Sanjaya's still standing on 'American Idol'
Posted: Wednesday, March 21, 2007 6:44 PM by Gael Fashingbauer Cooper
Filed Under:
TV
Some suggestions for next week's song choice for Sanjaya Malakar. How about Elton John's "I'm Still Standing"? The lyrics include: "And did you think this fool could never win? Well look at me, I'm coming back again!"
Or maybe he could perform Helen Reddy's "You and Me Against the World." Or Bonnie Raitt's "Let's Give Them Something To Talk About." Or Kenny Rogers' hit "She Believes In Me," which he could dedicate to Ashley, the sweet little kid who was driven to tears by Sanjaya's performance this week.
Whatever he sings, you couldn't blame the teenager if he picked a song whose lyrics fired back in some way at his many detractors. It's true, he's just not in the same league as the many older and more experienced Idol wannabes when it comes to vocal quality, range, and performance style. But he's just 17, and not only has he had to hear about how terrible he is, he's had to hear remarks about his looks, insinuations about his personal life, and weirdly racist comments about his background.
Simon Cowell keeps saying that "American Idol" is a singing competion. But as readers of this blog keep pointing out, that may be the plan, but it's not exactly how it works out. Once the home audience gets to decide, the show becomes a blend of singing competition, popularity contest and social experiment. When people like Howard Stern are jumping on the Vote for the Worst bandwagon, directing the power of his massive audience, you know that singing talent is no longer the first thing being considered. Anyone remember when Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf, a Stern regular, almost won the People.com online most beautiful person poll? The Internet makes it easy for people to unite and manipulate almost any voting campaign out there, and if you can't deal with that, you'd best not trust your poll/contest/TV show to the masses.
Last week's boot of Brandon Rogers was not as disturbing as this week's ouster of Stephanie Edwards. Edwards had a lovely voice and real charm, and was cited often and early by judge Simon Cowell as a contender to win it all. If singing skill were the only criterion, she would still be on the show.
Many of our readers would like to see the judges step back in, especially in the show's later rounds, and get the final word on who wins. But Fox likes to brag about how the decision is up to the fans, so the network is unlikely to make the change unless something really drastic happens -- say, Sanjaya goes all the way, defeating even Melinda Doolittle and LaKisha Jones. That would definitely make the show reconsider its voting system.
But for now, maybe Sanjaya should show up next week and sing Deniece Williams' 1984 hit, "Let's Hear It For the Boy."
