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Is 15 too young for Idol? I think 16 is too young.
#887 - 1--ed--Is 15 too young for Idol? I think 16 is too young.--2010-06-28 18:25:29
#It’s bad enough to ruin the careers of 20 year olds but 15……
- I have long thought and argued that 16 was too young for Idol. So far the closest a 16 year old has come to winning the show was season 7 with
David Archuleta. One 17 year old won and that was
Jordin Sparks. She has done OK but I still think had she waited til this season she would have done even better. Lets look at the 16/17 years olds we have had and see what’s up with them and how well they did on the show.
Season 1:
Jim Verraros and
AJ Gil. Jim went out first week and
AJ the next. Haven’t heard a peep from either since. Neither was ready for Idol. I’m not sure either would ever have been ready for idol.
Season 2: Carmen Rasmusen: Carmen would have benefitted greatly had she waited at least two years and maybe even four. Even with her real lack of maturity and vocal skill she made it to #6 in her season. Here is a sample of a song off her CD
"Nothin' Like the Summer" The nervous vibrato never makes even a shade of an appearance in this tune.
Carmen only sold 3,100 copies of this CD as far as I can find. Admittedly her season was one of the most watched seasons ever but her reputation was murdered by her show performances. Her utter lack of experience and maturity on the show cost her a lot. I believe had she waited til season 6 not only would she have been a better singer she might have placed. I know one thing for sure. After the success of
Carrie and
Kellie she would have been snatched up by 19E and that 3,100 could have been at least 310,000.
Carmen now sings much better than Taylor Swift. And this Taylor girl’s done OK. But hey
Carmen did marry the governor of Utah’s son.
Season 3 was loaded with 16/17 year olds and I think this is why this was the worst season ever.
Camile Valesco, John Stevens, Leah LaBelle, Jasmine Trias and
Diana DeGarmo. With the minor exception of
Diana the rest of this crew needed years more practice. But they all had one thing in common; Potential. And to be honest
Diana could have used a few years more as well. To see
Diana now is a different experience. I would submit to you that all of these kids sing miles better than Justin or Myley. Not on the show but now.
To be fair
Diana is doing very well. She is currently enjoying another run on Broadway with season 5 vet
Ace Young in “Hair”. As far as a recording career that had yet to happen. Her debut CD “Blue Skies” sold a paltry 167,000. Her voice has actually matured very well. See for yourself
Here And do yourself a favor. If you are in NYC anytime soon go see her in Hair.
John Stevens was way over his head on Idol from day one. Today that wouldn’t be the case. Here’s just a sample
"Someone to Watch Over Me" This was only a year later I couldn’t find anything newer. But with the mega success Michael Buble` is now enjoying he could follow right up. But alas, he tried out too young. He needed to wait til this year. He would be 22 and also be through his teen awkwardness.
Leah, to my knowledge hasn’t done anything since idol. I could be wrong but I couldn’t find anything. She has gotten better looking. See and hear her
Here . I couldn’t find any studio stuff.
Leah like
Jasmine who I’ll get to, made the wrong music direction choice. She tried the R&B route. Look, if you are not black don’t even go there. Hispanics (
Ashley Rodriguez), Asians (
Jasmine/
Camille), Indians (
Anoop), whites (
Leah and the list is too long), can’t do this successfully. No matter how hard they try it’s a fake. Sorry, it is.
Jasmine lasted to #3. It wasn’t because of her voice or performance skills. She was proof the show was not just about singing. She was exotic and beautiful. And she actually could sing as was proved her first night of the top 12 with the best of the night version of “Inseparable”. But from then on her lack of experience came down on her like a brick. Had
Jasmine waited until season 6, I’m not sure
Jordin would have won. Here is a Philippine song she recorded 4 years ago.
"Sani Lagi" tell me that’s not beautiful. This is the direction she should have taken but went this way
"Excuses". Tell me which one succeeds most. She sold 14,000 copies of her CD. I bought one of those. I was disappointed. But I would love to see
Jasmine now. She would be 23. I think she could take this competition these days.
Season 4: We only had
Mikalah Gordon this year and I think it was on purpose seeing what the young ones did for season 3. Had
Mikalah waited I’m not so sure things would have been much different. But she did give us a great version of
“God Bless the Child”. I think
Mikalah is doing what she wants; to be in front of the camera as a host.
Season 5 we had three
; Kevin Covais, Lisa Tucker, and
Paris Bennett. With the exception of
Kevin, the others would have benefitted being say, 21 years old. I don’t think
Kevin would have been helped waiting. He just didn’t have it.
Kevin got by on his cuteness I guess.
Paris did put out a CD and it sold a little over 23,000 copies. But I have to say as good as she was she would have killed this year. I still think she will end up with a great singing career if she pursues it. Even in the best season ever she finished 5
th. Who finished ahead of her?
Daughtry, Elliott, Kat and Taylor. Every one of them is presently signed. When I commented about singing R&B this girl can show anyone how to do it. Here’s a sample
Wide Open It’s not my type of music but it takes a skilled vocalist to pull it off.
Paris is as vocally skilled as the very best out there. In fact better than most. Yeah, I think she’s better than Beyonce.
