5 percent famous

San Antonio teen advances on American Idol playing up her youthful niche

Liliana Tovar Dalton charmed the judges with her emotional rawness.

Photo courtesy of ABC's American Idol

Another season of American Idol — this one makes 22 — is now on air, and singers are very familiar with the drill. Some of them are not even as old as the show, including San Antonio's Liliana Tovar Dalton, who really leaned into her teenage status and appealed on potential and an original song. Her audition, which took place in the season's final round, aired on Sunday, March 24.

The student from Antonian High School (according to the San Antonio Express-News) wasn't the youngest contestant or the one with the most famous connections. Both those titles seemed to go to 14-year-old Camila Galavis, daughter of former Bachelor contestant Juan Pablo Galavis. Still, young contestants on American Idol and similar shows like The Voice can sometimes benefit from playing to that angle, and the 17-year-old Dalton may benefit from having those extra few years to hone her craft.

Dalton played an original song on the piano called "Five Percent," which she says is about the amount of effort a boy was willing to give her.

"I'm young, so I might as well enjoy it — write a bunch of songs about stupid teenage boys while I can," said Dalton in an on-camera interview interspersed with her audition clips.

There's a lot of raw talent to go up against on Idol, and judges were realistic about how far a singer can go with a semi-conversational, folksy piano ballad. Katy Perry wondered aloud if the singer-songwriter has "range" beyond the gentle, emotional style she displayed, and Lionel Richie suggested that the singer may need to "toughen" up and avoid too much nonchalance.

Richie also mentioned a comparison Dalton made between herself and Taylor Swift, whom he said has "guts." But none of the judges brought up the other obvious parallel: Olivia Rodrigo. In fact, Dalton's emotional performance about texting and cavalier cursing onstage seemed to have embodied much more of the super Gen-Z star.

Judge Luke Bryan asked Dalton to try belting Adele's "Someone Like You," a test she passed with apparent ease, with a rendition ready to go that admittedly did skip some of the higher notes.

Whereas Taylor Swift's venom toward ex-lovers has always been on the far sides of folksy and shrewd, Olivia Rodrigo's has an abandon that feels more akin to Dalton's style, despite the latter's gentleness. (At least some Instagram commenters picked up on it.)

Most important, all three judges agreed that the singer should go on to Hollywood, so she'll have more chances coming up to showcase that range and highlight the styles that really feel like her, rather than other celebrities who became famous as teenage girls.

She'll likely have a very different journey than Rudi Gutierrez, a San Antonio singer who recently had quite the run on The Voice. Gutierrez's voice is much more richly developed after 28 years of use, but if every singer found success in the same styles, we wouldn't have much of a music industry.

When Dalton mentioned her hometown, Richie asked, "What do you do in San Antonio?"

"There's really not much to do," replied Dalton in a vague vocal fry. But perhaps after high school and her 15 minutes — or more — of fame, she'll start having a little more fun in the city. Viewers can keep up with Dalton and the rest of the singers' progress on Sundays at 7 pm on ABC, or Hulu.

tv music celebrities

Movie Review

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 plays to the interests of video game fans

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) in Sonic the Hedgehog 3

The first Sonic the Hedgehog movie in 2020 was one of the few video game adaptations that managed to appeal to both fans of the Sega game and those who just want to watch a fun movie. As the series moved into a second and now third film, though, it’s become increasingly reliant on giving the video game fans what they want, with not as much attention paid toward simply telling a good story.

In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, Sonic (voiced by Ben Schwartz) continues to live with human friends Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter), as well as Tails (Colleen O’Shaughnessey) and Knuckles (Idris Elba), who stuck around after the events of the second film. Dispensing with any kind of narrative coherence, the trio is called away by an undefined military force to help with the escape of Shadow (Keanu Reeves), another alien hedgehog who has been locked away off the coast of Japan for many years.

Suffice it to say that the trio does not initially fare well against the powerful Shadow, forcing Sonic to do the unthinkable: Ask his nemesis, Dr. Ivo Robotnik (Jim Carrey), for help. What Sonic doesn’t anticipate is that Shadow has a history that left him with a grudge against most of human society, and he’s intent on using his powers — with a little help from his former mentor, Gerald Robotnik (also Carrey) — to exact his plans for revenge.

Made by the same team of director Jeff Fowler and writers Pat Casey, Josh Miller, and John Whittington from Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the film is a combination of manic action, jokey sequences, and a dash of heart. The addition of Shadow ups the mayhem considerably, and the filmmakers rarely slow things down (although, oddly, the super-speed of Sonic and company feels lessened this time around).

The initial casting of Carrey gave the comic actor permission to indulge in whatever wackiness he could imagine, and giving him two roles in this film means double the nonsense. Ivo and Gerald (who’s Ivo’s grandfather, for the record) face off in a number of silly scenes, none more absurd than a dance sequence aboard a space station threatening to explode Earth (yeah, this movie is a lot).

Does the plot make a lick of sense? Absolutely not, but the filmmakers seem to acknowledge that fact, throwing anything and everything at the screen to try to entertain kids and/or fans of the video game series. It should come as no surprise that the end credits tease yet more characters from the video games joining the franchise, making it abundantly clear who is expected to get the most enjoyment out of the series going forward.

In addition to Carrey, the voice actors continue to make the characters fun. Schwartz and O’Shaughnessey provide the cartoon-style acting, while Elba and now Reeves give a nice counterbalance with their deep and serious voices. Marsden and Sumpter aren’t given much to do this time around, and Krysten Ritter shows up as Director Rockwell, a character who’s mostly there to move what little plot there is further along.

A four-quadrant movie is one that appeals to all ages and genders; Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is a one or maybe two-quadrant movie at most. But it’s more fun than the other family-friendly offering this Christmas season, and fans of the video game will likely love the depiction of their favorite characters on screen, so it’s doing something right.

---

Sonic the Hedgehog 3 is now playing in theaters.

movies film