The contestants each year always seem to think they know which direction they want their careers to go in so they will sing whatever the song is in their indie, soul etc style. What I have found though is with the country singers they always seem to make the theme work for them. That is why Colton went out tonight, he kept making his songs into a sort of indie style and it didn't always work and this week sounded really bad.

Whereas yes you could say Skylar just sings country each week but she moulds the song to make it sound different like Heard it on the Grapevine or the countrified version of the Lady G song. Scotty did the same last year and that's why he won as there is a huge country vote and if there is only one country artist like Skylar then she should go far into the competition.

I think a country voice is quite easy to manipulate into different genres. Country music can flow so seemlessly into soul, rock, blues etc.

It's definitely part of why at least one country singer always seem to do well in the live shows every year.

K123, you have it the wrong way round, the country singers abuse the theme. Do you honestly think that Skylar's version of Grapevine had any soul - she wiped out the soul with her belt voice and oversinging. Yes, Scottie abused the themes in season 10 and that may have helped him win the title (the editing of the audition process plus the immature judging helped even more) but he was nowhere near the best of the season.