Malaya Watson, a Filipino-American in the hit singing contest “American Idol,” belts out with her performance of the Beatles’ song “Long and Winding Road.” Screengrab from American Idol’s YouTube account.
MANILA, Philippines – Filipino American Malaya Watson sang her last song in “American Idol” as she was voted off the top 8 in the hit singing contest.
On Thursday night in Hollywood (Friday morning in Manila), American Idol on its official Twitter account said Watson landed at the bottom two with fellow contestant CJ Harris.
But it was Watson, a sixteen-year-old tuba player from Michigan, who was sent home.
Wishing you a warm #idol goodbye, @MalayaTinaB! You’ll be missed.
— American Idol (@AmericanIdol) April 11, 2014
Malaya, whose name means free in Filipino, failed to impress the judges in Thursday’s performance of the song “Through the Fire.”
She performed “I am Changing” from the Broadway musical “Dreamgirls” for her last performance.
On Wednesday night in Hollywood (Thursday in Manila), Malaya was told to “relax” as she was supposedly too “tense” when she performed.
Musician Keith Urban yesterday told Watson to “lay back” on her tone and just “chill out.”
“If you have a voice that is limiting, you have to worry but you have nothing to worry about. Just chill out and coast through it,” he said.
Pop star Jennifer Lopez advised Watson to “relax.”
“You just need to relax up there. We all get tense when we know those moments are coming,” Lopez said.
“With a vocal ability that you have, you don’t even have to try. So long as you have the breath behind it, it’s going to be there for you,” she added.
Meanwhile, singer actor Harry Connick Jr. noted that Watson seemed too preoccupied in hitting the high note at the end of the song.
“You’re going to hit it anyway. All you needed to do is to focus right when that note comes, but I felt like you sacrificed some of the early parts of the song to set that up,” Connick said.
Asked if Watson was too tense to focus on her song, Watson said: “I was just thinking I’ve got to focus, I don’t want to be over exaggerated.”
“I just try to keep myself calm and stay in the groove of the song,” she added
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