The top 11 of the American Idol Summer Tour 2011 hit the stage at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale on Tuesday. To make it to the tour, the performers from the popular reality TV singing competition beat out hundreds of other hopefuls during the show’s tenth season.
Leading the pack was season 10 winner, Scotty McCreery. The 17 year-old from Garner, North Carolina brought country music back to the show’s center stage. Idols runner up, Lauren Alaina further gave country its due with her vocals, following in the footsteps of 2005 season four winner-turned sensation Carrie Underwood.
Alongside the country-loving winning two performers were the rest of the top ten that made last season as successful as it was. Haley Reinhart (third place finisher), Casey Abrams, Jacob Lusk, Paul McDonald, James Durbin, Pia Toscano, Stefano Langone, Naima Adedapo, and Thia Megia rounded out the top 11.
More Pictures from American Idol Tour at Nassau Coliseum
The concert displayed the competition’s high diversity of performer-types and music genres through not only the songs on the set-list, but also through each performer’s wardrobe choice.
The pierced, tattoo filled, mohawk-wearing rocker James Durbin hit the stage in a Megadeth shirt and ripped red jeans with flag patterns on them and plenty of bling. But at one point the singer altered the bad boy image by donning a red clown nose during one performance.
Quite different from his look was Lauren Alaina’s outfit. In a black, tutu styled dress with cowboy boots, Lauren Alaina got the crowd roaring with her style. At one point she teamed up with a jeans and button up shirt-clad Scotty McCreery for a country performance.
But non-country fans had nothing to worry about. There was plenty of pop songs to go around. In fact, a highlight performance of the Uniondale concert was when the five female contestants performed pop sensation Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.”
This particular concert was an especially important tour stop to contestant Pia Toscano as she is from Howard Beach in Queens. Lauren acknowledged Pia’s roots when she pointed out where her family was in the crowd and welcomed her on stage to perform Jay-z and Alicia Keys’ hit song, “Empire State of Mind.”
Pia, Scotty, Lauren and the rest of the Idols Live tour performers will return to the Coliseum stage one more time Wednesday night, to share their talents with a fresh batch of Long Island concertgoers.
The tour, which launched in Utah on July 6, will end its journey through the States in Rochester, on September 10th. Hopefully it won’t be the last fans hear of Scotty and their other favorites but whether or not this year’s top contestants have a post-idols career, there’s always next year when a new batch of contestants begin competing next January for the 11th season of American Idol.
