Arthur Gunn Pens Heartfelt Instagram Explaining His 'American Idol' Finale Absence
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Update, May 25, 2021 at 9:55 a.m. ET:
A day after he didn't show up at the American Idol season finale, Arthur Gunn addressed his absence on Instagram. Alongside a picture of a mural that reads "Aspire to inspire others and the universe will take note," the singer penned a lengthy caption to his fans about his last-minute decision to not participate. He was originally booked to perform with Grammy-winning artist Sheryl Crow for Sunday night's show.
The caption in full reads:
Well, let’s just say I missed my opportunity to sing with legendary @sherylcrow . what happened is not much to discuss at this point. I would like to make it up and invite @sherylcrow to perform couple of songs on the July 30th at @thecotillion It was last minute decision but I couldn’t help but say no cause of some personal morals and values due to unpleasant environmental experiences. It’s not necessary to state it, it is what it is, so I felt like I had to move on, It’s not the show @americanidol to blame, they were there long before nor anyone related to show. I’m grateful for @americanidol for have given me this platform and helped me to reach out to you all. sometimes things happens and it happens for a reason I guess. I feel upset about it as much as all you might have, and I’m sorry if I did let down anyone but I felt like all these confrontations didn’t need to happen at the show, so I just had to move on from there, sometimes all we can do is move on!!!
Original, May 24, 2021 at 11:34 a.m. ET:
Not sure if you noticed, but someone didn't show up to the American Idol season finale last night.
During Sunday night's star-studded episode, which featured performances from Leona Lewis, Chaka Khan, Fall Out Boy and more, the ABC competition show asked back a few Idol fan favorites, including last season's runner-up Arthur Gunn. As dedicated Idol viewers already know, Arthur was given the opportunity to come back to this year's top 10 thanks to this season's unique comeback twist, which granted a handful of last year's Idol standouts the chance to compete on stage (since they didn't get to in light of the COVID-19 pandemic).
Even though he got voted off earlier this year, Arthur was reportedly committed to performing with Sheryl Crow for the season finale on Sunday night. But at the last minute he didn't show up, prompting producers to pull former contestant Graham DeFranco out of the audience to sing with the "Soak Up the Sun" artist.
What happened to Arthur Gunn and why didn't he show up at the 2021 finale?
Right now, it's unclear why Arthur dropped out of the finale. The singer himself has not offered any explanation nor posted any Twitter updates since May 19 when he announced that he was dropping the video for his new single "Save Me Now" on Friday. On Saturday, he did share an Instagram selfie simply captioned "111."
When USA Today asked judges Luke Bryan, Katy Perry and Lionel Richie to share what they knew about Arthur's no-show after the finale had concluded, no one could offer up a concrete explanation.
Lionel maintained that they "don't even know what happened," while Luke gave a shout out to Graham."He literally came to cheer," Luke said. "He was there to support Chayce, and we're pulling him out of the crowd going, 'You're gonna sing with Sheryl Crow.' And he's like, 'Hell yeah!'"
Katy added that American Idol has always been "a spicy show."
"It's a live, three-hour show. And, quite honestly, we've had a very colorful season. Curveballs galore," she continued. "But Graham DeFranco? I mean, killed it. Sang so well, and I was so glad he was there."
Despite Arthur's absence, there were still plenty of other exciting things happening during Sunday night's finale. At the end of the evening, Ryan Seacrest announced that Chayce Beckham had won the singing competition series with Willie Spence coming in second and Grace Kinstler coming in third. Plus, fans got to see top 4 finalist Casey Bishop take the stage with Luke and sing "Living on a Prayer" after her shocking elimination last week.
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