American Idol 2025 Top 24: Amanda Barise Takes a Risk and is “Defying Gravity” in Hawaii
American Idol Season 23 wrapped up its Hawaii round on Monday night with the final 12 singers including powerhouse New York native, Amanda Barise who took a few risks with her song choice, “Defying Gravity” from the musical Wicked. (Read Our Recap)
Grammy award-winning singer Josh Groban and artist in-residence, Jelly Roll mentored Amanda as she presented a theater song–not always popular on competition shows. However, she gave it a twist, performing it on the Disney’s Aulani Resort stage in Ko’olina with a funky arrangement.
Josh Groban was one of Amanda’s first celebrity crushes
Amanda shared a couple of times during rehearsal that Josh was one of her first celebrity crushes. He mentioned that he had come across Amanda through his Instagram page a couple of years ago. The singer explained that she picked “Defying Gravity” because she felt “it embodies my time on the show” as her confidence has grown a lot throughout her Idol journey. Josh called Amanda a “vocal technician” while Jelly advised her to “open up.”
The band gave the song an almost ‘80s sound. Amanda’s voice was soulful, and her delivery is interesting as she played around with the rhythm, coming in and off the beat of the song. She slowed it down in the latter half, hitting a few big growly notes. She’s full of vocal tricks, but the performance is going to be polarizing as it’s a beloved song that she deconstructed. It’s one of those performances that isn’t necessarily my cup of tea, but I can come to appreciate it. At some point, she is likely going to need to be more subtle to win more people over.
“You were so in the pocket”
The judges stood and the crowd applauded. Host Ryan Seacrest joked, “Well, thanks for watching. Good night!” Lionel Richie told her, “you were so in the pocket” adding that she was “one unit” with the band. “I would pay money to go see you, I would buy your album, I would stream the crap out of your song,” said Carrie Underwood. She considers Amanda a star in the making. Luke Bryan called Amanda’s performance the “bookend” to the “best Hawaii experience” he and Lionel have had so far.
Amanda was one singer who stood out amongst the crowd, but there were a few others who did a really good job as well. The penultimate performance from Thunderstorm Artis of “Is This Love?” felt like it was coming from a full-on artist. Drew Ryn continued to wow with soaring but tender vocals on “I’m With You.” The other two singers that caught my attention were Kyana Fanene who had an emotional performance with “I Am” and Grayson Torrence’s storytelling performance of “Ceilings.” Both are underdogs and might be in danger due to lack of screentime. Compared to Sunday night, Monday night’s show is much tougher to predict who will land in the bottom two when the Top 20 is revealed on Sunday (April 20).