Lisa Tucker was more of a Disney type singer. No doubt she should have waited. Her nerves got to her. With more maturity she would have done much better. Here’s the new Lisa.
"Drown" More of a New Disco feel.
Season 6: We had
Jordin and
Sanjaya. Both are very famous for very different reasons.
Jordin won so there’s not a lot to comment on about her being too young. But she is the major exception and if you had to rank her as winners go she is the 6
th most successful sales idol to win. Overall she is 9th when we include non-winners
Daughtry,
Clay, and
Kellie Pickler. She does get some serious airplay.
Laugh at me if you will but I think had
Sanjaya tried out
Anoop’s year we might have had two Indian reps in the top 13. He could actually sing quite well. He however rarely did on the show. Who knows what he’s up to these days. Here’s one of his new tunes
"A Guy Like Me" Season 7: David Archuleta was our only one. He was quite good already. As good as
Archie was, put him in this year’s crop and we don’t have
Lee Dewyze as a winner. Not a chance. With 2 more years under his belt
Archie would have ruled this year. He likely would have won. And even though his career is doing nicely it would be markedly better as winner of season 9. In fact he scores just below
Jordin in the sales chart at #10.
Season 8: We had
Allison and
Jasmine Murray.
Jasmine needed a ton more time to mature. She was nowhere near ready for this juggernaut.
Jas might have needed 4-5 more years.
Allison as awesome as she was, would have smoked the competition with at least 3 more years under her belt. As it was I still think she was the best of that season.
Adam lovers don’t lose your minds.
Adam was 9 years older than
Allison. Check out
Allison in 9 years. Listen to this girl at 17
"Don't Waste the Pretty" Why this isn’t scorching up top 40 right now is a mystery to me. If 19E can get some spins with this it will certainly get her on her way. Of all the 16/17 years olds I think
Allison has the most raw talent of all. She still needs a few years to understand herself. I met
Allison and while you never could tell on TV, she is really gorgeous.
Season 9: Aaron Kelly and the one they wanted to win initially
Katie Stevens. These two might be the most prime examples of why the age limit should be raised and not lowered. Neither had the maturity even close to competing in this show.
Katie had a great voice for sure. So good that Kara quipped she could win the whole thing. The curious thing was not so much she said it but the fact the producers left it in for us to see. This tells me they wanted to build a base for her early. They wanted a Miley with her. We saw
Katie get all jiggy when she got compliments in Hollywood. Just what we’d expect a 16 year old girl to do. More than made me a fan allowed me to see how young she really was. Her voice was tall but her experience was short.
Katie is pretty and from my experience meeting these kids they are even prettier in person. She is the kind of girl the boppers might vote for so that I think was their edge. But as we all saw she floundered as soon as she got in front of a crowd. For my money she was never as good as her audition and Hollywood round. Had she been even 19 with some serious stage experience, this girl could have lived up to expectations and won it all. But no. She’ll be lucky to get signed and might have to fight her way to a decent singing career. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Aaron had the heebie jeebies even worse. They were looking for a Beiber here. He has a voice that can win this show. It need much more time to mature as well as he did to understand the stage. I would say in 3-4 years he would have been ready and could have done very well. They pushed his back story to make sure he could get the appropriate amount of sympathy votes from non boppers. As is he finished a ridiculous 4
th. By ridiculous I mean he nowhere near deserved that placement. He should have left….well the same night
Katie did.
Look at the real winners of this show. While
Carrie only knocked it out once during her entire run, she had the maturity and mega vocals. She fouled up more times than not but her maturity and presence made the difference. Check out some
Carrie stuff when she was 16. It ain’t so great. Chris
Daughtry didn’t blow us away with vocals every week but he commanded the stage every time he was on it. That is experience.
Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia, David Cook, Adam, or
Clay. They all took that stage by the throat and took charge. Whether you liked them or not, they commanded your attention. Unless you are Myley Cyrus and have been on a stage professionally your entire life (and have a famous parent) it takes time to develop those intangible skills. For the most part these kids are off the street with no real stage experience. You have to have it to win n and continue to be a winner.
I have read that the massive success Justin Bieber and Myley Cyrus have had is the major factor in the decision to lower the age. Since they have not had such great success in the adult arena they’re going for the bopper arena. Or maybe they’re just trying to cast a wider net. I can’t fault them for trying something. If I were a conspiracy guy I might think they already found one and are going to put him in the show just to promote him.
Archie and
Allison had most raw talent of all the 16 year olds. Not even close. What would have happened had they been discovered before Idol? It might be Idol is afraid of losing a Miley or Beiber or even a Taylor Swift. Whatever, I think the show will suffer at least in the arena of the 18-49 year old demo. You know….the one that counts. Idol should raise the age limit, not lower it. When someone too young does this show and looks pretty bad, it is worse than not doing it at all. And the chances are someone 16 will make themselves look bad. Having that plus the Idol stigma to overcome, well…..it’s just too much. Let them grow up first.
Is it Tuesday yet?
Idolhead Ed
idolheaded@yahoo.com --comments-->2--333--5
