r/americanidol

It’s like a book club, except instead of books we’re revisiting albums released by American Idol alumni, from iconic classics to deep cuts, guilty pleasures, new, old, and everything in between. Each week Every now and then we’ll feature one album for the subreddit to listen to and discuss. 

Before we get to the album, a quick update: we're going to end our Retro Idol rewatch of Season 8. The number of people participating in the live chats has ranged from seven to zero. Having reached the Hollywood Week round with no comments in the chat, it feels like it’s time to put it to bed. Apologies to anyone who was enjoying this. I’m glad we tried it, but the off-season is generally very quiet around here and things are no different this year. Don’t worry, we’ll still do stuff. 

Our next Album Club selection is Many Colors by Leah Marlene. Whether you’re revisiting it or hearing it for the first time, drop your thoughts below.

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Album: Many Colors

Artist: Leah Marlene

Idol Placement: 3rd Place, Season 20

Release Date: March 4, 2022

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Stream the Album:

YouTube

Spotify

Apple Music

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Fun Facts:

• Leah was named a Top 50 finalist in NPR’s 2025 Tiny Desk Contest.
• Fellow Season 20 finalist Fritz Hager performs background vocals on the track “Noise”.
• Leah’s Idol single, “Flowers”, reached #6 on the iTunes chart.
• Leah’s dad is a member of Canadian 80s rock band Honeymoon Suite, which has over 50 million streams on Spotify.

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We’ve posted a few questions in the comments to help spark discussion, but feel free to comment on anything you’d like.

Have an album you’d like to see featured in the Album Club? Drop us a modmail.

If you’ve never checked out Jonny West’s music, it is always excellent.

He’s been my most listened to artist two years in a row now, and hopefully he keeps it coming 🤩

Welcome back to our Retro Idol Live Chat of Season 8! We’re pressing play together each week and live chatting the entirety of Season 8, from auditions all the way to the finale.

Tonight’s our last audition round! Next Monday: Hollywood Week! 

How it works:

• Every Monday night we’ll all start the designated YouTube episode(s) at the same time. 
• Here’s the playlist we’ll be working from, dutifully collected by an internet stranger.
• We’ll watch, comment, relive the drama, and pretend it’s 2009 all over again.
• This post has the full schedule.

Tonight's auditions have a runtime of two hours total and are spread out over three episodes: here's the first one, here's the second one, and here’s the third one. At 8:05pm Eastern, PRESS PLAY AND GO!