My Last Word on American Idol 2012

By this time, everybody would have beaten this dead horse with a stick. Please allow me to add my own stick.

Well, there it is, Phillip Phillips won and congratulations to him, his fans, and his voters. If he is too bashful to participate in the Ford commercials, let’s see how he does in promoting his records… I mean CD’s. I’m not sure if the West Coasters voted enough for Jessica because according to my dialing experience the night of the finale, after 9 p.m. California time, it was easier to get through on the phone lines. Ok, so Jessica Sanchez didn’t win, but let’s not forget that she would not have reached the final two without the judges’ save and the people who rallied to vote for her afterwards.

I apologize for criticizing the pained look on his face when Phillip sang and his non-participation in the Ford commercials. Apparently he was in real pain lots of times due to kidney stones. Anyone who have had that same problem knows how debilitating that can be.

I mentioned in one of my previous posts that according to the Christian Science Monitor, if overall tweets and  You Tube hits translated to votes for Jessica, then she would win the competition. Another newspaper agency analyzed the numbers after the final vote and found out that Jessica had overall the most number of tweets that originated from the Philippines, the U.S., and elsewhere. Well, the Philippines and elsewhere didn’t count. If only the tweets in the U.S. were considered, Phillip won that one. The same can be said about telephone voting because another website that tracked busy phone lines of the two finalists indicated that Phillip had the most calls.

As much as we are disappointed in the results and that a lot of people were right when they said that only a WGWG would win, let’s just say that we had taken Jessica to as far as we could take her with our votes. That’s the best we could do. And to those who say that she did not win because of racial discrimination, I have two words for you: Barack Obama.

And this final note – would you believe that some people still have a mistaken notion that Simon Cowell is still involved or connected with American Idol?! Nuts! OMG, how did I get so involved in this??? Next up: So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). Do you think they would have a Filipino finalist? I remember they had one the other year…

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American Idol 2012 Finale

Now that I’ve slept over it, here are my morning-after non-expert opinions and impressions on how the Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips performed last night. First song for Jessica (whom I consider “the great imitator” as most Filipino singers are, and I mean that in a good way), was Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”. A very good imitated performance with subtle changes as can be expected. Then Phillip Phillip’s song – “Stand By Me”. When I viewed this online from video posted by East Coast bloggers, I thought it was something that you could fall asleep to. Who needs a sleeping pill with that kind of rendition? Ahem, sorry Phillip fans. When I saw it on the West Coast, I thought it sounded better. Next for Jessica was “The Prayer”. It was a beautiful song and she sang it excellently, again as can be expected and I think on par with Celine Dion’s version. These kinds of songs fit her voice like a glove. Phillip’s version of “Moving Out” was well sung too and mostly in tune even though his facial expressions looked like he was in pain (or worse, constipated) while he was singing it. Regarding Jessica’s final song “Change Nothing”, I have to agree with the judges on this one. It wasn’t a good song choice (who chooses those songs, btw?). Started too low and got better sung as it went on. I would have preferred “Change Something”. I watched an East Coast video of Phillip singing “Home” and I liked it. By the middle, I posted on Facebook that it sounded very much like a Simon and Garfunkel song, and this was about 3 hours before I heard Steven Tyler’s comment on the show. I’m glad we’re on the same page on that, Steven J. So there you go folks, I think with the final song, Phillip had the better choice. Still, it was not enough for me to switch up my votes.

Which brings us to the racial discrimination claims by some quarters. Personally, I think not. Racial bias? Perhaps. But that’s just human nature. Of course if Jessica Sanchez comes out the winner, then you can throw out the window the two claims mentioned beforehand. For the sake of argument, if Jessica wins, it may be a case of fans rallying the vote after she was supposed to have been eliminated and saved by the judges. That was certainly the case for me, because I haven’t voted since Carrie Underwood won several years ago and only did again this year after the judge’s save.

This is a side note about imitated performances and I just want to add it here before I forget about it. I still miss Simon Cowell and imitated singing is not the type that go well with him. I think he would have given Jessica Sanchez a hard time with that if he was still one of the judges. Has anyone found any sound bites of his impressions on AI 2012? If so, please send me a link. Thanks.

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American Idol Finale: Jessica Sanchez vs. Phillip Phillips

Another delayed take on last week’s American Idol results.

Before the final three last week, I found this article from the Christian Science Monitor: http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2012/0510/Jessica-Sanchez-Will-huge-YouTube-following-make-her-the-next-American-Idol-video?cmpid=addthis_facebook#.T6yBt5XcIgo.facebook. In short, it says the Jessica has the most Twitter followers and You Tube views among the contestants and questions whether those numbers also reflect her popularity among voters. My unqualified opinion is that those Twitter followers and You Tube views are mostly coming from the Philippines.

