American Idol: Grace Kinstler’s Best Performances On Season 19

Grace Kinstler not only had a very strong start on American Idol season 19, but she has also continued to impress the judges and the viewers on the show. When she first appeared on Idol, Grace spoke about recently losing her father unexpectedly. As a 20-year-old college student from Chicago, Illinois who was going to school in Boston, Grace had to suddenly book a flight back home with the news that her father had been admitted to the hospital and was struggling to breathe.

First off, Grace Kinstler opened her American Idol audition with “Midnight Train To Georgia” by Gladys Knight & The Pips, which blew the judges away. As season 19 moved forward, Grace gave stunning performances of songs such as Pharrell’s “Happy” (Despicable Me 2), Jessie J’s “Queen”, Sia’s “Elastic Heart”, Idina Menzel’s “Into The Unknown” (Frozen 2), Coldplay’s “Fix You”, Adele’s “When We Were Young”, and Kelly Clarkson’s “A Moment Like This”. Grace also had a duet with none other than Joss Stone in the top 24 round.

3. “Father” By Demi Lovato

One of the most powerful performances across Grace Kinstler’s time on American Idol was to Demi Lovato’s “Father” in the Showstopper round of season 19. This song, which was included on Demi’s 2014 album Confident, was also about dealing with the loss of her father. Given that Grace had opened up about losing her dad in 2020, this song held a lot of weight for her to sing it on Idol. Besides Demi Lovato, the song was co-written by Laleh Pourkarim.

2. “Grenade” By Bruno Mars

Another fantastic moment for Grace Kinstler on American Idol was her Hollywood Week duet alongside Alyssa Wray to the tune of Bruno Mars’ “Grenade”. Together, Grace and Alyssa blew the judges away with what is perhaps the best duet of the entire season. Released in 2010, “Grenade” was a part of Bruno Mars’ 2010 album Doo-Wops & Hooligans. The performance from Grace and Alyssa was so great that it had Lionel Richie standing on his feet, Luke Bryan smiling from ear to ear, and Katy Perry taking off her wig.

1. “Natural Woman” By Aretha Franklin

After her beautiful singing of “Midnight Train To Georgia” by Gladys Knight & The Pips, Grace Kinstler was asked to perform what was her second choice for her American Idol audition: “Natural Woman” by Aretha Franklin. Grace’s performance was so good that it had Luke Bryan comparing it to the iconic auditions of Kelly Clarkson and Jennifer Hudson. In fact, that was only Grace’s first step on a very long Idol journey that took her all the way to the finale.

American Idol season 19 airs Sundays at 8 pm ET/PT on ABC.

Sources: American Idol on YouTube

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Bernardo Sim
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Bernardo Sim writes about TV shows, queer culture, & Brazilian media. Born and raised in the Amazon, he now lives in South Florida. he/him

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