AI Commentary – The Originals

What people that are thinking of auditioning for American Idol don't seem to understand, is it's not always the best voice that gets you to Hollywood, and it's not even most outrageous or the worst singer that gets you on camera. You have to have originality somewhere. Otherwise it's just the same ol' same ol'.

Right now, I can't think of anyone more original than Sherman Pore. Th is 64-year-old man came to the show with a signed petition for him to be allowed to sing on air. But he wasn't looking for his 15 minutes; he was looking to honor someone that was very dear to him. With a story that had Paula and most of us at home weeping, Sherman explained that his lady love of 20 years fell ill, and was in the cancer center at Cedars Sinai. He came up with this idea to petition to be on American Idol, and it lifted her spirits as she helped him arrange it all. He walked around the hospital, and got 330 signatures. He thinks it eased her passing.

That's right; her passing. She passed away the Friday before the auditions, so it was still fresh in Sherman's mind. When the judges looked at whim with the deepest of feelings after he told them his story, he quickly explained he didn't want their sympathies. Simon said he wouldn't be getting that, but he would be allowed to sing. He dedicated the song to his lady love, and sang You Belong to Me. Paula wiped away her tears, and Olivia Newton-John, a cancer survivor, looked at him with a knowing smile. Simon asked to shake his hand, and Paula and Olivia both gave him a hug and a kiss. After, Sherman told us he had just won.

It was perhaps the most heartwarming thing I've ever seen on this show that is often criticized for being too harsh and cruel. Yes, even more heartwarming than David Hasselhoff shedding a tear at the season finale last year. This was big. And Sherman deserves ... something. A little more than fifteen minutes. If William Hyung with no talent, but lots of honesty, can become a millionaire with a record contract, then certainly Sherman with a huge grieving heart, and honest-to-goodness talent, deserves a little something. I want to see him at the finale, and I think he deserves his spot on Larry King and at the Super Bowl, just like Kenneth Briggs and Johnathon Jayne.

But I caution to say here that it was originality that did all this. He was the first to ever do this. Certainly many more will try to do the same thing next year, saying it worked for Sherman, why not me? However, it won't be original, and won't have nearly as much heart attached then. But trust me, it'll be there next year in droves.

More originality came from a guy that called himself Eccentric and likened himself to a panther. Certainly it was a type of schtick, and it certainly seemed like something designed to get him on TV, as he had a huge buildup of stalking, crawling, disrobing, throwing, etc., before he started his original song. He wanted to be on TV, and it worked. Yet, he was original. No one has done that before, unless you consider the girl a few weeks back that was doing the Cowardly Lion impression.

While it wasn't original singing that gave us Sparkles and her boyfriend Darold, it was the orignality of their relationship, being together at the audition, being caught making out by Ryan, and Darold's bling teeth. Okay, also the fact that Sparkles was flirting away with Simon with such deep, sexual intent in her eyes, it was nearly frightening. Yet, the whole package together was very original. It won't work next year, though.

Eric's orignality came a little in his sound, but mostly in his learning process. That would be the process of learning to sing, which was ... I don't even think you can call it a falsetto, but a high-pitched whine kind of, where you couldn't even determine what he was singing. Simon kept telling him to drop his pitch and he was, but as Randy pointed out, it wasn't going to get any better. As he was leaving after hearing two nos, Simon discovered something interesting on his page of notes about Eric.

One of the notes said his learning instruction was from a Learn to Sing DVD that Randy and Paula had created. Simon had a lot of fun with this, as Paula tried to get him to stop teasing. The DVD apparently didn't work too well, and it left me wondering if there isn't some type of lemon law with Learn to Sing DVDs. Simon chased after Eric to get the story out of him, but Paul and Randy would have none of it, as they chased after Simon, trying to block him from uncovering just how this happened. There was one person last season that had learned to sing from the DVD as well, and was shown smashing it with a hammer after. So, this one did work again, and I think it's the rare exception that will work every year, as Simon will always continue to have fun with it.

The one really good singer to come out of LA didn't seem like he would be original at first, as he was a backup singer, and had been doing it for four years. But unlike Melinda Doolittle from Memphis last week, Brandon didn't seem to suffer from any types of insecurities. He's a nice-looking man with a very smooth voice and looks to probably go pretty far in the competition, unless something goes very wrong in Hollywood, like he's found to not be able to remember lyrics past the doowops he's used to singing as backup.

It was just nice to come out of this show, and know the water cooler talk today wouldn't be how goofy someone was or how cruel the judges were. Certainly the standout of the evening was with Sherman Pore, singing through his grief. And if you're planning on auditioning next year, start coming with original ideas, as the longer the show goes on, the more originality it will take to top the seasons before.

Our first five Idols, Kelly Ckarlson, Ruben Studdard, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, and Taylor Hicks were all original and different than those that came before them. That's what got them through the auditions, through Hollywood, and into the competition for us to vote on them, where we, too, voted on their originality. Who's going to be original enough to take it this year?

For more on American Idol, see Reality Shack

For more American Idol information, see SirLinksalot: American Idol