The new “Duets” which aired Thursday, May 24th was just in time! With American Idol finishing their 11th season, “Duets could not have picked a better week to debut their first show of the season. I love the fact that “Duets” is so very different from Idol, The Voice and X Factor. I also love the idea of pairing up artists who have made their way in the music industry with contestants who have the vocals that compliment each artist.
Kelly Clarkson, John Legend, Robin Thicke and Jennifer Nettles have traveled the US to find 2 singers each as their duet partners. “The fact that I get to go out and find 2 people I believe in, sing with them every week and help them accompish their dream is an amazing thing I can’t wait to be a part of” said Clarkson in a press release statement from ABC. Each artist judges one another’s performances with their contestants.
The show kicked off with Nettles’s singing “Tonight” with contestant J Rome. Next in line was John Legend singing “Ordinary People” with contestant Johnny Gray. The third performance of the evening was with Robin Thicke and contestant Olivia Chisholm singing “Lost Without You” and last but not least of the first round of performances was Kelly Clarkson singing “Breaking Your Own Heart” with contestant Jason Farol. During the 2nd half of the show John Legend sang “Tonight (Best You Ever Had)” with contestant Bridget Carrington. Jennifer’s second performance was with contestant John Glosson singing “Stay”. Robin performed “Magic” with contestant Alexis Foster. And finally the last performance of the evening was Kelly and Jordan Meredith singing “What Doesn’t Kill You (Stronger)”
Of all the great performances of the evening I felt that Kelly and Jordan’s duet was one of the strongest on the show. Jordan who is one of Clarkson’s biggest fans has a real uniqueness in her voice and given her talent she has what it takes to be a great artist. I was however very surprised at the results of the evening given the amazing performance by these two and it appears that Kelly was even more surprised. Jordan came in 7th out of 8 performances total.
The following is the final scoreboard of this evenings show:
Position #1 – J Rome
Position #2 – Johnny Gray
Position #3 – Alexis Foster
Position #4 – John Glosson
Position #5 – Olivia Chisholm
Position #6 – Bridget Carrington
Position #7 – Jordan Meredith
Position #8 – Jason Farol
The show is said to air for a total of nine weeks and the winner gets a recording contract with Hollywood Records.