American Idol Finals - Live Thread!!

Fox ^ | May 21, 2003 | all of us

[Interloper]

The number of conspiracy theories floating around this thread is astonishing even for FR.

AI is a big show for Fox, its a monster. It was one of the driving forces behind News Corp. achieving profitability in their last quarter.

Does anyone think that Rupert Murdoch, or anyone else at Fox, would jepordize the golden goose too advance some affirmative action social agenda? (Does Rupert have an affirmative action agenda he's even looking to advance?)

[Lady Heron]

As long as it's about his talent, not his skin color or his weight,

It has nothing to do with skin color or weight, but intonation and range.

[FreeReign]

With Clay's new found fame, I believe a lot of people are just jealous that Clay will have more women throwing themselves at him while those who say he's gay only have their hands to use for sexual relief.

Both Clay with his self-thrown woman and the gay-sayers who are alone with their own hands, will have one thing in common.

They will both be thinking about those they are not with. :|

[floriduh voter]

Ruben weighs in at 360 pounds. That is just the facts. In his case, it did affect his ability to hold out notes, his phrasing, he does look foolish just standing there like a tree and what kind of stamina will he have if he ever had to do a show of at least twenty songs? Show business is hard work.

The other day Ruben said he was "tired". It's only going to get harder for him unless they keep him in the studio recording. The touring circuit is not for the faint hearted.

His sweating problems and facial expressions that do not exude confidence are a distraction from his performances. He's got a tougher road to hoe than Clay who at the same age, is fit and is a better singer by far. Tonight's crowning may be the highlight of Ruben's career but Clay is going to go much further.

[bootless]

OK,I can finally join the thread. 1335 votes? Sounds like another election I remember. But you know ... I'm OK with this. We Clay fans know what kind of support he's gotten, what he's capable of, and all those good things.

In a way, I was slightly hoping that result, because the AI contract is brutal - I don't envy Kelly Clarkson. And with this result, Clay can shoot the moon. He's got a record contract, and I have absolutely no doubt that he's going to be around - at the top - for a long, long time.

And what a classy guy Clay is - no sulking - just support for his friend. So, how long do you think before Mr. Sedaka is back in the red room with the production contract? :-)

[Howlin]

Were you the one who was talking about the contract? Will Clay have to sign with Simon? Because you know Neil Sakda already said he wanted to produce Clay's first album!

BTW, don't miss my other ping to you.

[Howlin]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/915760/posts

[packman]

I was thinking the same thing bootless. Mr. Sedak was totally taken with Clay. He brought tears to his eyes.

[fatima]

Timesink"Racism is okay as long as it's towards someone in the public eye? Sorry, no."I hit the abuse button,2nd time since on this forum,2 years.

[floriduh voter]

I had been dialing for about a half an hour when the show ended. A female voice came on the line and said "you have dialed too much for this time period. Please wait until a later time." Then my phone went dead for awhile. I WAS CENSORED BY A FEMALE'S VOICE WHEN I DIALED THE 1-866 NUMBER FOR CLAY. I really think that they played with Florida voters which coincidentally, Ruben won. I CAN'T HELP BUT SMELL A SCANDAL kind of like the New York Times letting the guy copy other news stories. To be politically correct, reverse discrimination is OKAY. Please make a note of what happened to me in Florida. It's very curious and although I don't want to spend lots of time on this, being told to stop using my phone - not just the all lines are busy message, makes me more convinced than ever that they knew from prior weeks where Clay's main supporters were and they shut down those areas of the country. There's no way that Ruben won by 130K votes. NO WAY. It would only take a few people at the phone bank and some payola. I read that even Clay knew that the fix was in.

[bootless]

I have thoroughly enjoyed this show. And I have thoroughly enjoyed these threads!

Me, too. It's been so intense and stressful - this was great and lots of fun. AND I have gone and signed up for some voice and percussion (steel drums, conga and Taiko, whichever I get) lessons at a local music camp later this summer! Being immersed in all the political stuff for so long, I really missed music! I think that the judges backed off the criticism of Ruben because they gambled that the media push would result in a win for him ... and they didn't want to weaken his public image at the get-go. But you'd better believe that he is going to get some intensive vocal coaching behind the scenes.

