Frustrations

While surfing, I saw this quote from famous NBA coach Red Auerbach: “music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. Do I agree? Of course! He could actually be referring to me.

I sing. Some people like it, some don’t. But when people who know me hear me humming a tune or heartily blurting out a melody, they already have an inkling of what’s going on – I’m probably just doing my “laundry”. Didn’t I tell you long before that I am a soul starched with the dust of life? You get the drift.

But I am more of what people would regularly call a “frustrated singer”. Or better yet, “castrated”. You know, if only to highlight the impossibility of the dream ever being brought to fruition (grin).

I’ll let you in on a secret. I did fantasize about singing professionally (I joined a singing contest before and won second place). But I had an early realization that the amount of talent given to me could only land me, at best, in provincial karaoke bars. That can hardly qualify as a profession, so the dream ends there.

But the fantasy lives on when I empathize with real singers, as they battle against each other in hard-core singing contests. That’s why these contests, local and foreign, are number one in my viewing fare.

Which brings me to this season’s American Idol.

I’ve been watching the show even before Sanjaya became a joke. And while at first I was convinced it should be Melinda Doolitle and Lakisha Jones in the finals, I was not really surprised when Lakisha had to bow out. Lakisha became inconsistent as the stakes grew higher. But what actually did her in were when she sang the hits of former Idol winners and she obviously paled in comparison. And of course, she ran out of breath in her final song. That was mortal sin even in barangay-level contests.

But I did think that it will be a Melinda vs Jordin finals. Blake is unarguably not within their league (although he’s surely a pop icon material).

Then came last night’s shocker. I can’t believe that Melinda Doolittle is out of American Idol finals. This was extreme shock. Don’t these American voters have ears? Oh well, I forgot. AI is not a just a singing contest.

Melinda, I know, was not booted out. I surmise the voters thought she was safe that they concentrated on saving their other bet. I’m sure the results would have been different if the viewers were instead asked to vote for the one they’d chose to eliminate. But then again, AI was so patterned to create upsets of this nature and thus fuel controversy and generate more patronage. Need I say this was all for the money?

I hate it that the AI finals will be featuring half-baked but popular talents. While certainly, viewership will still be high, whether both will make it big after the contest will still be one big question. But Melinda? I’m sure she’ll do a Jennifer Hudson and she will, in the end, have the last hearty laugh. Wanna bet?