May 13, 2004 - Wronged Diva

Fantasia was brought down first as one of the bottom two, but that seemed OK, because everyone expected Jasmine Trias to be brought down second and that she would, in fact, be the one to leave. The audience booed when LaToya was brought down.

And then host Ryan Seacrest announced the startling result: LaToya had been eliminated. Many people had said she stood a chance to win the competition. I wasn't so sure; I thought that she might lose in a head to head competition with Fantasia because of her sparkling personality.

But now LaToya is gone, and the top three are Fantasia, Diana DiGarmo, the 16-year-old who's made a drastic turnaround, and Jasmine Trias, who clearly does not deserve that distinction, not over LaToya, for sure.

I can't understand how this can be how the votes turned out, because I don't think most of the people watching the show would agree with it. All I can think is that somehow, Jasmine got an unbelievable amount of support from her supporters in Hawaii. And Diana DiGarmo no doubt got plenty of votes for her strong performance. By default, that makes the bottom two LaToya and Fantasia.

At least my favorite, Fantasia, is safe. But for how long? Is this is the kind of voting power Jasmine supporters have, we could see her in the top two. And that would be absolutely ridiculous. This girl does not deserve to be up there.

I guess this proves one thing. Sadly enough, all these years the music producers were right. A good percentage of Americans would rather give their support to a talented, attractive teen than to a seasoned, professional performer with an outstanding voice.

The only hope for any salvation of this show is if Jasmine is cut this week, leaving Diana and Fantasia in the top two. Otherwise, I think American Idol will have to throw in the towel. Fans may not have much interest in watching another season, knowing that the strongest singers don't necessarily win.

Is this the teenybopper vote we're seeing, voting in their peers? Is it a race issue, as has been accused? I don't know. If the audience has a good number of white teens watching, and they vote for people they identify with, you're going to get white teens doing well in the competition.

I was not just disappointed by this; I was disgusted. This was not the first time in this season that votes were cast when clearly the deciding factor had more to do with personality than talent. LaToya is a great singer, but all these weeks, she has not made a real connection with the audience. She's succeeded on the fact that, hands down, she was one of the strongest singers.

Apparently, that just wasn't good enough, and sweet little Jasmine stole the vote. She probably got some pity votes when she cried after getting criticized.

I don't know how this happened, because I placed a vote for Fantasia and then I tried to put a vote through for LaToya, just because I didn't want this very thing to happen. The line was so busy every time I called that I could never get through to register my vote. I don't know whether the number of voters calling in clogged the system, but its possible that other potential voters also grew frustrated and gave up, figuring the influx of calls guaranteed her success.

Whatever the problem, out there waiting in the wings there's got to be a smart record producer who right now is calling her up on the phone and saying, "Why don't you come over to my label, and we'll start working on a single?"

Now, it might very well have ended up with Fantasia and Diana as the top two. Diana has dramatically improved in this competition; even I was willing to admit that last week. But LaToya, not Jasmine, deserved to be in the top three. It would have felt different if LaToya had gone next week, after a head-to-head competition between the three best singers. That, I don't think anyone would have felt was a miscarriage of justice.

This certainly is.

Other Musings by Alyce on American Idol:

American Idol Index

Moral:
Some singers don't need to win to be a star.