American Idol season 7 is going to start soon. Are you excited? Am I excited? No!
I have completely lost interest since the last season whereby Jordin Sparks is the winner. The judges said the same thing. The contestants sang the same kinda songs. Perhaps the only thing interesting is watching all those William Hung wannabes.
The show has lost its credibility. Yeah, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry did make some airwaves with their hit songs. But others just go down the drain. Record labels have dropped previous winners Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard. And now another record label decided to drop Katharine McPhee as well.
Last season was a complete disaster. American Idol has become the biggest joke with Sanjaya being one of the voters favourite. To me, the voting system has never been my favourite. It sucks when you see the best contestant being voted off while keeping the weaker ones. Try ask Chris Daughtry fans.
Will American Idol end up like another reality show 'Survivor' (I'm talking about ratings-wise)? I doubt American Idol will survive too. Okay, maybe another season if Paula Abdul is being accused drunk on the show or Britney Spears decided to call Simon Cowell for advice.
Wait till you hear from Joseph at the Nouvelle Star audition, a French reality television show based on Pop Idol. My friend send it to me and I thought I want to share it with you guys who have not seen this before.
This morning, my online friend for 7 years, KMei sent me a sms saying that Britney Spears who is a big fan of Sanjaya, the famous American Idol reject, is interested to record a duet with him.
I'm not sure how true it is. I mean perhaps Britney Spears is trying to create a 'positive' publicity for herself.
It's definitely going to be interesting to see them performing on stage. After all, we haven't seen Britney's performance for a long time. And I don't think Sanjaya is going have any career move in the music industry since he's not that talented nor he is as bad as William Hung to secure a record deal. So a duet with Britney is definitely going to help him in the entertainment business.
But seriously, if the duet is real, I think Britney's music career is going to be a disaster.
To be honest, I love Sanjaya the first time I saw him at the American Idol audition. I loved him even more when he showed his love for his sister as soon as he knew his sister didn't made it to the next round at Hollywood audition.
If you read the forum at the American Idol website, you knew he was the most popular guy until Antonella Barba case was exposed. Barba didn't lasted long in the show but Sanjaya fame continues to rise not because of his talent but his personality and hairdo.
The rating of the show continues to fall but I don't think anyone should blame Sanjaya. The show is bland: Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones are flawless even Simon didn't know what to comment anymore, Ryan Seacrest and Simon and their homophobic jokes, Randy Jackson and his same ol' "It was a little bit too pitchy for me" comment and Paula, I don't even want to talk about her.
The American Idol show is now depending on Sanjaya for publicity. I don't watch the show as regularly as I did before. I just tune in because I want to see if he performs really bad that week and I don't want to miss the moment if he's voted off. But hey, there are other contestants like Phil Stacey and Haley Scarnato who are far worse than Sanjaya who should be voted off first but they continue to stay on.
Going into my main point, people like Gina Glocksen, Chris Sligh and my favourite Stephanie Edwards are the victims of the voting system. I have long disagree with this so-called democratic approach to find a talented singer. We didn't make a mistake the first time when we decided that Jaclyn Victor is the well-deserved winner of Malaysian Idol. But look at what happened to Malaysian Idol in season 2.
Another significant weakness of the voting system was shown in Akademi Fantasia. Mawi is not my favourite contestant in AF3 but this man deserves to win because he's really popular. But what happened to other contestants in the same batch with him? The huge gap between Mawi and his fellow friends was very demotivating because you know you did your best and received applause from judges but you will never be able to match the popularity of Mawi even though he made mistakes like forgetting lyrics, sang out of tune or received bad reviews from the judges.
Once I heard that some contestants from Blast Off spent thousands of ringgit to ensure they will go far in the competition. Another contestant in Astro Talent Quest not only won the competition through the voting system but also represented Malaysia in a TVB8 singing contest and won the most sms votes despite his lack of popularity and losing in the singing contest judged by Hong Kong celebrities.
To me the voting system is a total rip off of viewers money because for each vote, you are paying like 50 sen or 65 sen. And now Akademi Fantasia is introducing Afundi Sakan whereby viewers can place 3 or 5 votes with each call. What is so democratic about the system?
The moral of the story: the voting system in reality shows is the symbol of the democratic world we live in. Look at the suffering world around us. The influential and rich will always win or have better advantage than those who doesn't. But since we accepted the system, we made decisions on who becoming our leaders (whether you vote them or not) and hence we will have to bear the consequences of our own action.
I've been working on my manuscript these couple of days I don't feel like updating my blog. Too much of writing can be sickening sometimes.
Did you watch Prison Break on Star World (Astro Channel 70) on Tuesday? I watched the first season on 8TV but missed the first two episodes. I'm so glad that I get to see the first during the repeat on Wednesday. It's definitely one of my favourite tv shows besides Heroes, Grey's Anatomy and Lost (I gradually lost interest in this show because the storyline is getting nowhere). Wentworth Miller is hot but I think Dominic Purcell is even hotter.
