Jordin is the cutest, but her voice is the most forgettable, imo.
Both of the finalists are very good, and I wish them successful careers.
Melinda’s singing was so right, so full of a complexity of emotion, that she had me on tenterhooks every time, and reduced me to tears almost every time.
Jordin is a cute girl with a big voice.
See to me, Melinda’s voice is completely forgettable, as was every other aspect of her performances. Jordin’s voice haunts me. Melinda’s voice, to me, lacked personality or uniqueness. My mind would wander while she sang. Nothing about her drew me in except for perhaps one or two times. She clearly has talent, but she’s so bland that it doesn’t matter. It’s like a player piano vs a person sitting down to play. The player piano will always hit the right notes, but there is an element missing. It isn’t the superior performance.
I was thinking something similar myself. The judges praising Melinda for being consistent made me think it was a euphemism for boring. I think she’s strongest singer of the lot, but Blake is a better showperson and Jordin is more emotionally engaging. That, or there’s a huge conspiracy afoot to make most of us in the prediction contest look foolish…
I completely agree with you that Jordin is a beautiful singer and I like her a lot. But Melinda has been consistent throughout the ENTIRE competition and I do think she expresses emotion as a singer, just not the same way Jordin does. Jordin wasn’t always consistent and it took her awhile to come out of her shell as an artist. And Blake is definitely a clear entertainer, and I think he’s incredibly talented, but I don’t see him as the Idol. I thought at the very least the top 2 would be Melinda and Jordin. (From Mrs. Phlosphr)
While I thought for sure that Melinda would make it to the final round, I can’t feel too badly for her. You know some label will pick her up and give her a performing contract. She’s too good not to get one.
Melinda has more experience. I think that with experience and rehearsal Jordin would be just as consistent. Having less than a week to prepare a song or two songs or THREE songs is a lot to ask, and Jordin is 17. She probably has very little experience with that kind of thing, but it’s the sort of thing that comes with time. She will rarely be in that kind of position again. In concert she’d be doing something she’d had plenty of time to rehearse, and the same goes with in a recording studio. So I think it’s fairly irrelevant that Melinda is able to polish a song in less time than Jordin. The end result for me is a better performance when Jordin does polish it.
Mind you, at this level of the game, we have to just agree to disagree. Obviously, we don’t all respond to the singers the same way.
I gotcha, but all things being equal, it’s my most humble opinion that Melinda was the better singer, right now, in this moment. With time, Jordin will be and already is phenomenal…She represents the young, hip era.
Melinda to me represents the Whitney, the Diana Ross of our time. Jordin simply doesn’t represent that to me. I thought I’d be telling my kids 20 years from now about Melinda Doolittle. Not Jordin Sparks.
Maybe it’s marketing, the name Jordin Sparks in and of itself is marketable. It flows, with no problem…
edit: ok maybe not telling my kids about it, but I think Melinda is a phenom.
Melinda’s probably better off without being chained to an AI contract. She got what she needed. She got exposure, she’ll be on the tour and she’ll get a record deal. I think it almost doesn’t matter who technically wins the show. Some of the runners ups have ultimately had more success than the winners of their seasons (Aiken, Daughtry, J-Hud). I have no doubt that Melinda will outsell and outlast both Blake and Jordin in the long run.
She might be, but I think that the amount of extra work that Jordin would have to put in is fairly negligible for the kinds of things they’re looking for (someone who will sell records, do well on tour, be marketable). And obviously different people react differently to different singers. I didn’t have any connection with Melinda–to me she is the epitome of bland and boring.
Yay!
Very true - perhaps Melinda, like J-Hud and Daughtry, is too big for Idol.
There’s no question Jordin is marketable. And I agree different strokes and all…however, I am still shocked. Simon, Randy, and Paula all appeared shocked. Poor Melinda appeared Shocked.
I would tend to think they were shocked because they thought she was better than the rest.
Personally, I’d buy all three of their albums, and most likely will. I’ve got Daughtry in my car as I type.
Melinda is a better singer than Blake, certainly, but Blake is a better performer. The show is American Idol, not American Singer, after all. So the other elements are a big factor.
Very true Opal.
Holy cow!
Well.....I'm sure we're going to see Jordin burst into gallons of tears next week when she wins. How on earth will she be able to sing?I can understand how the Melinda fans feel. I’d have been pissed had Jordin not made the finals. I expected that Melinda would be in the finals, I think she’s a good singer but I get no emotional involvement when she sings, but I do get that with Jordin. So I am shocked that Melinda didn’t make the finals but since I ultimately want Jordin to win, I am not upset about Melinda leaving.
Sometimes I think Simon shoots himself in the foot. He praised Melinda up and down and criticized Jordin. I think he caused an upswell of support for Jordin that ended up taking away some of Melinda’s votes, enough to knock her out.
Just out of curiosity, is *Dialidol * ever right?
First, what’s with Elliot squinting his eyes shut while he’s singing? And could Simon look more bored and half asleep? Blake’s dad cries almost as much as Jordin.
Now concerning the Melinda being a good singer, but not an entertainer. She connected with every song she sang and conformed to every genre that was thrown at her with style and energy. If what you say is true about being an entertainer is more important than singing ability, what about Carrie Underwood? She was one of the most robotic, cardboard singers ever, but she could sing fairly well and she was pretty. She’s learned to be more comfortable on stage and is doing extremely well. Melinda has much more stage presence than anyone since Bo Bice.
I must admit I’m completely floored by the result. I picked Mel for the finals right from the time of her audition. With her talent she should go far.
The Idol-is-fixed-for-Jordin people are going to love this. I think the most recent unsubstantiated rumor is that Jordin was assigned a makeover team last week, but not Blake and Melinda.
If it was fixed, the final two would have been Jordin and Melinda, not Jordin and Blake. Less suspicious. 
But wouldn’t you love to know the vote tallies?
I know nothing about Carrie Underwood–I’ve intentionally avoided Idol until this season. As far as what you said about Melinda, I think that’s completely subjective. You saw it as “with style and energy” while I saw it as “with conformity and blandness”. She seemed to make every style sound like it was from the same genre.