‘American Idol': Noah Thompson and Olivia Faye Advance With Last-Minute Changes to Their Duet [Watch]
American Idol returned on Sunday (April 3) with night two of Hollywood Week. Hoping to whittle down the competition, judges paired up the remaining artists for the grueling “Duets Challenge.”
Midway through the two-hour show, Season 20 contestants Noah Thompson and Olivia Faye were put to the test of singing together onstage. Already, performing as part of a duet seemed like a daunting task, but it wasn’t the only trouble they faced going into the round. The Kentucky natives also had problems selecting the right song to sing in front of the judges.
Initially, Thompson and Faye went with the Bill Withers classic “Lean on Me.” However, in rehearsals, their vocal and music coaches were unenthused by their song choice and offered the suggestion to go back to the drawing board to select a country tune.
Scanning over the list of songs, Thompson and Faye admitted they were both unfamiliar with Maren Morris’ “The Bones,” and with barely any time left to rehearse, they chose to perform Noah Cyrus’ “July.”
After putting in some hours of practice, Thompson, who planned to play his guitar, decided to sing without his instrument.
“Tonight, we decided that we’re not going to be playing any instruments in this round because I’m not the best guitarist,” the singer and proud father said. “My son’s name is Walker. He’s definitely the best thing that’s ever happened to me now. He’s my push in all of this. He is all I think about right before I walk up there, and everybody back home.”
“We’re doing this for Walker and Kentucky. We’re going to make them proud,” Faye chimed in before the two singers hit the stage.
Seated on separate stools for their performance, both Thompson and Faye offered up an emotional take on the Cyrus ballad. Midway through their performance, however, Thompson came in too early, showing judges that he wasn’t quite prepared to deliver the tune without any mistakes.
Despite the hiccup, both singers impressed judges enough to move on to the next phase of the competition.
“Noah, man, it was not your best performance,” Luke Bryan shared. “From there, the dominos kind of fell to start affecting both of you. But, these duet rounds force you to dig in and fight. And only the strong survive for both of y’all, but it’s a fight that you’re still in. You’re going through to the next round.”
American Idol airs every Sunday and Monday on ABC.
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