Mackenzie Sol’s American Idol dream is over: County Durham singer sacked to shock fans

Mackenzie Sol has admitted he is heartbroken after the County Durham-born singer was eliminated from American Idol, much to the shock of many fans who thought he would go far on the show.

Mackenzie, who has lived in the US with his mother Nicola for the past decade, auditioned for the new season of the world’s biggest talent show with a performance of Sam Cooke’s ‘Bring It All Home to Me’ to impress star judges Katy Perry, Lionel Richie and Luke Bryant and secure a place in the Hollywood round. He then progressed to the next round, where he performed a cover of Nick Jonas’ ‘Jealous’ in front of an audience that included Nicola at Disney’s Aulani Resort in Hawaii.

After his performance, Mackenzie relied on the audience vote to make it into the Top 24, which he did, meaning he got to perform live in front of the nation for the first time, and was again praised highly by all three judges thanks to a stunning version of “I’ll Never Love Again”, the moving song by Lady Gaga from “A Star is Born”.

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Viewers at home clearly liked the song too, as they voted Mackenzie into the top 20, meaning he performed again earlier this week, this time to fight for his place in the competition with False Alarms after the results of the audience vote left the singers in town divided.

The 10 with the most votes from the previous evening were automatically safe, while Mackenzie and nine others had to compete for the four remaining skewers selected by the jury.

Unfortunately, Mackenzie was not selected, which meant the end of his journey. He wrote about his feelings on Facebook: “Thank you all for your support, my heart still hurts! The lyrics say it all but this is the beginning, not the end. I hope you all stay with me on this journey.”

The comment thread under his post was quickly filled with reactions from people who were not only sad to see him go, but also shocked that he was eliminated. One viewer told him, “Completely robbed,” and another wrote, “Hope you get brought back by a wildcard vote!!!”