You know how Randy and Simon obsess on this business of “We want to see something new and fresh?”
Am I the only one who noticed that there was nothing about Melinda Doolittle and Lakisha Jones’s performances Wednesday night that couldn’t come straight out of some Motown review from the sixties? Well, Jones’s song came from the 1979 musical Dreamgirls, but that was Broadway’s attempt to incorporate soul music from the sixties into its palette so Jennifer Holliday’s take on Florence Ballard with “I’m Telling You” is really a sixties song written a decade after the sixties.
Here’s just some of the whole convoluted thing with Idol’s love-hate relationship with Jennifer Hudson and how many layers there are in the show's decision to give the very talented Lakisha Jones the anchor spot with that particular song.
1. It was a little shot at Hudson who as Idol’s most honored alum who has made it her signature song. Kind of like, hey. look we got someone who might do it as well as Jennifer and this is just the round of 24.
2. It was a sort of vindication for Hudson. After Simon badgered her into losing sixty pounds and being the singer whom Elton John singled out for special praise, she loses out to Jasmine Trias and John Stevens. Now, Simon tells Jones who is more endomorphic than Hudson ever was, “Tell the other 23 to pack their bags.”
3. They bring in Fantasia, the winner from Hudson’s season, this very same week. Hudson got the part of Effie in Dreamgirls over Fantasia. Now after a mixed start as a recording artist, Barrino is taking a slightly different path by hitting Broadway as Celie in the Color Purple. If I recall correctly, Hudson’s post-idol was talked about as a possibility for the Broadway version of the Lion King. For what it's worth, Fantasia sounded quite good.
4. Diana Ross is going to be a guest coach this year. Dreamgirls essentially tells the story of the Supremes and Barry Gordy’s decision to go with prettier, whiter-looking, singer whom he was sleeping with over bigger-voiced less conventionally attractive Ballard. In the process, Ross became Gordy’s first crossover star and moved the Supremes from “soul” to “pop”. In short, Gordy was the one who taught Simon, Nigel, et al, that whole “better to look good than sound good” thing about American pop music.
5. The song’s lyric runs “I’m staying, I’m stayin…” and Fantasia’s song was “I’m here.” Mmmmmm… further conflating things, Lakisha Jones is a single mother. Fantasia is a single mother. No comment on the tattoo above her breast or Fantasia’s weight heading towards Hudson’s.
Article comments
1 - Steve
Ironic isn't it, that the person with the most star quality, to whom all these girls are being implicitly compared is Aretha Franklin - hardly anybody's idea of a pinup.
2 - chancelucky
I would mention that at various times in Aretha and Sarah Vaughan's career, their managers did try to make them look like pinups. It didn't work especially well and both remain singing icons nevertheless.
I don't think record producers all think the way Simon, Randy, Paula think, but if their "formula" really is what it seems to be, America itself really does make better choices than they do.