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"If you would've told me a month and a half ago one of your best vocals would be a Blink-182 song..." Published on April 29, 2024 02:26PM EDT Grandma would be proud.
Emmy Russell, granddaughter of late country icon Loretta Lynn, secured a spot on the Top 8 during Sunday's episode of American Idol. The night's theme was contestants performing hit songs from the year they were born, so the 25-year-old Russell took the stage with a stripped-down acoustic cover of Blink-182's 1999 hit "All the Small Things."
Judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Luke Bryan were impressed, marveling at the fact that Russell's "best vocals" so far have come from a Blink-182 track, of all songs.
"I saw something on that last performance I really enjoyed: you having fun," Richie said. "You were actually relaxed."
"Yes, Ms. Emmy, comfortable looks good on you," Perry added. "You really are kinda growing into this." Bryan quipped, "If you would've told me a month and a half ago one of your best vocals would be a Blink-182 song... that's what's so fun about this show."
Russell, of course, received invaluable pointers from guest mentor Shania Twain earlier in the evening — but not without the two fangirling over each other first. "I freaked out," Russell said in a confessional of meeting the singer-songwriter. "She's literally the queen of pop country." Elsewhere, Twain gushed: "There's no Shania Twain without Loretta Lynn. I just love her. Emmy has her own talent, but it's still very surreal."
Twain helped Russell shake off her nervous energy and encouraged her to lean into a falsetto or yodel, an incorporation that did not go unnoticed from the judges. "You incorporated those yodels just like Shania requested. They sounded great," Perry said. "You sounded the most solid through and through from A to Z that I have ever heard you." Disney/Eric McCandless Mia Matthews and Sam "Kayko" Kelly-Cohen were eliminated in Sunday's episode, while the rest of the Top 8 for the current season 22 include Abi Carter, McKenna Faith Breinholt, Jack Blocker, Will Moseley, Kaibrienne Richins, Julia Gagnon, and Triston Harper.
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