American Idol season 21 announced the mentors for Hollywood Week, along with a change to the format for the notoriously grueling challenge. During Hollywood Week, the group of American Idol hopefuls who received golden tickets at the auditions compete in a series of rounds. Judges Lionel Richie, Katy Perry, and Luke Bryan then make cuts until they decide who will make it to the next part of the competition. Mentors help the contestants along the way.
According to Billboard, American Idol season 21 is welcoming back seven past finalists to mentor the contestants during Hollywood Week, which kicks off on Sunday, April 2. They are Justin Guarini (American Idol season 1 runner-up), Clay Aiken (season 2 runner-up), Jordin Sparks (season 6 winner), David Archuleta (season 7 runner-up), Phillip Phillips (season 11 winner), Catie Turner (season 16 finalist) and Noah Thompson (season 20 winner). American Idol executive producer and showrunner Megan Michaels Wolflick explained that having multiple mentors makes sense because there are usually over 150 contestants in Hollywood. American Idol alums are the best Hollywood Week mentors because they have been through it before.
American Idol's Hollywood Week Ditches Genre Challenge
A change to American Idol's Hollywood Week is the elimination of the genre challenge, which separated the contestants by their musical styles in the past two years. Megan said many of the finalists expressed that they sang more than one type of music, and "there was a blurred genre thing going on." Instead, American Idol season 21 is assigning the contestants one of three areas that they wanted to work on: confidence, songwriting, or stage presence. Two mentors will work with the contestants in each category: confidence (Clay and David), songwriting (Catie and Phil), and stage presence (Jordin and Justin). Noah's job is to give motivational speeches to the contestants.
American Idol made the perfect choices for the Hollywood Week mentors. Clay and David worked on their confidence throughout their time on Idol and over the years, and will have great advice as runners-up. Catie and Phillip write their own music and were very innovative on Idol during their respective seasons. Jordin and Justin had extraordinary stage presence when they appeared on Idol, which was a main reason why they made it so far during their seasons. American Idol season 20 winner Noah can speak about his own journey, which is still fresh in his mind.
American Idol's Hollywood Week is one of the most taxing parts of the competition. It pushes the contestants to their limits and separates who is ready for the demands of the music industry from who isn't. It was a fantastic idea to divide the contestants up by what they wanted to work on as artists instead of genres. They can begin improving at the beginning of the competition with the guidance of these special former finalists. American Idol season 21 already seems like it might be one of the best ever.
American Idol airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
Sources: Billboard, American Idol/Instagram