Gabby Barrett returned to American Idol on Sunday night as a mentor and was a breath of fresh air for the reality singing competition.
It seemed almost impossible to believe that she is only 22, but Gabby was on American Idol four years ago and has gone on to become a legitimate country superstar.
Her debut single I Hope was a five-time platinum hit and her first album, Goldmine, went platinum after its release in 2020.
Needless to say, she knows her stuff, and she didn’t hold back on the singers on Sunday night.
Gabby Barrett was brutally honest with American Idol singers
Gabby Barrett was different from the past mentors and was very different from the three judges on American Idol.
Past judges were often in awe of the talented singers and mostly gave small advice about their performances.
However, Gabby didn’t hold back. Despite her young age, she had some excellent advice for singers, including telling some of them to change their songs.
She had critiques when singers tried to hit high notes when she felt they should be holding it back at certain points, and she was brutally honest when some singers tried something that she felt wouldn’t work in their performance.
In the end, some of the singers had their best performances, and it was because Gabby was there to help them by telling them what they were doing wrong and pushing them to become better.
That is a big complaint with the three American Idol judges, who often simply say that the singers are amazing and give very little constructive criticism.
American Idol judges accused of being too nice
Randy Jackson openly criticized Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie on American Idol.
While losing the overly harsh critiques that Simon Cowell dished out is refreshing, Randy feels that the judges shouldn’t be so nice all the time when the singers need some hard lessons.
“I think they’re all too nice,” Randy said. “This is a tough, hard, mean, give-zero-Fs business. Being honest with someone — if you’re terrible, you’re terrible. Wouldn’t you want to know that?”
“There’s very little truth being told on these shows,” he explained. “I say all the time in interviews, the thing that helped me the most [when I was starting out] was the no’s — the people that didn’t like me, didn’t like my playing, didn’t like my songwriting, didn’t like my producing. That’s what made me work and try harder.”
At least for one night, Gabby Barrett wasn’t afraid to tell the singers the truth in order to help them improve.
American Idol airs on Sunday and Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.