Joshua Ledet is a 19-year-old singer from Westlake, LA. He has made it to the last audition round before the Top 24. According to spoilers at TheIdolPad, Joshua has made the Top 24, which was already chosen but not aired at the time of this writing.
From what we have seen so far, Joshua is a fantastic singer. He has not been featured very prominently, which could be a problem in early voting. But his “Jar of Hearts” performance was awesome except for one little voice crack during transition. No one is even going to remember that.
In the recent past, there haven’t been too many African American guys who have done well on Idol. There was one in the Top 5 in each of the last two years, though. And that is likely because the right kinds of singers were chosen for the Idol demographic. R&B or Hip Hop singers just don’t do well on Idol. But Big Mike and Jacob Lusk- the singers who made the Top 5 - are different. Although their styles were different, they each brought something either musically or vocally to the table that was not your stereotypical crap that you see forced down our throats by the music industry these days.
Joshua is closer to the type of singer that has a chance to go deep on Idol. I predict at least Top 7. The hope is he will be consistent, something that Jacob Lusk suffered from (Lusk was great one week and way off the next). Ledet also has a better vocal tone than either Big Mike or Jacob. In fact, he is pretty close to the tonal quality of Ruben Studdard, who actually won Season 2.
In short, Joshua Ledet has a very good shot of going deep on American Idol 2012. He is a gospel-type singer with a great vocal tone and power. While Phillip Phillips is the favorite to win the whole thing, any Top 4 finish for Joshua would have to be considered a victory. Hopefully, the consistency and personality are there to make that happen.
Resources:
TheIdolPad Spoilers for AI 11