I have seen the judges stunned many times when a contestant is picked. Two out of the last 3 yesterday are what color. ?
We’ve had 6 winners. Half have been black. The country only has 10% of its population that’s black.
Fantasia
Ruben
Jordin
Count me as another one of your fans. I don’t agree with every one of your opinions, but I admire that you present them without ridiculous drama and irrational hatred. Plus, your predictions have so far been reliable, and I don’t think that’s an accident. You put a lot of thought into what you say, and it shows.
Will someone please contact Elton John and inform him of this? The 2-out-of-3 situation is so rare, and Elton hasn’t had the opportunity to play the hurt drama queen in quite some time.
Ryan says Dolly Parton’s appearing next week. Does that mean it’ll be country week?
It means nine people will be fighting over “I Will Always Love You” and one will get stuck with “9 To 5.” 
I don’t think you can draw any conclusions about the AI audience. I mean, the randomness of the winners is really amazing.
You’ve got a corn-fed country girl who could have been homecoming queen (Carrie Underwood), a black girl with a raspy voice (Fantasia), a short, spunky girl with huge pipes (Kelly Clarkson), a wide-eyed teenage black girl (Jordin Sparks), a goofy grey haired guy who can’t dance (Taylor Hicks), and an obese black dude (Ruben).
The only thing that I can see that they have in common is that they hail from the South. Meh.
Add in the runners-up, and it’s even more dynamic: you’ve got they quirky electro-singer (Blake Lewis), a beautiful lounge singer (Katharine McPhee), a skinny kid in touch with his feminine side (Clay Aiken), and an Allman Brother look alike rocker (Bo Bice).
The fact that 2 out of 3 people in the Bottom 3 are black is really far reaching. 2 out of 3 were women. And both Alaina and Kady (blonde, white girls) were voted off early. So I really don’t see that people are not voting for black contestants.
I just went to iTunes to buy “Billie Jean” for my wife, who loved it.
While there, I checked the “Studio version” of several other Idol performances.
I was amazed how great Ramiele’s voice sounds in “In My Life”.
Very smooth and pleasant voice, and she is able to sing in tune. Totally different from her on-stage performance.
I guess some people are better studio performers than stage performers. Also, the extra time they get to prepare for the studio version, and the fact that they get to sing the full-length song, instead of the 1:30 minutes on the show, must no doubt help.
Before listening to the Studio version of Ramiele’s song, I thought she was, musically, a second-rate hack. Now, I think she is great.
So, my question for y’all is: Is there anything the Idol producers can do to showcase a person’s “studio skills”, so as to provide another glimpse into the abilities of the contestants?
As is, Idol seems to be geared to choosing the best on-stage performer. While selling concert tickets is great, selling albums produced in a studio should also count. In fact, the Beatles at some point stopped doing concerts altogether and worked only in the studio, and they didn’t do half-bad 
I think that’s exactly what they’re doing by releasing the studio versions on iTunes, isn’t it?
Probably. I wouldn’t mind Dolly singing “I Will Always Love You”. It might mean we’d never again hear an Idol contestant Whitneyize it.
I meant, is there anything they can do as part of the show, without requiring people do go elsewhere for extra information?
Absolutely!
Cut 45 seconds of filler from each contestants fluff and let them sing whole songs. That’s one of the most annoying things about AI, I don’t mind them doing whatever filling and product placement they want, but chopping up perfectly good songs on a singing show is just stupid. It’s jarring to hear a lyrical mishmash or a chorus where you expected a coda, half the time it hurts the vocalists because the listeners attention is redirected away from them.
One flat note wouldn’t kill a contestant in a 2-3 minute song. We’d get the opportunity to see who understands proper phrasing, who can build to a cresendo versus who’s got the pipes to just shout without the brains to understand when to use them.
This is the first season of AI that I’m watching, so I’m wondering, do they keep this format until the end? Or, when you have, say, 5 contestants left, do they start allowing them to sing whole songs?
Maybe, it’s too bad Kimberly Locke already sang Clay Walker’s “Fall” this week, that’s the kind of Country Song that would cross over well. I would like to hear somebody sing “Stand” or “Whiskey Lullaby”. I’m sure we would get a butchered Taylor Swift song.
If it’s a Dolly night - I would love to hear Brooke White sing “Hard Candy Christmas”. But, with my luck, someone would sing “Me And Little Andy” - the glurgiest glurge song in history.
Towards the end they sing a little bit more (not much) and have more filler. By the time they’re down to the final three they usually have them sing 2 songs each during the show.
2005 (I was thinking 2006, but there has only been one flop between her and Jordin Sparks. FTR, I don’t think Jordin will be a huge mega-star, but we’ll see.)
Jason Castro’s studio version of “If I Fell” was stunning, too. And that was one of his worst performances. I’ve downloaded that, “Fragile”, and Cook’s “Day Tripper” and “Billie Jean”. The studio versions are MUCH better than the show versions.
I KNOW! Marvin just stands there all cool in his suit and shades, and this unbelievable voice just floats out of him.
I’m picking “Jolene” for David Cook if it’s all Dolly next week. 
I just bought “Billie Jean” from iTunes too - the hair on my arms is still standing up. Holy god, dude can sing.
If it’s Dolly Parton week, David Cook just has to do Jolene.