March 5, 2010

Idol Follow-Up: America Still Extremely Racist

Just as I predicted in my last post, the first person voted off American Idol this week is John Park, the only Asian on this year's show. But America, not to be outdone, took no shame in booting Jermaine Sellers (African-American), Michelle Delamour (Puerto Rican?), and Haeley Vaughn (African-American) out of their show. Apparently no time this season will be spent appeasing the minorities. Todrick (gross name!), Paige, and Andrew are all that's left, and Andrew is really the only one from that group with a chance to go far, but only if he stops theses lackluster performances that fall so short of his awesome "Straight Up" cover. However, each of these singers did have legitimate reasons to be voted off (anyone that sings a Creed song should automatically be disqualified), but white contestants do too. Of course, Tim Urban, the worst contestant this show has had in a long time, wasn't even in the running to be voted off...but it's ok, he prays before every performance. Now he has the Bible vote in addition to his cute white-boy looks appealing to NASCAR America, Idol's largest voting demographic. Also, last season's Danny Gokey, perhaps the whitest contestant Idol has ever seen, performed his new single.

Anyway, I don't want to bore you with another recap of continued horrible guy performances, Seacrest Vs. Simon, and Kara hate, though it all was still very much there, all still indicating to Idol's self-destruction. (If you do want to read a good recap check out the blog at VoteFortheWorst.Com, they watch the show with a similar eye as I do, but are better writers.) But I do want to focus on the budding Seacrest/Didi (Dicrest?) relationship taking place. I've never seen Seacrest so sensitive to a contestant's emotions in the real, non-TV-personality way that took place last night. Before introducing Didi's video, Seacrest was all over her, in an obvious flirty way. And then after an emotional judge's comments, Ryan was all holding her and looking into her eyes and reassuring her and holding her...there is clearly something going on between them. Maybe Seacrest isn't gay afterall? Just another subplot on America's favorite reality show.

The good news: Siobhan Magnus delivered another out-of-left-field performance, this time of Aretha Franklin's "Think" and blew the judges away with an amazing note. Man, she is sooo in her own world, but I LOVE IT!!! I really hope she goes a long way in the competition with her vocals because her lovable weirdness has boosted her to my #1 favorite spot. Crystal Bowersox, after being hospitalized the day before, tore up the Idol stage with a truly professional and engaging gospel-y version of CCR's "Long As I Can See The Light" making her the clear front runner for this season, plus everyone loves CCR. In a sea of terrible guys, Alex Lambert redeemed his excruciatingly hard to watch performance last week with a solid John Legend cover, he has a very pure and listenable voice, the best of the guys, if he can keep his nerves down I can see him go far, and I hope he does. He's already got the sympathy vote, so he has a good chance. The night's biggest surprise for me was Katelyn Epperly's back-to-basics cover of Coldplay's "The Scientist." She went from forgettable nobody to top 12 front-runner without changing the song in to some incomprehensible/inferior version. The judges really need to stop encouraging this musically destructive behavior, the songs can be great without changing the melodies and whatnot every single time...I mean, the show has survived for 8 seasons without this excessive nonsense!

Anyway, great job America for your continued racism, and truly great job Katelyn Epperly for stepping up your game and making your place on the grid known. ...and Go Siobhan!

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