Two weeks ago a friend I hadn’t heard from in some time texted me to see if I was still writing my Idol blog. The next day NE, a long-time reader of these Musings, asked me if I was watching Idol. For a variety of reasons, the answer to both questions was “no.”
A little history. Once upon a time, what is now Rays Musings was Idol Musings. In American Idol’s heyday, that blog had incomprehensibly been read in all the continents except Antarctica. As I said, for a variety of reasons – perhaps boredom being the main one – I retired it.
That said, NE has been rather insistent about trying to get me to watch and blog on Idol. She posted this video from Sunday’s episode on my Facebook wall and urged me to watch it.
I watched and replied.
Alright, gonna go full Simon Cowell here. You should expect no less. It was a really, really strong audition. She has a TON of RAW and FLAWED TALENT, emphasis on each capitalized word. She’s only 18. With the right development, she could be really, really good. I suspect she doesn’t know how good she is and doesn’t know what it will take to be good.I know the show is a glorified karaoke contest but you know I’m looking for stars. I always worry when young girls sing songs by “older” artists. I need to know who she’s gonna be as herself. She’s not likely to be the next Whitney or J-Hud so I want to know more about who Alyssa Wray is.If I were Berry Gordy and running Motown back in the day, I’d sign her in a heartbeat knowing she wouldn’t be ready to compete on the charts for a few years. But that’s not the music business – and by the business I mean the industry – today. Today I’d need a finished product and I don’t what that looks like for her yet.But I’m excited about her!! She has great presence just like the judges said. Hollywood Week and the coaching she’ll get from guest coaches (I assume that they’ll do that in some way this year?) can smooth out the rough spots and help her grow into a style. There’s a lot of untapped and undefined potential there.
Gee, I almost wrote an Idol blog again! Maybe . . . .
The final round of auditions is Sunday. I’ll be watching The Grammy Awards. The Bachelor mercifully ends Monday. Idol’s infamous Hollywood Week begins the following Sunday. It’s a pandemic. I’ll be bored and need an outlet. I’m not promising anything to NE or anybody else. But I’d like to see how things turn out for Alyssa. And the judges are too nice. There still needs to be a hard to impress, independent-minded Simon Cowell voice. We’ll see. 🙂
Ray's Musings 