Top 6 — Bold As Love
Top 6 — I Want It All (Queen)
Top 7 Redux — No One
Top 7 Redux — Let’s Get It On
Top 7 — You and I
Top 7 — Somebody That I Used to Know (with Phillip Phillips)
Top 8 — I Want to Know What Love Is
Top 8 — Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around (with Phillip Phillips)
Top 9 — Whole Lotta Love
Top 10 — Vienna
Top 11/12 — Let’s Stay Together
Top 13 — I’m Your Baby Tonight
Semifinals — One and Only
When I was looking up pre-Idol music from contestants who supposedly made it to Hollywood in Season 11, I slapped two asterisks beside the name Elise Testone.
Yeah, you could say I was pretty impressed by her music, so I was a little disappointed when she appeared on screen for just a few seconds Wednesday night as part of a montage of four singers who earned golden tickets to Hollywood.
Idol’s blue bar identified Elise as a 28-year-old from Charleston, S.C., who works as a musician and vocal coach.
She’s been singing since age 6, according to her bio at Other Brother Entertainment, where you can hear her do an amazing version of “Never Gave Me Butterflies.”
She has performed with Slanguage and The Freeloaders and with Justin Smith and the Folk Hop-Band.
Elise classifies her music as rock/R&B/soul/funk/jazz on Reverbnation, where you can hear three of her songs.
Meanwhile, here’s a sample.
“Rehab”
“You Never Gave Me Butterflies”
[...] of the night: Loved Elise Testone’s bluesy voice. She was one of the first ladies we heard from and one of the best. Johnny Keyser [...]
[...] Elise Testone: Unique tone, and experienced enough that the Idol stage shouldn’t unnerve her. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: She has proven several times that she’s the real deal. And it sounds like she absolutely nailed that final performance. She makes the top 24. Judges’ rating: Very good. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: “A variety of song choices. My voice is a bluesy, soul sound, but I can sing any type of genre and love to show that off.” [...]
[...] Elise Testone: [...]
[...] Elise Testone: @ETestoneAI11 — [...]
[...] Elise Testone: She’s got the voice to compete with Idol’s best and she’s got the experience [...]
[...] Elise Testone: [...]
[...] vocal pyrotechnics, but he’s still the best male singer on the stage. I felt bad for both Elise Testone and Shannon Magrane, who have sounded wonderful to this point, but struggled mightily singing [...]
[...] assignment last night. And my guess is any guy who finds himself standing beside Shannon Magrane or Elise Testone at the end of the night will be bidding us farewell. Either of those gals has done well enough up [...]
[...] Elise Testone: “I’ve kinda been getting a few messages from Casey Abrams, and it’d be great to meet him in person because I definitely respect him.” [...]
[...] Elise Testone (9): She skirted elimination, but can’t skirt the fact that she’s 28. And I really [...]
[...] Elise Testone: “Definitely my life experience (she is the oldest contestant), but also me not being afraid to totally let loose and put my heart into every word, every second, every syllable of a song.” [...]
[...] Elise Testone: [...]
[...] Elise Testone (10): The judges were shocked when Elise landed in the bottom three last week. Well, judges, be [...]
[...] Elise Testone [...]
[...] performance of the night: I’m giving this one to Elise Testone. She had been in the bottom three two straight weeks. Last week, quite frankly, she looked [...]
[...] Ledet Elise Testone Erika Van Pelt Heejun Han Phillip Phillips Skylar [...]
[...] rising: Elise Testone, at least for a week, avoided the bottom three. She’ll probably need stellar performances [...]
[...] 6. Elise Testone (10): Welcome back, Elise. On a night filled with solid performances, her version of Billy Joel’s “Vienna” was the best. She might also pick up some votes from former supports of Erika Van Pelt. But before anyone starts an “Elise for the win” chant, remember, this is boy-friendly Idol. Erika has about 23,000 followers on her Idol Twitter page. Colton and Phillip are hovering around 90,000. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: Jimmy says Elise did herself and Idol a huge favor with her Led Zeppelin performance. He says she deserves to stay in the competition and, with the 1980s as a theme next week, has a chance to head straight to the front of the class. She’s safe. [...]
[...] the rise: Elise Testone. And I mean, big time. I scoffed a week ago when someone suggested she might be this [...]
[...] 4. Elise Testone (6): She has moved from eighth to fourth in these rankings in just two weeks. That’s what happens when you dazzle us with “Vienna,” then do a 180-degree turn and belt out “Whole Lotta Love” like you never want to see the bottom three again. Jimmy thinks she might have an edge this week because she’s the only contestant who lived through any portion of the ’80s. The bigger edge should be a huge confidence boost from the past two weeks. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: The gal who’s looking more and more like a contender every day will tackle Foreigner’s “I Want to Know What Love Is.” [...]
[...] 5. Elise Testone (4): Which Elise will show up Wednesday night? The one who dazzled us three times, most recently on “Whole Lotta Love?” Or the one who fell flat three times, most recently on “I Want to Know What Love Is?” Landing in the bottom three tends to be a real motivator for this bunch, so I won’t be a bit surprised if Elise reaffirms her status as a superb singer deserving to be considered a frontrunner. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: Jimmy says he think Elise did a lot of things right last night, but not enough to pull herself out of the bottom three. [...]
[...] And that means two very talented singers who should be in the running for the finals — Elise Testone and Joshua Ledet — are just one stumble from [...]
[...] 2. Elise Testone (5): Consistency hasn’t been her forte. Delivering memorable performances has been, and she did it twice last week. In fact, she’s delivered more Idol “moments” than the two male favorites — Phillip Phillips and Colton Dixon — combined. Her prospects are more bleak than Jessica’s. After all, she still landed in the bottom three last week. And the save I figured she’d need is gone. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: Jimmy thinks the selection of “Let’s Get It On” could sink her. The original caused a baby boom. There was no baby boom last night, Jimmy says. He thinks the only way she makes the finals is to pick the best rock and roll song she can find and deliver every week. And Elise heads to the bottom three. [...]
[...] 5. Elise Testone (2): She has one of the best three voices on the show, yet is maddeningly inconsistent, as last week showed. A fine take on Alicia Keys’ “No One” followed by an overdone “Let’s Get It On.” Jimmy says she just needs to rock out. And here comes Queen as a theme. So at least one of Wednesday’s performances should be Elise at her best. [...]
[...] Elise Testone: [...]
[...] Elise Testone: Jimmy says Elise picked the wrong Queen song and that it was a performance he didn’t want to watch again. Nor did he like her choice of Jimmy Hendrix’s “Bold as Love.” He says it was a double-down on bad song choices. Elise is in the bottom three. [...]
[...] Editor’s Note: For a look back at all of Elise’s Idol performances, head here. [...]