Singer Kristina Young America's Got Talent Predictions

Kristina Young abruptly emerged on the national entertainment scene during the special YouTube quarterfinals round of the fifth season of America's Got Talent. Young has no real backstory except that she is from South Dakota. She gave a decent performance of Carrie Underwood's "Before He Cheats" during the quarterfinals and was picked either fourth or fifth in the national vote (the judges pick the fourth act to advance between the fourth and fifth-place vote getters from the national vote).

As a singer, Young is in the most successful category of entertainers, as a singer wins almost every year on America's Got Talent. However, due to stiff competition, Kristina Young is unlikely to win America's Got Talent and will also likely fail to make the finals.

The brutal reality is Kristina Young has not earned her place in the semifinals. Kristina is a slightly above-average singer at best who was given a gift by the America's Got Talent producers. Kristina looks marketable and looks like she could be a star from a marketing perspective. But the talent doesn't match up to her marketability. The two good things Kristina has at this point are that she has a fairly unique vocal tone and powerful lungs. But she needs a lot more to thrive on a show like AGT.

Her strengths don't really take her that far. She has a rather deep voice that is interesting for her look. Unfortunately, when she went for the really low notes on "Before He Cheats," it was apparent that she missed the notes. And her power, while impressive, has no finesse to it at all. If you want to see some power with finesse, you will have to look to Alice Tan Ridley as far as this season's America's Got Talent contestants go. Even Alice is prone to just screaming out the notes at times. But at least she knows how to vary her volume to interpret a song in a soulful style.

Kristina essentially has no finesse at this time and seems to have tried to teach herself how to sing. The cynical side of me says the producers picked Kristina for her looks. I can't see any way possible that she was actually picked for her talent. I can't read minds, but I can judge talent at least a little. Kristina Young has NO CHANCE of winning America's Got Talent. There's simply no way that a karaoke-level singer with no enticing backstory is going to win AGT.

Fans won't want to read this, but Kristina is classic cannon fodder. She was picked by the producers for ratings, and the producers know full well she won't win. Kristina will likely fail to even make the finals because she is up against some stiff competition in her semifinals round. Here are the contestants in Kristina's round, scheduled for Tuesday, August 24, 2010:

Michael Grimm

Taylor Mathews

Future Funk

Antonio Restivo

Christina and Ali

ArcAttack

Prince Poppycock

Dan Sperry

AscenDance

Anna and Patryck

Connor Doran

On the singing side, Kristina is at least arguably better than Christina and Ali, a rather amateurish duo of sisters who are arguably surviving on AGT partly because of their cystic fibrosis. However, Kristina has major competition in the likes of Michael Grimm (my overall pick to win), Prince Poppycock and a pretty strong contestant in Taylor Mathews. Grimm and Poppycock will almost certainly advance, and Taylor Mathews has a decent shot to advance. Kristina probably has even less of a chance than Christina and Ali to advance, as that duo has good momentum from their backstory, and little Christina shows a lot more promise than Kristina Young.

Several other acts, such as AscenDance, also stand a good chance at making the finals. Dan Sperry has already gotten more votes than Kristina in the YouTube quarterfinals round. ArcAttack also placed in the Top 3 in votes during its quarterfinals round.

In short, Kristina Young has been given gift after gift so far by the America's Got Talent producers and judges. They picked her to appear on the YouTube special despite an average a capella video. The judges then picked her over Cam Hodges, a great guitar player and songwriter, in the YouTube quarterfinals. Kristina's lucky gift time is likely over. She will not be advancing further during the fifth season of America's Got Talent.