Author: Sophie Schillaci

Frank Micelotta / FOX

Sam Woolf

Hey Twitterverse, American Idol hears you loud and clear.

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While show producers are pushing social on all fronts, from promoting Facebook users during broadcast to enlisting judges Jennifer Lopez, Keith Urban and Harry Connick, Jr. to live-tweet during Wednesday’s show, the contestants say they’re feeling the love from their fans all week long.

“I’m so grateful,” fan favorite Sam Woolf says of his 63,000 Twitter followers. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter following Wednesday’s taping, Woolf said that he “wants to be interacting more,” but “it’s hard sometimes because there’s a lot coming in.” Even if Woolf doesn’t respond directly to his fans’ messages, the singer assured THR that he sees them and “it helps a lot” as he prepares for each week’s competition.

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Alex Preston, with more than 45,000 followers to his name, says that being an Idol competitor in the age of social media has definite advantages.

“It’s a lot better now because you can really interact with the people who are keeping you in the competition,” he tells THR. “They are the only reason I’m still here, so I pretty much owe everything to them. All I want to do now is write music that they can connect and relate to.”

We may not hear Preston’s new material for a while, but for now fans can take solace in the fact that he’s eyeballing each and every one of their messages.

“Whenever I look at my [direct messages], if someone is going through something tough I always respond and say, ‘Keep your head up,’” Preston says. “When I was a struggling musician, I always appreciated when bigger musicians reached out to me and it kept me going. I want to do the same.”

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Not getting the response you want? Preston admits that multiple messages are more likely to catch his yee. “A lot of people tweet the exact same tweet but put a different number at the end. One person did it 100 times, I saw it and I was like, ‘Oh, crap! What’s up?’”

To read THR’s complete recap of Wednesday’s Idol, click here.

Twitter: @SophieSchillaci

Frank Micelotta / FOX

Ryan Seacrest (left) and Caleb Johnson

“Ryan, you’ve got the voice of an angel, man.”

That’s high praise coming from American Idol season 13 rocker Caleb Johnson, who nudged host Ryan Seacrest into performing an impromptu duet during Wednesday’s broadcast.

“I was like, ‘I gotta get him to try to sing.’ I didn’t know he was gonna sing to me,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter immediately following the taping. “I was just gonna sing to him, but he went with it so it was really cool.”

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The moment came when Seacrest asked Johnson and his official duet partner, Jena Irene, which dream artist they would like to collaborate with someday. Turning on his signature charm, Johnson, of course, named Seacrest, and then launched into Bryan Adams’ “Heaven.” (FYI: Irene name dropped Paramore’s Hayley Williams and we totally co-sign.)

“I would say that was one of the most special vocal performances of the season,” quipped Harry Connick Jr., who has become notorious for his tough critiques. “Of the century,” he added with a laugh.

Seconds later, Johnson and Irene created “a moment,” as judge Jennifer Lopez called it, when they joined forces on The Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter.”

Twitter: @Idol_Worship

Frank Micelotta / FOX

“American Idol”

It may have been a no-brainer to pair American Idol finalists Dexter Roberts and CJ Harris for a duet on Wednesday, but producers didn’t nail it on their initial song selection. 

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“They gave us ‘Hey Brother,'” Roberts told The Hollywood Reporter, referring to Avicii’s bluegrass-tinged dance hit. “It was like, we can change it up and make it good, but is there a [better] song that me and CJ can sing?”

The longtime pals, who first met nearly half a decade ago on a school trip to Panama City, suggested Darius Rucker’s “Alright” as an option, after singing it together years before heading to Hollywood. “That’s your song,” Roberts recalled producers saying. 

“It was a special moment for me,” Harris told THR. “We’ve grown so much as musicians, from playing it wrong back home to actually playing the song right now. We’d go and play it everywhere and we’d be playing the wrong chords.

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“Tonight we got the chorus and the harmony right,” Harris continued. “We had a really good time connecting as friends.”

After joking that working with his roommate “sucked,” Roberts got serious, comparing Harris to “one of my brothers.”

Hey, maybe the Avicii hit wouldn’t have been a bad choice after all. 

Watch the performance below:

Twitter: @SophieSchillaci