So here we are with the final two on American Idol: it's going to be the chicks for Philip Phillips against the Mexicans and Flips for Jessica Sanchez this week. Joshua the screamer is gone despite being the judges’ favorite, but I'm sure he is going to get a very nice recording contract. That just goes to show you though, that it's not the number of standing ovations one gets from the judges but the number of votes from the fans. As if you didn’t already know that, LOL. Word out there indicates that people from other countries have been able to vote but I have barely any knowledge of how they are able to do that and how many actually get through by phone or online.

Of course, there are the conspiracy theories out there claiming racial discrimination by some pundits and fans. Let me add to it – American Idol is trying to confuse voters from other countries who have managed to game the system so far by switching the finale to Tuesday this week! Let’s hope the regular voters got that update.

          I have a question by the way. How come Phillip Phillips doesn’t participate in the commercials? How can he get away with that? Isn’t that one of the terms and conditions for joining the contest? Please enlighten me.

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American Idol Season 11 Impressions and Why Elise Testone Was Constantly in the Bottom 3

Before this week’s episode of American Idol commences, I thought I’d give my delayed impression of what has been happening so far. Just be forewarned that portions of this opinion will be politically incorrect, harsh, and possibly controversial.

First, the reason why I think Elise Testone is constantly in the bottom three is because she doesn’t have the pop star look regardless of how well she sings. Interpret that as you like. But then if looks were the only reason why people vote then Colton and Deandre would still be in the competition. Deandre wasn’t as good as the remaining singers of course and Colton was scary looking while singing during the week that he was eliminated.

The rest of the remaining best and what I think is the reason why they are still in the running: Skylar has the NASCAR nation vote because she specializes in Country music. Philip continues to have the female vote even though I think he lacks range. Maybe even Ryan Seacrest’s girlfriend votes for him. Jessica has the Filipino and (hopefully) Mexican vote. Her dad is Hispanic. I think voters became apathetic a couple of weeks ago when she got the least votes. Regarding my impression in my previous American Idol post about her lacking emotion? Maybe she’s just young. Joshua has been screaming a lot lately which I guess the judges like because it’s a rousing rendition of the song. I like Josh as a person as far as how he portrays himself on TV as being empathetic to the other contestants. As far as Hollie, I haven’t figured out who would be voting for her. Based on her last song, maybe Miley Cyrus fans?

I miss Simon Cowell’s acerbic but honest remarks. Jimmy’s comments are good but not immediate. He has the pleasure of watching it on playback after the show and maybe a day later. As much as I hope Jessica would win, I think Joshua is going to take the cake at the end. OMG, since when did I get so involved in this?! That’s all folks!

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American Idol Results – Jessica Sanchez With Lowest Number of Votes

Here’s my quick and delayed take on last week’s American Idol results. Why do I think Jessica Sanchez got the least number of votes? Well, I’ll get to that in a minute. The other surprise of course was that Joshua Ledet was in the bottom three too. There’s the usual excuse of voter apathy when people assume that their favorites and previous leaders will get votes regardless. That probably figured into the equation. In my opinion, there were a few factors. First, the teenage and young adult female vote probably boosted Colton Dixon and Philip Phillips. Second, even though Jessica sang a very beautiful song called Stuttering by Jazmine Sullivan, both the artist and the song were not familiar to me and I assume to a lot of other people. I certainly haven’t heard about her or the song in the top 40 radio stations that I usually listen to. Even the powerhouse song by Bruno Mars that Joshua sang is not a Bruno song that gets the most play among the ones in his album. A lot of you might disagree, but that’s just my perception.

Here is another concern I have about Jessica Sanchez. I have observed from the start of this American Idol season that although she shows emotion when she is singing (she has that down pat), she appears unemotional or at least blunted on results nights when somebody gets sent home (even on the night she was saved by the judges). She seems to only show a “pretend cry” face. Has anyone also noticed that she appears to be distant and isolative from the other contestants? Maybe the voters have picked up on that one?

So even though Jessica Sanchez has sold the judges on her extraordinary singing, unless she starts doing familiar songs and showing more affinity to her fellow contestants, she may have a difficult time winning this contest. Heck, even Carrie Underwood, a country singer who supposedly was always the top vote getter week after week during her season, probably got those results because she chose songs that the general public knew and sang them very well.

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