And for Clay? He's got a huge and dedicated fan base, and a tremendous future ahead of him. He is not going to be locked into an AI-exclusive contract, and I think he's going to soar, and soon.

[floriduh voter]

Yeah, see one of my last posts. I think they knew where Clay's supporters were and systematically shut down some of his callers. I was told to stop calling because I had dialed too much. So, if that happened to Clay's fans, he got behinder as the night wore on and if you add that people's phones were dead in Raleigh, his home base, I must put my tin hat on right away. LOL

[bootless]

But the only CD I'm going to buy will be what Clay puts forth -- and he WILL definitely knock peoples' socks off with that voice of his. Clay will be the long-term winner from this competition.

Not a thing I can add to that. Bump. (And yes, I picked him from the beginning!)

[Hildy]

Kimberly Locke got better and better every week. She was VERY impressive tonight.

[Timesink]

Timesink"Racism is okay as long as it's towards someone in the public eye? Sorry, no."I hit the abuse button,2nd time since on this forum,2 years.

This jumble makes no sense. Hit abuse on what, for what reason?

[Fawnn]

I'll admit I need a life, but while I'll also admit that I was already hoping Clay would win, today I downloaded the mp3's of the songs both Ruben and Clay performed on Tuesday night's show (from www.idolonfox.org, if I recall).

Then, I closed my eyes as I listened to each one. I'm not a music expert. But it came down to more than just taste -- like not liking the song "Imagine," for example. Repeatedly while listening in Ruben's selections, I'd hear errors that would take me out of the moment. For those who like Ruben's kind of music, I imagine they can clean that sort of stuff up in the recording studio. Simon obviously thinks there's something that makes Ruben marketable. (And as much as we'd all like for life to be fair, men just don't get the same grief over being overweight -- or old and wrinkled, for that matter -- as do women, so if he's able to rustle up the stamina he needs to perform, Ruben's weight probably won't otherwise be a hindrance.)

I imagine Clay will get that Neil Sedaka contract -- or one better. Once he's done with the tour this summer, his career will probably be more his own anyhow. Still....

It's human nature to want to be on the winning side. I'm still convinced Clay should have won. Because we did get invested in this competition, those of us who think that way are in mourning, in a way. (I doubt it'll take us as long to get past that as it has those convinced Gore was robbed.)

They're both nice (and I emphasize the "nice," because I didn't see any evidence otherwise) Christian boys/young men. They'll both do well. (I think Clay will do better, but I digress.) The American Idol competition helped them both get a lot of the hard knocks out of the way.

(I think I'm done ruminating on this topic now.) ;)

[justshe]

Not sour grapes at all. I am saying that with what some are reporting was occurring in Florida....re: receiving a message that they had voted enough...try again later.....and NC where some voters couldn't get thru at all....and Oregon where I voted in a multiple of 100's.....SOMETHING is not right.

The disparity in the phone systems (around Raliegh the phone lines were down for at least 30 minutes)....and the switchboards tallying the votes....coupled with a message being given when people attempted to vote multiple times in Florida.....just has a HUGE stink about it.

[ethical]

mmmm. zogby....one poll and what I looked at around 60 polls. No comparison there. I probably could have looked at 160 more polls and found the same thing. Clay won the vote, Reuban won the shows executives for whatever reason.

[floriduh voter]

I was not war dialing but a female voice came on and told me I had to stop dialing. That happened to other people and I was dialing slowly but consistently with no result. We haven't had a good conspiracy here at FR lately. Well, I'm done with AI. You're right. They changed the vote count three times and maybe by tomorrow, it will change again. So Fox isn't as fair and balanced as I was led to believe. LOL

[bootless]

I actually muted it when Ruben sang the post-win song. I mean, I am happy for him, and he seems like a really nice guy. Not a problem there. He's just not the better singer.

BTW, for some reason, my son was rooting for Ruben, so he'll be happy. That's fine.

But Ruben just doesn't GRAB you with his singing ... he's pleasant, mellow, with a nice smoky voice when he's on pitch. But Clay sparkles. He'll be around for a long, LONG time. He can write his own ticket. I also intend to send the Autism Society something.

BTW, I'm on the CMA Awards ... what did Reba say about the Ditzy Chicks?