Aaron Kelly

Season 9, American Idol contestant Aaron Kelly's is one of the season's top 24 semifinalists. Touted as Season 9's version of David Archuleta, 16 year old Kelly landed an independent recording contract when he was 10 and is rumored to have advanced to the Top 24 of Season 9. He distinguished himself by winning final day contests at Disney World's American Idol Experience attraction at Hollywood Studios in Florida. His win entitled him to an automatic audition with the judges.

American Idol

During the first live show, he performed a rendition of the song "Here Comes Goodbye," originally by Rascall Flats. Simon Cowell thought it was "quite a good performance." Cowell wants Kelly to get more confidence and to take control of the song. Kara DioGuardi believes he has no idea how naturally good Kelly is, that you can't teach people that. Randy Jackson agreed, saying that Kelly has a huge voice, even though he had a few pitchy moments. Ellen DeGeneres loves how humble Kelly is and can't wait to see him get better and better.

Aaron loves photography because the camera does not lie. He watches his performances back and sees what the judges are saying with the self confidence issues. Aaron is performing The Temptations' "My Girl." Randy really liked the first half of the song. 200% better than last week. Ellen saw a whole lot more confidence and liked the way he used the stage. She thinks the song was a bit forgettable. Kara liked it alot and likes Aaron. She thinks he is going to keep getting better and better. Simon didn't like the song. He thinks Aaron went backwards and it was all over the place. He feels that Aaron needs to show what kind of artist he wants to be and the arrangement was too old fashioned.

As the weeks continued on, feedback for Kelly's performance gained more and more praise, including positive feedback for his top 12 performance of "Angie" during Rolling Stones week.

During the week of top 11 performances, Miley Cyrus mentored Aaron practiced his rendition of "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing," by Aerosmith. Of his live performance, Randy said it wasn't perfect, but "thank God you came on the stage and started singing!" "I like you and you're really talented. I'm a fan!" Ellen though it was the perfect song choice, and "sees his career already." Kara agreed with Ellen, calling it the best song choice of the night, but wants to see more stage presence from Aaron. Simon called his performance brave, but is worried that Aaron might be making himself a bit old-fashioned. Simon things Aaron has no chance of going home after this performance.