American Idol: Prophecy Fulfilled
This year's final two American Idols, Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips
So the utterly predictable happened. Phillip Phillips, herein known as P2, is the Season 11 American Idol champ. As predictable as a giant nose zit at prom time, P2 was propelled over the finish line by millions of teenyboppers and cougars with flames bursting from their cell phone speed dials.
I won’t belabor P2’s lack of singing ability other than to say he agrees, as he observed last Thursday with Jay Leno: “As everyone knows with me, it’s not about the singing.” I’m glad he agrees.
The last performance night saw Jessica Sanchez singing the daylights out of everything and P2 doing his usual hipster Mumble Pop bit. Why he chose his atrocious cover of Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out” as his best performance to repeat will remain one of life’s enduring mysteries. If he had chosen his audition version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” I would have said great choice. I was at first intrigued with P2 based on that—I attributed the less than stellar singing to nerves—but as the season went on, I grew tired of his one-note parade and especially tired of the high praise from judges who really should have (and probably do) know better.
But the third and last song for each was telling. This was the song they would personally choose to be their first single if they won the contest. (Allegedly. More on that in a bit.) After wowing us all season with her powerful, clear vocals, Jessica chose “Change Nothing” written by Jaden Michaels, Joleen Belle and Harry Sommerdahl. Um, no. This was her last chance to impress the judges and the fans, and she chose a really blah song. The judges didn’t like it, and neither did Jessica, apparently. How much a role the producers played in this will probably remain an Ultra Double-Dog Secret for all time, because it sounds like Jessica wanted to do something more urban, more “me,” as she put it. How much did Jessica’s relative lack of maturity play in her giving in to what the producers wanted?
Since you were wrong all season long maybe you could start commenting on something like Obama’s honesty. I know it won’t be fun since you and he haven’t a clue what the American people want or like but since he lies daily maybe you can catch him in one and misreport it like you are so good at.
So “doesn’t like Phillip Phillips” = “Obama supporter”?
That’s some weird math you’re doing there, sonny.
By the way, those same American people quite clearly “wanted” and “Liked” Obama in 2008. How’s them apples?
Just wait Buzzy ’till Nov! Yes the idiot who writes this terrible blog has to be an Obama supporter because he hasn’t a clue about entertainment or anything else. The two are clones.
The great Canadian author Robertson Davies once said something to the tune of “They say there is no accounting for taste. In fact there is very little else.” Well we’ve accounted for your taste, but others would much prefer “P2″s lowly interpretations to the hackneyed, rote nothingness of Sanchez, no matter how good her voice and ‘nice’ her person.
If the show was called American Singer instead of American Idol, I would agree with your preference for Sanchez over P2. But while Sanchez has an amazing voice and incredible talent, her take on songs is imitative rather than interpretive. P2 may be a lousy singer but he has a unique way of making songs his own. Home was a good example. It is very instructive to compare his version with the original by Holden (on YouTube). Holden’s is folky, P2s goes way beyond. That is what the judges saw and that is why he won.
Hard to predict how it will all turn out. P2 probably won’t be a superstar but he will have a very successful performing career. And he deserves it. So does Ledet. Great talent.
P2 has a “unique way of making songs his own?”
Really?
Ever heard of Mumford & Sons or Dave Matthews, for crying out loud?
An Elvis impersenator has just as much a “unique way of making songs his own” as P2 does. So did the Josh Turner-imitating Scotty from last year, for that matter.
This result had nothing to do with talent. I have said so multiple times, but AI really needs to find a way to prevent (or at least make it more difficult) for people to vote more than once. With 22 million viewers, 132 million votes is a helluva lot of teenybopper adolescent girls voting for P2 on their cell phones because they think he’s “cute.”