American Idol Season 22’s youngest contestant, Triston Harper, delivered a foot-stomping performance of a Jason Aldean hit during Sunday night’s Top 8 episode.
15-year-old Triston Harper is country through and through, as evidenced through his ability to bring consistently impressive country song covers to the American Idol stage week after week.
Harper earned a coveted Gold Ticket when he auditioned with a beautiful rendition of Jason Isbell’s “Cover Me Up.” Viewers have since seen him sing songs by Blake Shelton, Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, and Elvis Presley and have voted him into the Top 10.
During Sunday night’s episode (April 28), the ten remaining contestants were tasked with singing a song from the year they were born. For Harper that year was 2009.
The young star in the making chose to cover a Jason Aldean release from that year, “She’s Country.” The uptempo tune was the lead single from Jason’s third studio album, Wide Open. It became the second song to hit No. 1 on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart for Aldean.
For Harper, the song marked the first uptempo cover he has delivered all season. And the judges all agreed that his voice was made for songs like “She’s Country.”
Ahead of his performance, Harper spent some time with legendary cross-genre artist Shania Twain who mentored this season’s Top 10.
“I know it’s country, but you’ve got a lot of soul,” Shania said. “Your voice is amazing, but you have to believe what you’re singing.”
Triston took Shania’s advice and made the song his own. In a never-before-seen move from the teen, we saw him work the stage, dancing and bringing his energy to the performance. Luke Bryan teased him saying, “Are you trying to out-gyrate me?”
Host Ryan Seacrest invited Luke to join Triston on stage to show him how it’s done, a moment the crowd clearly enjoyed.
Overall, the judges agreed that Triston Harper’s performance was solid and that he is a superstar in the making.
Watch Triston Harper’s jaw-dropping performance of “She’s Country” in the video below.