Comments on: “American Idol” Sends Chikezie To The Showers

By: Manola

Manola — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:37:27 +0000

@Charles A. Hohman:

Re. Country is hot, R&B is not:

This is why Chikezie may want to continue in that bluegrassy vein we saw last week and the week before.

By: Manola

Manola — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:32:20 +0000

@Charles A. Hohman:

Lest we forget that three out of the six winners of AI happen to be black.

By: Manola

Manola — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 05:30:32 +0000

Is Simon afraid of deportation? Because his kudos to Kristy came out of left field for me

By: Thierry

Thierry — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:56:15 +0000

Also, if anyone has a trick for getting “You’re the Voice” out of my head, I would really appreciate it…

By: dsven

dsven — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:31:00 +0000

@Charles A. Hohman: Charles, stop looking for a a conspiracy that just ain't there. Like Jim said, 50% of the winners in 6 seasons have been non-white.

Anyway, we all know that Chikeze had no hope of winning the whole thing. Whether he was booted 10th or 7th, does it REALLY matter? We all know that Syesha, Kristy Lee, and Ramiele are the next 3 boots, it's just the matter of order.

If you really want to get indignant about an issue, try focussing on something less trivial than supposed racial conspiracies on a reality tv/fluff show. How about Tibet instead?

By: Chris Molanphy

Chris Molanphy — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 10:59:11 +0000

Called it.

By: creamsissle

creamsissle — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:13:25 +0000

@Jim Thome's Self-Cleaning Oven: Alternate with "Do I Make You Proud?" for maximum effect.

By: Hamm Beerger

Hamm Beerger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:04:28 +0000

@Charles A. Hohman: It sounds like you think that the music buying public is racist and that Idol is just reflecting that. That's fine... I don't think it's true, but it's a reasonable argument.

But your point about Idol and hip-hop is right on.

By: Hamm Beerger

Hamm Beerger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 06:02:05 +0000

@ReverendDrGladhands: Dude, Ramiele was heinous this week. She only made it because of the sympathy vote.

Re: black losers having less that Pickler careers. It's a genre, not a race, thing. Country sells really well right now, but the R&B market seems to be a bit fickle.

By: Charles A. Hohman

Charles A. Hohman — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:57:52 +0000

@Jim Thome's Self-Cleaning Oven: Three of seven winners, yes. But when compared to the multimillions sold by Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and Daughtry, Fantasia, Ruben and Jordin have failed to sell impressively outside the "urban" base. With the franchise flagging in ratings and sales, this likely motivated the stunning lack of diversity in the Top 24 (which is decided by the producers, not America). They've virtually given up on finding/marketing a "new" Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey who could appeal to a multi-racial, multi-genre audience. (And of course, music industry factors in the last decade play a heavier role in this failure than "Idol" itself. As does "Idol"'s moralistic embargo against fully embracing hip-hop.)

@Audif Jackson Winters III: This is accurate, but he still seemed very squeamish about his song selection. I believe he was following his heart as much as I believe Archuleta's parents played no role in his song selection.

By: f1sh3r

f1sh3r — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:52:41 +0000

@shpanky: wow did you really say kkkristy? i mean...really? talk about racist.

By: Hamm Beerger

Hamm Beerger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:41:43 +0000

@shpanky: Also, re: Blondes: Carrie Underwood is the only blonde winner.

Oh, I forgot, is Jordin Sparks not quite white? If so, that would make 3 of 7.

By: Hamm Beerger

Hamm Beerger — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:40:17 +0000

Uh, racist? LaToya and Jennifer both lost to Fantasia… another black woman. So yeah, 7 years of American Idol and two black winners… look up the percentage of Americans that are black and do the math.

By: jasonelias

jasonelias — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 05:14:15 +0000

@Charles A. Hohman: I don't think it's racism, I think it's the fact that Chikeze and Mercado aren't all that great so they are going to be in and out of trouble barring a "great" night. While it was weird seeing both Mercado and Chikeze in the bottom two, Cook probably saved herself with that warhorse, Ramiele had the "under the weather" excuse so the bottom two was left open to perhaps less worthy contestants.

By: shpanky

shpanky — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 04:06:17 +0000

Oh American Idol has always been racist year after year. Anyone remember LaToya London, one of the best vocalists they ever had?? Or how about ACADEMY AWARD WINNER Jennifer Hudson that year alone?

I'm a white male myself and it just pisses me off to no end that this show consistently caters to the blond haired blue-eyed trailer trash like KKKristy Cooke. How many vacant, wooden blondes (re: Carrie Underwood) really need to win this competition? :-(

By: ReverendDrGladhands

ReverendDrGladhands — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:18:30 +0000

Of course there's a huge racial component in Idol voting. It's called AMERICAN Idol. It even spills over into the post-idol careers of non-winning contestants. There hasn't been a black Idol loser who's had the recording career of even Kellie Pickler or William Hung. That said, who cares? I surely don't miss having Melinda Doolittle or Tamyra Gray in my life, and in a week's time, I won't miss Chikeze. He made the top ten, he'll go on tour and make some money.

on Ramiele: Admittedly, I'm so gay for her that MrsHands won't watch the show with me anymore, but I thought this weeks performance was one of the five best this week. She made it through previous eliminations on cuteness, but she earned her keep this time.

By: metalkate

metalkate — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:02:40 +0000

totes! yeah, have it. like it lots, but not as magical and perfect as ‘in bocca al lupo.’

By: Charles A. Hohman

Charles A. Hohman — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 03:02:29 +0000

For a while, I thought Ramiele would complete the bottom three, thereby conspicuously leaving seven very white faces guaranteed safety.

Chikezie admitted last night that his arm was twisted into singing another ballad, which makes me suspect a racially motivated ruse to oust him, given the begrudging tokenism of his Top 24 placement. As for the other surviving African American who just happened to be in the Bottom Two, she gave a season highlight performance.

Whatever "Idol"'s troubling race politics, which have been blatantly obvious and widely ignored this season, I suspect there may also have been spillover from the Wright/Obama media firestorm. Don't forget Sanjaya was voted off the week of the Virginia Tech slayings, when the show had a somber tone, and media outlets were delivering anti-outcast, anti-Asian paranoia. So current events can sometimes influence "Idol" voting, as much as performances, personality and producer preferences.

By: tubby

tubby — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:58:06 +0000

murder by death is awesome! did you get the new album yet? it’s called “red in tooth and claw”

By: metalkate

metalkate — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:47:20 +0000

caught the end of the show and then caught up on last night with
some youtube highlights. thanks youtube! anyway, yeah, jason castro -
shock, indeed! i thought his ‘fragile’ sounded very nice, and i’m
convinced the judges keep pointing to his revelatory?? ‘hallelujah’ as
the gold standard just because of the strength of the song itself and
thanks jason for reminding us! cause that performance, on second
listen, really wasn’t that hot. but he’s grown on me since. cute kid.
hope he can hang a while longer, and hope that jonbenet archuleta kid
doesn’t win. blech. but frankly, i don’t really care. i really like
that murder by death band. and elliot smith. i used to listen to a lot
of metal.