Posted on 03/15/2005 5:53:32 AM PST by silent_jonny
You're comments are interesting. I would add Nadia to the top three. I believe in blocks of voters. Carrie is a good singer and the only C&W. Nadia will bring the funk and the R&B and she can move on stage, which I think got Fantasia a lot of votes last year. Bo and Constentine are vying for the same block of voters and I think they will split and one will go out at number 4. IMHO
I agree with you about blocks of voters. Re Nadia, until her disasterous performance (and mohawk) last week, I would have agreed with you. Now it looks like Vonzell is rising into the spot Nadia used to occupy in the competition.
You could also be right about Bo and Constantine. I only assume they'll be in the top three because of the huge numbers of young girls who have crushes on one or both of them.
Vonzell does seem to be on the upswing and just at the right time for her.
The kids watch this stuff even more closely than we adult AI fans do. They know (and that's how I learn) that Kelly Clarkson's song "Since You Been Gone" has been the #1 pop song in the nation on the Billboard charts for the past three weeks. Also that her song "Breakaway" has been #1 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary charts for many weeks, and that both songs plus her album "Breakaway" have all been certified by Billboard as having gone double platinum in sales.
The kids say Carrie is strictly a country music singer, which, for most of them, is not their kind of music. So when Simon says she'll out sell all the AI winners and contestants, they get mad and blame Carrie, not Simon.
The voting block that loves Fantasia also gets mad, because her first album has been doing pretty good in the R&B/Urban music genre. But once again, these kids don't blame Simon. They blame Carrie. Interestingly, many kids in this block say they love the rockers.
So adding all that teenage angst over Simon's comments to all the teeange crushes over Bo and/or Constantine, I figure there's no clear favorite this year.
I've followed a few C&W stars and seen the live performances and videos. Carrie will have a C&W career because she has a strong voice and looks good. They can put some sexy close on her and teach her to strut across the stage, but her voice will make her some money. And Kelly will be around awhile, but it's way too premature to forcast better careers for such young people; and Simon should know better.
As for backlash voting, I hate the thought, but it's part of the psychology.
Me too.
Although I've never voted on AI nor sent a TM to anyone, either, I think there's merit to it. Perhaps because I don't have any kids in my life between the ages of about 10 to 16, I'm curious about their attitudes and point of view. So I check out the AI boards fairly often. Aside from some non-AI-related things, like posters who are obviously kids saying they are in their 20's or 30's, and the many posters with woeful lack of spelling skills [grin], the passion the kids expend over their favorites is equal to, if not greater than what we've seen on FR recently about Terri Schiavo.
Each week, millions of kids vote literally hundreds and hundreds of times (great training for when they grow up and become Democrats, LOL!). There were some 32,000,000 votes cast this week alone, or over 3 million per contestant if all got roughly an equal number. A large percentage undoubtedly are TM votes. However, you can vote as many times as you want using land-line phones, computer speed-dialers, cells, TM, etc.
The people who get the most votes in per night are those lucky enough to own computers with high-speed internet connections and sophisticated speed-dialing software. The computer does the dialing and voting far more rapidly than any human can keep hitting the redial button on their phone.
The AI producers never release the vote breakdown, but I think it's safe to conclude that even the contestant voted off in any given week gets a ton of votes. Right now over on the AI boards, there are Jessica Sierra voters posting angry comments that sound a lot like the angry adults who've been all over FR these last couple of weeks.
If you're voting via phone..you have to get through, right..I understand most people don't get through..whereas with TM..you gett hrough as many times asd you want, depending on how fast you can hit the buttons, and assumoing you are willng to pay, right?..There was a thread here yesterday I think, about some parent who went ballistiic when his daughter ran up a $1500 phone bill last month..99% of which was spent sending TMs during school hours..
Yes, you're right. You have to get through by phone, and it's hard to get through on the lines of the most popular contestants. Both TM and computer power dialing make a big difference. AI may draw 30+ million votes, but it may be that a comparatively small number of actual people do the voting.
See! LOL
Jessica was robbed
There's a replay ??? !!! I had to work late and I missed all but the last 10 minutes. I wanted to hear Carrie sing Hannity's song
Simon was right about her though, she lacks likeability. Even thought I thought she sang better than three of the other contestants that stayed, I wasn't sorry to see her go. For that matter, none of the other contestants seemed to care that she left.
No she didn't. I had my fingers crossed that it would be Anwar, but oh well. Maybe next week.
The judges keep boosting Nikko, even though the man can't sing -- unless one considers ultra sharp (as in off-key sharp, not cool), not-quite-falsetto, tuneless noise as singing. He's not quite as bad as Mikalah, but close.
Ouch! (LOL) Nobody is as bad as Mikalah :) Nikko's problem might be that he's trying too hard. Instead of letting the song flow naturally, he forces it to go where it doesn't want to go. His performance Tuesday night demonstrates this, and I agree with you, the result was just noise.
I'm putting all my chips on Carrie now. Bo is still a favorite, but if his Black Crowes schtick is any indication of what's to come, forget it. I think he would do much better with some slow Blues songs instead of Rock--and somebody please tell them all to stay on the stage! That jumping-on-the-table stuff is so tired.
(See you on the Dose. I expect it will be a rough one tonight.)
I have no idea. I never vote, just criticize :)
If excellent vocals count for anything in this competition, she should win easily. However, eventually Bo or Constantine will go home. Then all the young girls with crushes on one or both of them will vote for the remaining rocker. In the meantime, if the chatter among the kids on the AI boards is any indication, Simon really hurt Carrie with his over-the-top praise last week, and there's a backlash against her.
BTW, I don't like Anwar either. He and Nikko have similar singing voices. That high-pitched girlish style of singing by men has never impressed me. Give me the rich, rounded, resonant tone of real men's voices anyday.
The kids do not like a "Teacher's Pet", and Carrie is definitely Simon's pet. She is nothing special, though. You can find dozens of Carries down in Nashville waiting for their big break.
Vonzel is my favorite girl singer. She has a sweetness and charm about her, and is a real beauty.
Nadia looks like a member of the Green Party or Anarchist Chicks. Not a winner.
Bo is good, but too polished and professional. I personally don't think they should have extended the age limit.
Constantine will be the winner. He knows exactly how to play to his audience--those madly text-messaging young teen girls.
I agree that Carrie will take home the top prize. She's clearly the best singer and I think she has a good stage presence without having to move and jump, etc.
I saw the results of an AOL poll which had her at 42%...the closest to her was Bo with only 16%.
Bo and Lt. Dan will probably be with her in the top 3....I think Bo is much stronger than Lt. Dan, but Dan's got the teeny bopper vote covered. That will be a good match.
Vonzell is really good vocally but so was Jessica. She's also a pretty girl but that didn't help Jess, Lindsay and Sarah Mather (From the top 12).
Nadia doesn't have a strong voice but she's got that "stage act" thing going for her (like Simon said). I don' think that will get you into the top 5 and she's been in the bottom group 3 weeks in a row.
Besides, she looks like one of the stick figure back-up singers in the Disney cartoon, Hercules. (Someone should post a photo of them here)
Anwar has a strong voice when he picks the right songs, but if he continues to "stink up the place" like the last 3 weeks, he'll be out.
Nikko is Micheal Jackson and Stevie Wonder's love child. (Stevie's blind, he thought it was Janet)
Anthony is better than the Judges treat him and Scotty is worse. But Scott gets the fat people's vote so he'll be outstaying his welcome.
That my 2 cents....
Thanks for the info on the AI boards.
I do think one of the rockers will probably win, and I think Vonzell's improvement has catapulted her into a likely top four spot, if not higher.
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