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Why am I so excited about AI 5? One word... diversity. I believe we may have the most diverse group of singers in terms of style and ability. Are all the contestant the strongest voices out of all the people sent to Hollywood? I can say with 99.9% accuracy that they are not. It's not always about a strong voice. Sometimes it is the tone, the phrasing, or the range. On the other end of the scale, it can be all about the vocal styling or a magnetic stage presence. Other times it has to do with unique and interesting voices. And then there's always the chance that someone just happened to have a really good day at the right time. This year's final 24 is a combination of them all.

We come to the largest category of our semi-finalists, the pop singers. This is a category not always well served in the competition at least on the guy side of things. RJ was the best of season 1 as Justin was thought of as more R&B. Clay was more Manilow or Groban than mainstream pop singer. He was more of a niche pop singer which is not a bad thing given all his success. Season 3 really lacked anyone as JPL was more eccentric performer than singer. There was Matt Rogers... never mind... whatever. Anthony Federov fell into the same category as Clay for me which, as mentioned above, is not a bad place to be. For season 5, Patrick Hall, Ace Young, and Elliott Yamin fill the male pop role. And all of them will do it justice I believe. From what we've seen, these 3 guys should finally bring mainstream male pop into the contest in a big way. I could see them all in the finals, but I think Ace is the only lock as of right now. Hopefully, that will change to include Patrick and Elliott.