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“she’s a genuine artist”
-—Agreed, and who knows how the voting will go, but I do see those two as the two finalists, and I have for the last month and a half. AI is such an interesting show, the psychology behind the way it presents itself is so carefully honed, that I can see them subtly directing a showdown between these two, who happen to be the MOST talented. Unfortunately for Melinda , Jordin happens to be 10 years younger, and that counts for a lot with not only the record industry, but that segment of the voting public that gets more and more excited in the closing 6 or 7 weeks, and wants to be responsible for helping launch the career of a “phenom” like Jordin. I am talking about people who have ALREADY seen their favorites eliminated-—where will their votes go?
That’s what you have to figure out , if you’re interested in projecting who will win. Listen, I never watched the first three years of AI, only tuning into it for the last two. But I have seen Kelly Clarkson in about eight appearances all during that first season on AI rewind, on cable, and what I saw from her was one of the most exciting singers I have EVER seen, and a 20 year old kid. I have to say she was PHENOMENAL, and every single one of her AI performances as the season went on were uniquely thrilling: every time she opened her mouth, I thought “this kid is a singing GENIUS”, and all this has been in the last two months or so, since we’ve tuned into the cable TV presentations of that first AI season. One would NEVER know how good Kelly Clarkson was from listening to her (admittedly great) commercial success since she’s been recording as a “mainstream artist” -—good as the stuff is from a commercial standpoint, hearing
her as an unknown 20 year old was a positive personal THRILL. What I am saying is that the same thing might unfortunately happen to the gifted Jordin. I hope not, but I know they can’t wait to get their hands on her. If I were a record producer, I would try to exploit all her talents and turn her into something unique, starting with the Abbey Lincoln songbook. If you don’t know Abbey Lincoln, it should be easy to find her and hear her early recordings starting from the late 50s.. Jordin , though I have no idea whether she is comfortable or capable within the jazz idiom, reminds me of Abbey, who was my favorite singer as a kid, but has stayed always within the non-commercial realm of jazz. Were I directing Jordin, I would suggest a few songs for her to do in the coming weeks: “Brother , Where are You?” written by Oscar Brown , Jr. and sung by Abbey in 1960, or almost anything else from her early album “Abbey is Blue”, ALSO a great song from the late 70s,early 80s by Dorothy Moore called “I Believe You”. Wish I knew how to communicate with AI and pass on this vital information!PS-—the very slight “knock” against both Melinda and Jordin is that neither of them may have quite captured that distinctly different quality the judges (especially Simon) are looking for—both of them have to push in the coming weeks to claim that territory-—this is a very difficult thing to do-—Kelly Clarkson had it from the beginning, just because that’s who she was already. These two have to both overcome that mysterious insurmountable extra inch that it takes to win. IOW, if the voting AI public collectively wants to assume the mantle of imaginary “recording executive” Jordin will win, if not, Melinda will win.
I refer you to my post of last night #6218, I think it was, where I did a rundown of last nights show. I didn’t state it but it is almost a certainty that Sanjaya returns to highschool tonight. Maybe Chris, but for reasons I stated I think he stays.