AMERICA VOTES THE JUDGES DON'T MATTER

On American Idol, once America starts voting the judges don't really matter. Last week Antonella Barba got lousy feedback from the judges and then America voted and Antonella lived to sing another day. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that the judges no longer have a roll. They still influence the Idol wannabes through their comments and they are entertaining in their own way. If a contestant has enough people that are willing to vote for them no matter what it doesn't matter what the judges say.

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RANDY CONTRADICTS HIMSELF?

Last week on American Idol Ryan Seacrest had a dialog with Randy Jackson after a female contestant sang a song that Randy felt was too big for her. Ryan argued that Randy is always encouraging contestants to take a risk on their song choice and now it seems like you're telling them that they shouldn't have taken the risk. Randy explained that he still encourages contestants to take a risk, but if they select a big song they have to sing it exceptionally well. It can't be a mediocre rendition. I would say that Randy is looking for contestants to sing the song better than the original artist or to sing it well and make it their own.

GROUPS DAY IS TOUGH

One of the toughest parts of American Idol Hollywood week is groups day. It seems that this is a make or break for many contestants. Bailey Brown is a good example of this. She got excellent feedback from the judges during her San Antonio audition and made it through her first Hollywood week audition. When it was time for the group performance Bailey forgot her lyrics and thus it was the end of the road for her. Other contestants run in to problems with joining a group or getting along with other group members. It may seem unfair for a contestant who is otherwise extraordinarily talented to be eliminated for not performing well in a group but group performing is something that most entertainers end up doing at some point in their careers.

WHAT THE JUDGES ARE LOOKING FOR

In my last post I talked about the American Idol judges saying that they found a contestants facial expressions distracting. Your initial reaction may have been "so what". If a singer does something that distracts their audience, their audience wont have their full attention on their singing but will be partially focused on what the singer is doing that is distracting. I played violin in an amateur orchestra for 15 years, and my director explained to us that professional orchestras usually dress in black and white so that their audience will focus on the music they are playing and not them. So as you can see in addition to talent stage presence is important.

I hope you have been enjoying reading my Blog all about singing and American Idol. Please feel free to comment.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE JUDGES

How about those American Idol judges? Paula is sometimes not critical enough; Randy usually hits it about right; and then there's Simon. You gotta love Simon, or hate him. I think Simon is sometimes too critical and can definitely be cruel. This season we have seen some surprises from the judges. With one male contestant, Simon and Randy said yes; and Paula said no, she felt he was off key. Then there was a female contestant that Randy and Paula said no due to her distracting facial expressions and Simon said that he would have said yes. Amazingly they brought her back to give her a second chance and did put her through to Hollywood. With so many people coming out to audition, the judges really do have have a tough job to select only those who are truly exceptional

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My wife and I started watching American Idol two years ago. So far, we have supported rockers; Bo Bice two years ago and Chris Doughtry last year. I'm not really sure why we supported them considering that neither one of us is a huge fan of that genre. Probably the reason why we supported them is because they are both very talented and versatile. Bo Bice is a rocker but can also do a great job with a ballad. Chris Doughtry always seemed to find a song that he could apply his rocker style to.

One of the male contestants that auditioned in Minnesota stated that Chris Doughtry had opened doors last year. When this contestant auditioned he sang in what I would call rough Chris Doughtry style. Simon challenged him to come back and sing an ABBA song. He came back and sang Dancing Queen in his same rough rocker style taking it away from the genre of an ABBA song. Chris would have sung the song keeping within the genre and adding a bit of his own style. It seems the minnesota contestant was unaware of the versatility and flexability required to make it on American Idol.