Dallas’ Cortez Shaw makes it to American Idol’s top 40

by Rand Duren

• Tweet
• Email
• Print
• 0 Comments

Are Idol producers purposely wanting a girl to win this season? Most likely.

Fox

Cortez Shaw during his first audition on American Idol season 12

The top 40 contestants for the 12th season of American Idol has been selected. The group of 20 girls and 20 guys will head to Las Vegas next week to perform on the stage of Cirque du Soleil’s Beatles LOVE Theatre at The Mirage. The Vegas round will last two weeks. 10 semifinalists will perform each night – girls on Wednesdays and guys on Thursdays. Each night, the judges will send five contestant homes. At the end of the first stage of the semifinals, only 20 contestants will remain.

Continuing a new twist, the Vegas round will also be divided by gender. Are Idol producers purposely wanting a girl to win this season? Most likely. Last night’s show was proof of that, when we were reminded time and time again that this is the strongest group of girls we’ve seen on the show and that it’s been six years since a lady, Jordin Sparks, took the Idol crown. There a few girls who are pretty amazing, so I wouldn’t doubt that one of them will win this year.

This season, we have one Dallas contestant in the running. Cortez Shaw from Garland made it to the top 40 last year and once again to the top 40 this year. Shaw hit a sour note when judge Nicki Minaj said she was disgusted by his shouty rendition of a Whitney Houston song. It wasn’t great but it wasn’t that bad either. Nicki was going for drama, but hopefully that’s what Shaw needed to step it up. If Cortez makes it through the Vegas round and into the top 20, viewers will get to vote for him when the season’s first live shows start on March 5. If you are not watching this season of American Idol, you should start catching up. It’s possibly one of the show’s best seasons overall. Keith Urban and Minaj are reality TV gold.

Listen to Cortez Shaw’s cover of Rihanna’s "Diamonds" below.