. And although, I don't think he sucked as much as most people think, it was clear that Ace wasn't really able to deliver us a show stopper by any means. His performances ranged from "kinda rough" to "just okay" and he was losing stock by the minute.

His Top 24 performance of George Michael's Father Figure was the only time I was really impressed with him. The next week, he gave a somewhat off-key, nasally performance of If You're Not the One, and that was where the string of bad performances started. Butterflies was good at the beginning - and probaly towards the end - but I cringed at his falsetto in the middle of the song.

Now, throughout the Finals, he continued the streak of awful performances - maybe with That's All and Tonight I Wanna Cry as exceptions. The nasal tone in his voice and falsetto really got out of control most of the time. We Will Rock You, in particular, goes down as one of the Top 20 biggest trainwrecks in American Idol history, I think. Haha. He messed up a lot of words, his tone was terrible, and his stomping around the stage was hilarious to watch. Do I Do and Drops of Jupiter weren't much better. He definitely should have left earlier than he did.

If he had improved upon his first performance and kept up to that standard throughout the whole competition, I wouldn't mind seeing him as part of that season's Top 5. Sadly, he was unable to deliver. 

Favorite Performance(s): Nothing really blew me away, but I'd definitely say Father Figure was arguably his best. Nothing stellar, but his voice was pretty pleasant. The song was.. a tad creepy, but has a cool vibe that fit him and his tone well. It was good.

Father Figure

#86 Tiny girl with big voice