It’s another exciting night of American Idol on ABC tonight with an all-new Monday, February 23, 2026, season 9 episode 5 called “Hollywood Week in Music City – Part 1” and we have your weekly American Idol recap below.
On tonight’s American Idol season 9 episode 5 as per the ABC synopsis,“For the first time, Idol is bringing Hollywood Week to Music City as hopefuls take the stage for a make-or-break performance and face the biggest Hollywood Week cut in Idol history.”
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In tonight’s American Idol episode, Hollywood Week continues on tonight’s all new episode. However, there remained a key to getting ahead this season. There’s been one genre that has essentially taken over the whole show and whoever performs in it will find their scores going up. They were in Music City after all.
They were told to do the location proud when what they should be focusing on was the music. Bryant Thomas surprised everyone when he opened tonight with Taylor Swift’s “Champagne Problems”. He had a rocker vibe. And so he turned her song into a rocker anthem.
It was a great rendition. Sadly, Lionel was the only one interested in hearing the song from the start. The others didn’t want to hear Taylor Swift or the part where Bryant rocked it out. The look on their faces said a lot. Luke especially seemed to have anxiety about it and that was before they heard the first note. It goes to show that maybe they shouldn’t be so quick to judge because Bryant had a great night. Next up was Keyla Richardson. She received some advice from the vocal coach that seemed to hurt her more than it helped.
The vocal coach told her to sing it like a lullaby at first. She performed “I Won’t Give Up”. It was a lullaby all on its own and asking her to slow it down even further left her voice a little shaky. She was normally a stronger singer than that. Was it sabotage or an off night? Who knows! Keyla still did what she could. The most important part of the night for her was her son getting to see her perform. Keyla’s family had been waiting for her and they were there if tonight didn’t go well for her. Keyla was followed by Livy.
Livy didn’t have the strongest audition. Only she took their advice. She used up every bit of that stage as she performed ”Versace On the Floor”. She had the audience on their feet. They were dancing as was she. Livy made her performance memorable. She showed confidence and the only one that seemed happy all night was Lionel. It took a lot for Luke to break out a smile. He finally did it for Makiyah. She performed “How Did You Get Here” and it was enough to move the Country judges.
They even gave her a standing ovation afterwards. She hit those high notes like no one else could. They changed up the rules this year so if they showed enough potential then they get to stay in the Golden Room. The Golden Room was where they would then wait to learn if they made it into the top thirty. Bryant, Keyla, Makiyah and another that the audience didn’t get to enjoy made it to the Golden Room. Livy was one of the people that was eliminated tonight. Then it was onto Group B. Jordan McCullough.
He performed “Higher Ground”. He brought people to church with that one. The one thing the judges can all agree was that they loved gospel and Lionel went as far to call that performance fire. He was followed by Madison Moon. She performed “Alone” because she fell in love with the band after she watched Carrie Underwood performed this song on her season of “American Idol”. She wowed the judges with her rendition. She managed to raise the key on the song like its never been done before. And that included Carrie who was impressed.
Both Madison and Jordan moved to the Golden Room. Several more people were eliminated. They got the timing wrong on their songs. The band didn’t help either. The band should’ve been finer tuned than that. Trace made a joke of it when he got onstage. He did a Mike check by looking for Michaels in the audience. His “Crazy Train” was unique in that they had never had a similar rendition, but it wasn’t good. Roelle was one of the smartest because she kept her day job. She said being a contestant wasn’t going to change job security.
[2/23/26, 9:30:24 PM] Kris: Roelle said that even as she gave one of the best performances of the night. She performed “California”. She was great and still she felt bad about her performance because she messed up on the lyrics. It wasn’t noticeable. Still, she felt bad. It was her favorite song and she didn’t believe she did it justice. Next up was Hannah Harper. She connected with a lot of moms suffering from postpartum depression. She kept them in her thoughts as she performed “A Little Past Little Rock” and Luke seemed moved to tears.
Luke acknowledged she had some hiccups. What stayed with him was that she recovered so well. The others hadn’t even noticed the mistakes and Luke was loving her tone. Hannah made it into the Golden Room with Trace and Roelle. Many didn’t make it. They were given feedback after their auditions and it made them second guess themselves. There were a lot of people that were confident back then that weren’t that anymore. Philmon Lee could’ve been one of them. He was all jittery during rehearsals.
Yet he came out with “Lose Control” like he meant it. He was great with that song. Next up was Lucas Leon. He performed “Georgia On My Mind” and his nerves were for nothing because he hit those high notes like practice. There were some that fell short of expectations. If not with the judges then with themselves like Carmen Lorrell Martin. She knew something was wrong during rehearsals and she just kept pushing ahead with it because everyone assured her that she sounded great. They were wrong because her rendition of ”Heartbreaker” hurt towards the end.
Everyone knew she wasn’t making it through. They were right because she didn’t. Lucas did and there was room for the baby faces. Like Khloe Grace. She performed “Stay”. She didn’t make it through like Abayomi and Michael did. Only them doing so showed that there was hope for the babies of the group. They could always come back next year. The same for the older ones. Jake Thistle and he proved he was ready for this show. This moment. His guitar skills and his ability to perform while singing made things difficult for the judges.
They had no clue how they were going to trim their large group down to thirty. They were actually hoping some would be bad at it. They wanted people like Chris Tungseth. He performed “Jealous”. He didn’t milk that song for every high note it was worth. He played it safe. The judges felt there was more he was hiding and they couldn’t move him through without first seeing it. Chloe Lauren then went up. She performed “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun”. It felt like she gave up. She started strong and just gave up in the middle and the end.
Luke regretted that she did that. It didn’t matter to him that it made his decision easier. He had high hopes for her and its disappointing that she couldn’t see that. There was also Braden Rumfelt. He was full of jitters as well, but he performed “I’m Not the Only One” like he was Sam Smith. He was good. It was now up to the judges to see it. They had to make one final cut before the trimming truly began.
THE END!