What else on tv?
I'm kinda disappointed with the result show on American Idol. Who would have thought Sanjaya, Haley and Gina not in the bottom three? I thought Chris R. did a good job and he doesn't deserve to be in the bottom two. His rendition of the song, Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying, reminds me of Color Me Badd in their album Time and Chance. And poor Stephanie. She's talented but I guess America doesn't need another Fantasia or Beyonce. And so she was voted out of the show.
Recently, I've been hooked up with the show Real World: Denver on MTV too. Currently, Astro Channel 71 is showing the 1st and 2nd episodes (you can catch up the show on their official website on MTV). I've watched Real World: Key West and Real World: Austin and like them. There's really nothing you can learn from the show actually. It's always about a bunch of self-centred kids who stay together in a big house and all they ever do is partying and having sex. And sometimes they mess with the law and get arrested too. I don't recommend kids under 18 to watch this show because it's a bad influence, really.
Here are the top 12 contestants who made it to the next round. It's a surprise because Haley and Sanjaya are still in the competition. It's sad because Sabrina Sloan who's a much better singer has been voted out.
The guest star for next week show is Diana Ross. Personally I would prefer to see some recent singers on the show.
The girls are definitely better than the guys. Here's my opinion about the show tonight.
Jordin Sparks She's sweet and young but vocally she's way behind the other girls in the show. And I'm not really interested about her song choice or performance. I don't care if she leaves the show tomorrow. (6/10)
Sabrina Sloan I think she's kinda hot and talented too. But sometimes I don' really feel her presence because she's being overshadowed by really charismatic contestants in this show. (7/10)
Antonella Barba The media definitely help her a lot to get this far on the show. Her name is #1 top searches in Technorati. And with her smart song choice tonight (Corrine Bailey Rae's Put Your Records On), I think she's probably going to stay. Although she's not a great singer, I think her popularity is going to put her through another week. (5.5/10)
Haley S. Haley who? I have to agree with Simon that nobody remember her name. I thought she already out last week. Probably I mistaken her for Alaina. I don't care what she sings. Vote her off the show tomorrow. (5/10) Stephanie Edwards She's really beautiful and elegant. And she can sing! I think she's able to go very far, probably top 3 in this show. If she wins, her records going to sell because she's very 'current'. I can imagine her being a big R&B star. (7.5/10)
Lakisha Jones She's a power house but she kinda keep it low tonight. Anyway, I don't think I need to elaborate further because she's the best singer in this show. (8/10)
Gina Glocksen Finally I see the real Gina Glocksen. I always thought she's a rocker at heart since her audition last year. And I'm glad she finally come out and sing an Evanescence's song. She can't match Amy Lee's singing but what the heck. This is the first time she belted out a rock song. Hope to see her perform that kinda genre in future show. (7/10)
Melinda Doolittle And I thought she's a timid girl. But when she's on stage, gosh, she's a totally different person. She's 'fierce'. (8/10)
In my humble opinion, the girls are more talented and fun to watch. The guys are dull.
I love this season's American Idol. This is the best season since season 3 (when Fantasia emerged the winner). And I'm rooting for the girls to win this year. Personally I want Lakisha to win. If the guys should ever win though, it has to be Blake 'Beatbox' Lewis.
I have never done review about this show before. So here's my opinion:
Blake Lewis He is definitely the most popular guy in this competition. And now the group 311 is going to love him for promoting their song, All Mixed Up, on American Idol. It's great to hear some fresh songs from this guy. We had enough of Marvin Gaye or Stevie Wonder songs on the show already. With Blake incorporating beatbox in his songs every week now (except the first week), it's just fun to watch him. (7/10)
Sanjaya Malakar Oh, please! How could he spoiled my favourite John Mayer's song (Waiting for the World to Change)? I know he has a huge fan base and I won't be surprised if he's going to stay for another week. He's a nice boy but all the fanjayas need to accept that he's not very good on stage after all. (4/10)
Sundance Head This guy did a good job last week but this week, he sucked. He's going home. Next. (4/10)
Chris R. This guy is actually quite good but he's too 'Justin Timberlake'. The way he moves and sing resemble JT which is something I do not like. (7/10)
Jared Cotter He is the sexiest guy on the show! I don't care if he's not the best singer. Hope he will stay on for a week or two. (6/10)
Brandon Rogers His singing was good tonight. However I thought he was forgettable. I don't really have much things to say about him. (6.5/10)
Chris S. I thought his audition was good. But when it comes to performance on stage, he doesn't stand out like his hairdo. And with his singing and song choice tonight, he's going home. (6/10)
Phil Stacey If Chris S doesn't go home, Phil is. His performance tonight was so bad I couldn't believe it. It was a disaster with the song 'How Do I Live'. However he deserves another chance as he was pretty good in the previous weeks. (5/10)
Overall, the guys performance were pretty bad. Can't wait to hear the girls sing tomorrow.
American Idol season 7 is going to start soon. Are you excited? Am I excited? No!
