American Idol contestant Wyatt Pike has released an original song after quitting American Idol's nineteenth season.
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Wyatt, a 20-year-old singer and songwriter from Park City, UT, released an original single on his Instagram account on Monday, just hours before the show aired a new episode of the reality singing competition on ABC.
Wyatt's new tune is called "Friday Nights," and the Instagram video features him singing the song and playing guitar in his house.
"As promised, here's a video of my tune 'Friday Nights'! I had fun filming this for you yesterday, hope you enjoy! 'Friday Nights' is available on all streaming platforms!" Wyatt captioned the video.
Wyatt performed "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon as a member of American Idol's Top 16 contestants for Season 19 and was praised for his unique performance style.
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Judge Katy Perry even expressed Wyatt might have had an "edge" in the competition due to his songwriting abilities.
But at the top of American Idol's first live episode on April 12, host Ryan Seacrest announced the frontrunner had to leave the show for undisclosed reasons.
"Before we get to the results, I have to tell you that finalist Wyatt Pike will not be competing in the competition. He had to drop out, but we wish him the very best," Ryan, 46, said.
People reported at the time that Wyatt had to quit American Idol "due to personal reasons."
Specific details about Wyatt's sudden departure have yet to be revealed, but Wyatt wrote April 14 on Instagram, "I had to leave the @AmericanIdol competition for personal reasons but am so thankful I get to play music for the rest of my life."
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"Fellow contestants -- miss you all, good luck!" he added. "Thank you to everyone for your support... do stick around for more musical things soon!"
Idol judge Luke Bryan missed the live broadcast on April 12 after testing positive for coronavirus, but Luke's sudden absence mixed with Wyatt's sudden exit prompted fans to speculate a fight had occurred between the men.
Luke's wife Caroline Boyer, however, just shut down such speculation by confirming her husband definitely had a positive COVID-19 test.
"Trust me, he has covid," Caroline wrote on Sunday to a TikTok user asking about the alleged fight that might have gone down between Luke and Wyatt.
"I kinda wish there was a fight. I'm sick of taking care of kids alone and sanitizing. I'm peeing Lysol!"
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Luke returned for Sunday night's episode in which the Top 9 contestants were revealed.
American Idol is in the process of determining its Top 10 contestants for Season 19 on ABC given one singer from the show's 2020 edition will be allowed to join the competition based on home-viewer votes and compete to win in the weeks ahead.