When Noah Thompson walked the stage on Monday night (April 4) to sing on American Idol, he chose to do it on purpose. As part of the grueling “Showstoppers Round,” the 24-year-old construction worker from Kentucky selected a song from a completely different genre.
Thompson captivated the crowd and judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry, and Lionel Richie by belting out a copy of Rihanna’s pop song “Stay.” Despite the fact that his song choice was unexpected, Thompson made the song his own by incorporating his natural country twang into the lyrics alongside a full band of musicians.
“I want to applaud you on your song choices,” Bryan told Thompson afterward. “You got a magic quality going on in your voice, and what I told somebody, I said, ‘I’d love to have 10 minutes with you, just to fine-tune to where you have that magic from the top to the end of the song.’”
