My name is Aida Halim. I am residing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. And I am a true blue fan of yours."
American Idol is a talent search contest that copies the British show "Pop Idol". Primary auditions throughout the US will be to establish which of 100 performers to be elected for a second round of try-outs to decide the 30 contestants to emerge in the first five episodes of the show. Audience will vote each week to determine two performers to proceed to the next round. Those 12 acts will then stage new performances on a bigger platform.
Judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson, will measure each performance before viewers vote two performers off the show each week until only two remain for a final competition top determine the winner. The 2002 American Idol was Kelly Clarkson. American Idol 2 debuted on FOX January 21, 2003. The finalists were Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard with Ruben being named American Idol.
American Idol 3 finalists are:
Group One : Fantasia Barrino and Diana Degarmo
Group Two : Matt Rogers and Camile Velasco
Group Three : Latoya London and Amy Adams
Group Four : John Stevens and Jasmine Trias
Wild Cards : Randy picked Jennifer Hudson, Paula picked Leah Labelle, Simon picked George Huff and America voted for Jon Peter Lewis
Voted Out Still Standing
My personal favourite is John Stevens (*cowering* please don't throw shoes at me!) I know not everyone has the same taste in music, and I'm certainly not going to tell you that one thing is right or another is wrong. This is MY very humble opinion, and I won't force it on anyone. But, just for argument sake…
Is it any wonder that when the sweet and genuine vocal styling of John Stevens was televised that viewers were confused and, therefore, deemed him as boring and "too quiet"? Quiet in comparison to what - all the over-hyped, epileptic, over-sung performances of the majority of his peers?
Thanks - but I will take the quiet, genuine and serene performance of John over some of the other Idol finalists any day of any week of any year.
John's voice has a very unique, beautiful tonal quality, and I appreciate the attention he gives to old-fashioned songs. We need more young singers celebrating the music of our great songwriters of yesteryear. Unlike the women on the show, John sings to me, not screams at me.
But let's look at the facts :
1) John is sixteen years old--no, he is not a mature singer (I realized that after the puberty squeak on his "Crocodile Rock"). He's a sore thumb as it is: red hair, fan of the Great American songbook, young with the pastiest skin ever.
2) He only croons and not flexible, vocally. Some genres are simply not good for some voices. But then again, no one ever asked Frank Sinatra to sing Motown for a reason. Just like no one would ever want to hear the Beatles does a rap remix of "She Loves You."
3) He lacks performance skills. But this isn't a business for prodigies. Like most other skills and trades, we usually develop with each effort we make.
Why am I his fan anyway?
He isn't related to me - there's nothing in it for me - until this season started he was unknown to me. But somewhere along the line, whether at the audition or the day he made the finals, somewhere I realized I liked him best, believed he should win, and decided to like him "better" than others. I was moved, and charmed, by something special in him.
At some point, he had outstanding reviews from the judges. (So nobody can say he is talent less). The fact is his natural talent was not a one shot deal, or a fluke. It was there and is still there. If anything, the format of the show makes it hard for him to blossom, but that's another whole topic.
When I watched the night Jennifer was let go, I was also a bit shocked that the bottom group was composed of singers a lot of people kind of expected would be in the Final Four, or even Final Three. She fell in the bottom a couple of times. A lot of people think she overdoes it in her singing, which is not to say she's bad, just not a first choice (since she shares the same target audience with Fantasia and Latoya hence splitting votes).
You have to "grab" the audience and have a strong fan base early on to win and the fan base must grow. John Stevens did have strong fan bases and is growing, but his performance growth was thwarted by the genre (save Country Night) sequence which favored some singers. How do you think things would have gone if Big Band had been first, maybe followed closely by Barry Manilow or Movie Night?
John, love him or hate him is the only contestant left generating huge amounts of buzz. He right now is the "most looked up" contestant on the web. There is no way anyone is going to convince me that John has a small amount of fans or viewers on his side. No way, he would not still be here if that was the case. Not to mention that on Tuesday night I saw many, many people (even the non-fans) across the country say they actually liked his "Mandy" and tried to vote for him but got busy signals. Even Jennifer touched upon his having a HUGE and fan base in an interview.
Now, with that said. There has been a GIANT backlash against John, from the media and the judges. It's distasteful too. It saddens me to think that once this experience is all over that he may think that his time at American Idol was the biggest let down of his life. The backlash from the public, media, and all over the internet is quite sickening really. I cannot imagine what this kid must be feeling right now.
What I love about AI is they put raw talent in this competition and let them grow in the course of this competition. I think that he is taking what he is given and making the most of it. He is a crooner, and I think one that is talented already with the potential to get better. He is in a competition where they first thought it was a "novelty" and they pushed him through. They kept pushing him through and he made the top 32. Fine, the judges did that and have no one to blame but themselves. He makes the top 12 and no one really squawks. "He will be gone the first week or so".
What ends up happening is that a portion of the viewers really, REALLY like him. So they vote for him and hope he continues. The judges begin to realize this kid isn't going away, and so they blast and ridicule him. He continues on, and gets more coals heaped upon his head.
Then people say he can't sing, even in his genre. ONE WEEK in the past 6 has he had a chance to sing something close to his genre (As Time Goes By - Movie Week) and he NAILED IT. Otherwise he gets horrible critiques (how do you get better when being told you look like Stan Laurel?) and is asked to improve. I think he has, I think he has improved greatly in stage presence, in presentation, in overall ability. Maybe his singing hasn't improved a great deal, but then again I didn't think it needed to in the first place.
See, the problem with this argument is that if improvement equals doing something other than what you do, then no one in the competition (except perhaps Jennifer) has grown. Fantasia never did. Goodness knows George isn't. Jasmine has certainly stayed her boring self. Latoya continues to belt same ol' same ol'. Diana continues to warble.
So crooning is what John does, what's wrong with that? I understand wanting him to croon better, but he can't very well change the timbre of his voice. John cannot sing a song without sounding like he's crooning, because that's his voice.
Now other than the fact that he's still crooning (because as previously stated, he can't do anything about this), so far I've seen John take every criticism and improve on it. He was told to show personality, he danced. He was told he didn't connect, so he connected. He emoted (Mandy - Barry Manilow Week). That's why I like this kid.
That and he's dead cute, but that, apparently, is relative.
While I do think that folks like LaToya or Fantasia should win AI, because they have the versatility that the show requires, his is the ONLY CD I would buy.
"I vote for you, John Stevens, because you grab me. YOU are my American Idol"
