With the 23rd season of American Idol well underway, Action Network put together an analysis of the songs and artists that have historically led to the most eliminations and advancements on American Idol. After analyzing 20 years worth of data, and nearly 3,000 performances since the competition’s inception in 2002, you can have a look at the results of our data analysis.
The Most Eliminated Songs
“I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)” by Whitney Houston is the song that has led to the most eliminations on American Idol – 4 eliminations. To be specific, the contestants who went on to be eliminated after performing the song were: Jennifer Fuentes (Season 2), Tiara Purifoy (Season 3), Asia'h Epperson (Season 7) and most recently, Jordan Anthony (Season 22).
Multiple songs have led to 3 eliminations. For example, “Feeling Good”, originally sung by Cy Grant, and popularized by Nina Simone, “The Climb” by Miley Cyrus, “Somebody To Love” by Queen, “Rock With You” by Michael Jackson or "Careless Whisper” by George Michael.
You can see the top songs that have led to the most eliminations & bottom 2 or bottom 3 placements below.
The "Safest" Songs
On the other hand, “Come Together” by The Beatles is the song that has led to the most advancements on American Idol, leading to progression to the next round 9 times. “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac& “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing” by Aerosmith are the second “safest” songs to sing since each of them have led to advancement to the next round 8 times.
“I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston, “I Don’t Want to Be” by Gavin DeGraw, “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival / Solomon Burke / Tina Turner and “Piece of My Heart” by Erma Franklin / Janis Joplin tie for third place, leading to safety 7 times each.
The Most Covered Songs
“I Have Nothing” by Whitney Houston is the overall most covered song – it has been covered staggering 14 times. “Come Together” by The Beatles is in second place – it was covered 10 times.
Multiple songs tie for third place since they have been covered 9 times each: “Piece of My Heart” by Erma Franklin / Janis Joplin, “All By Myself” by Eric Carmen / Celine Dion / Jennifer Rush, “And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going” by Jennifer Holiday / Jennifer Hudson and “Proud Mary” by Creedence Clearwater Revival / Solomon Burke / Tina Turner.
The Most Covered Artists
Stevie Wonder is the most covered artist on American Idol – his songs have been covered 72 times, which is followed by The Beatles (68 covers) & Elton John (57 covers). Whitney Houston is the most covered female artist on the show – her songs have been covered 54 times.
Stevie Wonder songs have also led to the most overall eliminations – 21, followed by Elton John – 19 eliminations – and Whitney Houston – 17 eliminations.
Methodology
- The analysis includes all of the songs covered on the past 22 seasons of American Idol (2002-2024), starting with showstopper rounds / semi-finals continuing with live shows and ending with the finale
- In total, nearly 3000 performances have been analysed since 2002
- Since the rules and terminology have changed throughout the years, any type of advancement in the competition following its performance (terms: safety, advanced, judge’s save…) was counted as a “safe” advancement in the competition
- For the overall most covered songs, duets/trios were counted only once if multiple contestants sang them together, but the values for eliminations and safety were counted separately since at times, one contestant from the duo advanced while the other was sent home (for example, if contestants A and B sang a duet of “Hello” by Lionel Richie, the song will be counted only once for the metric of the overall performance of the song on the show; however, since A was eliminated and B advanced, it will be counted once as an eliminated song and once as a song that advanced)
- Unless it was specifically noted what version of the song was covered, the artist who popularized the song was counted as the singer whose songs was covered
- The data was collected from the official website of American Idol and the Wikipedia pages of its respective seasons
