Every year, the American Idol tour rolls through the US bringing cheese, screaming crowds and memories. It is the chance for Idols to meet their fans across the country, play to arena-sized crowds and make a little dough. Every year, there are Idols that surprise us and performances that really hit it out of the park. In celebration of the start of this year’s tour, I thought we should revisit some great Tour Moments throughout the years – starting with Group Numbers.
Now, they do Group Numbers on the show, but those are often under-rehearsed performances during which the sound-techs frequently decide to take their daily naps. Rehearsed the morning of the show by nervous contestants, there are many mistakes, bad choreography and pointy-poses. But in the tour, some of the funnest, most memorable moments can be found in the Group Numbers. So, let’s nominate some of the best.
Despite my love of this show and the tour, I’ve only made it to five tours. The first was in Season 5 (I didn’t know the tour existed before then) followed by Season 6, 8, 10 and 12. So, I can only nominate songs from those years. Please feel free to nominate your own favorites (along with youtube evidence). In the future, we will have favorite solos and duets, so hold onto those for now.
Season 5: Ace, Bucky, Chris and Elliott – Patience. This number is widely believed to have been introduced to fill time when Katharine had to miss a number of dates at the start of the tour. It was enormously popular and become one of the moments of the tour. It features Bucky and Chris on guitar with some absolutely stunning harmonizing:
Season 6: Everybody – Let’s Get it Started. A really fun way to start the show. Blake who is also an improv actor would start the show by coming out as some sort of character (usually, a janitor, but sometimes a security guard or dancing pop-tart). After a bit of humour, he would reveal himself to the delight of the crowd, Jordin would come up from a trap-door in the stage and they would rev up the party.
http://youtu.be/Bh8ZlhDMgBw
Season 8: Megan, Lil, Scott, Matt, Michael & Anoop – Medley – Featuring everybody from the first act, this Medley was a lot of fun and allowed everybody to shine. It sent people out of the first act with a lot of enthusiasm. It included Matt and Scott rising out of the floor to have their much touted piano battle that was cut from the finale. This year didn’t have a lot of group numbers, but this one allowed the lest talked-about tour members to shine.
Season 10: Paul, James, Casey, Stefano, Jacob – Animal – Probably my favorite Idol tour group number of all time. The crowd started electrified and just went absolutely insane. As each performer appeared on stage, the energy just amped higher and higher. The boys were obviously having so much fun with this number that the crowd couldn’t help getting into the mix. That’s the way to work a crowd.
Season 12: Devin, Burnell and Curtis – Suit and Tie – This one is memorable for being so unexpected. The guys had been trashed all season and many people talked about skipping the tour because of not wanting to sit through an hour of them singing. So, for these three to start of the guy-portion of the tour with an absolutely enjoyable “Suit and Tie” with just a twist of cheekiness, well, it got people talking. Well done! Way to serve notice and use the tour to change minds.
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Tell us about your favs!
