At this point in the American Idol competition, the remaining contestants are all great singers of almost equal voice ability. Others may disagree with that assessment but as I listened to the singers and their songs on Tuesday, May 3, 2005, I gave up on trying to differentiate between the miniscule nuances of voice range and depth of each contestant. Yes they all have very different voices that are more suitable for certain music genres. In terms of voice quality and stage presence, the final five have almost equal amounts of each.

Thus it is on the whims of the public to eliminate them down to one winner.

Scott Savol was voted off this past week.

Scott's a big fellow who lauds himself as an "everyday man". He sang "On Broadway" with a personal passion. Scott believed in himself, indeed BELIEVES in himself. Being one of the top five in the 2005 American Idol competition is certainly a feather in his cap. Scott has a future ahead of him and might, indeed, soon see his name in lights. On Broadway.

This past Tuesday all of the contestants sang two songs. One was a composition by Lieber and Stoller with the other being any song currently at the top of the billboard chart. Naturally I knew the Lieber and Stoller songs but the current billboard tunes were unknown to me.

It doesn't matter. Each contestant did a fine job, Simon Cowell's nasty comments notwithstanding. This week Vonzell Solomon was the shining star as I saw it.

Instead of commenting on each singer and their songs, what with the sings all on equal footing and many of the songs' unknown to me, I have some comments on the judges.

I listened to Cowell's comments after each performance. Cowell is known for his acerbic comments to the contestants. This week, with the contestants down to a final five, I compared his comments to the performances. They were not congruent at all. Which leads me to some perhaps erroneous conclusions. Still, I'll throw it out there.

As I understand Cowell is a major player in the record company which will be sponsoring the winner. As such he likely has a desired winner. A winner that will suit the label in terms of music genre and in comparison to the last winner.

It wouldn't do, I suspect, to have a stable of rap singers. Or rock singers. Or singers of any specific genre all culled from the winners of the annual American Idol contests. So if Kelly Clarkson sings pop songs and Ruben Stoddard sings soul music and Fantasia sings gospel tunes than Cowell's label has a well-rounded stable of singers.

I think Cowell tries to sway the voting to his choice of a winner. And his choice of a winner is likely one that won't make the record label heavy in one genre.