American Idol contestants sings a song in tribute of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor

The Daily Beast

New York-based songwriter Taylor Fagins opted to perform an original song about the high-profile killings when he auditioned on Idol's Season 20 premiere. "What follows is… bizarre," says Jordan Julian. "First of all, it really is a beautifully-written song that captures the devastation of violence against Black people in America, specifically focusing on the deaths of Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor...But then there’s the fact that this is all happening on American Idol, the show that brought us Sanjaya’s ponytail mohawk and ensured that 'Bad Day' by Daniel Powter would be stuck in our heads every Thursday for weeks on end. Fagins’ audition is touted throughout the episode as one of the most powerful moments in Idol history, but instead it just feels deeply out of place—the very first mention of race jammed into the final minutes of a two-hour premiere. It takes what should be a powerful performance and turns it into another gimmick or bid for tears, a perfectly packaged viral moment to get people talking." 

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