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One of country music’s fastest rising stars, Jelly Roll, linked up with “American Idol” Top 8 performer, Oliver Steele, at the 2023 Billboard Country Live In Concert on June 7.
The two shared the stage after Jelly Roll welcomed Steele up for a performance as the two broke out into their own rendition of Shania Twain’s “You’re Still The One.” This was the second time these two have collaborated on a song together. Jelly Roll, whose song “Need A Favor” sits at No. 31 on the Billboard Hot 100 for the week of June 10, teamed up with Steele during the “American Idol” season 21 finale. That was where they first met and performed Jelly Roll’s top-charting song.
Jelly Roll Gives Oliver Steele a Grand Introduction
Before breaking out into the Shania Twain song, Jelly Roll gave a quick heartfelt introduction as he ushered out Steele, who recently suffered a sudden loss, ahead of the performance.
“As a Breakthrough Artist of the Year, it’s only right if I bring a breakthrough artist with me,” Jelly Roll said to the crowd. “And I had the opportunity to do the season finale of ‘American Idol’ earlier this year and they said you can sing with anybody in the Top 5 that you want to sing with… I said my guy is in the Top 8 and he’s from Nashville and that’s the guy I want to sing with.”
He continued, “If you want to talk about beautiful things, y’all, I want to bring my brother, Mr. Oliver Steele, to the stage right now if you don’t mind.”
Oliver Steele Loved his ‘Idol’ Performance with Jelly Roll
On May 21 following the “American Idol” finale performance, Steele wrote about the experience in an Instagram post. He wrote that it was “one of the funnest, most bad@ss feeling performances” he had ever done. He thanked Jelly Roll for being so “welcoming” and for the advice that he gave to him.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight on finale night, Jelly Roll revealed some of the advice that he told the contestants.
“You know what I told them, I said ‘Y’all don’t know that none of you will be working for gas money next week’,” he said. “Monday morning, everything changes for y’all… the phones are going to start ringing for them.”
He also added that it’s important to slow down and “be present” because the music industry is a “wild ride.”
Steele mentioned in that Instagram post that he was looking forward to “hanging with you some more back home” which appears to have to fruition with their latest endeavor at the Billboard Country Live concert.
In the clip that the official “American Idol” Instagram account shared of their finale performance, Jelly Roll commented, “What a special moment – thank you so much.”
Since Jelly Roll appeared at the finale, he has been all over the media with a new album and a new documentary. His first country music album, “Whitslitt Chapel,” released on June 2, 2023 which is the album that his single “Need a Favor” is off of. On May 30, Hulu released a documentary called “Jelly Roll” Save Me.”