IDOLIZING AMERICAN IDOL 7

This is American Idol.

I bet, you always look forward to hearing Ryan Seacrest say this popular line at the beginning of the show, don’t you? Yes, ladies and gentlemen for those of you who still are not into American Idol fever, you can catch the show every Tuesdays and Wednesdays on tv but for those living outside the US ( which I believe does not include American Idol in your regular tv program) you can have a peek at youtube.com to catch up the latest American Idol performances.

In the beginning, I always watched youtube for outrageous bad American Idol auditions to give me a good chuckle every now and then after a hard day at work. And I tell you what, it’s one of the best relief to cure suppressed depression, insomia, indigestion but not much of a cure for a throbbing headache ( as this might add up more than relieve the pain) after hearing funny off key auditions; ear splitting voices, phonetic inventions of lyrics and out of this world costumes who are considered idol wannabees. To prove my point, click on this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQt-h753jHI&NR=1

Hillarious isn’t it? Yes, this is from “Music Idol ( Bulgarian version of American Idol). A non-English speaker mustered all the confidence in which she subsituted “Ken Lee” for the refrain “can’t live” from the original title “Without You”. But hey, this you tube site has 3,334,382 hits as of this writing. I am quite sure that this popularized Ken Lee made her an instant superstar for youtube fans.

American Idol 7 has finally reached the top 10 this week thus, going through the moment of truth elimination round during Wednesdays. The top ten remaining contenders for this week are David Cook, Michael Johns, David Archuleta, Brooke White, Ramiel Malubay, Syesha Mercado, Carly Smthson, Kristy Lee Cook and Chkezie Ezie.

As a general rule of the show, American viewers vote to oust one of these contestants to cut down the size of American Idol singers until they crown the winner for this year. You may have your personal favorites after each one of them renders their professional level perfomances on stage. Among them, I would personally vote for David, Brooke, Michael and Chekezie. As for the rest of them, they could go back home and do whatever they used to do before their American Idol stint.

I am sure most of the readers of this blog will agree or disagree with my choice. On a hindsight, I have always been puzzled about what influences the vote of the American viewers? Is it really their perfomance per se? Or did they base it on the opinions of the judges ( Randy, Paula and Simon)?

Judges play a crucial role in analyzing and rating their weekly performances. Their opinions can make or break an aspiring finalist. What they say can make them the most popular or most hated judge for the evening depending on how they coin the words to put their judgement across.

A balanced diplomatic and receptive insight that start with “hey yo! What’s going down dog?, check it out baby” that’s Randy Jackson. If you want to hear sugar ( or sometimes very sugary ) coated words, indecisive of what’s about to be said, bad performance evaluation wrapped up in a very patronizing tone said with droppy eyes and awkward half drunk demeanor then listen to Paula.

However, if you are ready for a straight brutal honest to goodness sharper than two edged sword blunt criticism, my advise is either you listen to Simon Cowell or don't listen to him at all. Because there is no other way for him to tell things except in a honest and straight forward manner.

Simon could be the most hated judge among the three because of his natural consistent cruel remarks. When I say cruel, I mean his input is not for the faint –of- heart. So if you are a budding singer and you want to know how he thinks about your performance, well, my advise is, be careful with what you’re wishing for.

But on the other hand, what’s wrong with Simon? Watching him express himself candidly fortifies my interest to anticipate to what he will have to say in the forthcoming show. Simon with his brusque self, reminds me of what we should always have to be with regard to our dealing with other people. Sincere and honest. Plain and simple.

Maybe not as brutal as he is but to be able to call black if it’s black and white if it’s white not kinda black or a little bit whitish. Not being able to mince words to say what you really mean is definitely Simon’s expertise. With regard to his position as an American Idol judge, this is what he has to say:

“The object of this competition is not to be mean to the losers but to find a winner. The process makes you mean because you get frustrated. Kids turn up unrehearsed, wearing the wrong clothes, singing out of tune and you can either say, 'Good job,' and patronize them or tell them the truth, and sometimes the truth is perceived as mean." – Simon Cowell

As for my real American Idol Mr. Simon Cowell, here is what I have to say about you “Your performance is fantastic by a mile. The best performance for the night so far.”