I thought id plonk this in a new thread as i think it brings up some points about the competition that i thought before i.e

1. The girls are at a disadvantage due to viewer type
2. song Choice - i found this most interesting. I always thought that the contestants had free reign on song choice, far more than X Factor maybe i was wrong.
3. The reasons why he did the show - i suspected it was just for exposure and he didnt need/want to win
4. He is dating Nikki Reed hah ( from Twilight)

http://mjsbigblog.com/paul-mcdonald-...l-and-more.htm

Thanks for that, Lisa. Paul seems like a very articulate and clued-up guy!

Not surprised they have almost no say over song choices. Remember Stefano never having heard of Hello?

Hope he gets what he wanted to out of this!

xxxx

Interesting points indeed. It gives a little insight on how contestants are being milked to death, how they're not getting a lot of sleep and all. All singers need their sleep for their voice to be in good shape. Why am i watching this sort of show again ?

Point 1 is a myth as old as these shows. AI has been won four times by a girl and on four other girls have made the finale.

Point 2 would have been right in other seasons. This is one way in which AI has differed from XF and to a lesser extent from PI. The contestants have always chosen their song, except on weeks when the theme has really stumped them and even then they have been given several suggestions to choose from, but this year the songs are being chosen for them. It's been suggested that Jimmy IovIne had this written into his contract and to be honest I think that most of this year's contestants are so lacking in imagination and originality that they would be lost without that. Sadly Paul was about the only one I thought would have been able to make his own choices and do his own thing with them. The more cynical are suggesting that it is a way of the show favouring their chosen ones by giving others inappropriate choices.

The big factor here is the age of the songs - producer Nigel Lythgoe is famous for wanting older songs, and the average age of songs this year is about 33 years, older than it's been for a number of seasons, and more to the point, older even than the age limit for contestants on the show!

So it's no wonder that the contestants need guidance, otherwise they'd all be doing songs from the last 5-10 years, which have shown to be bad for votes (and more importantly for Fox), ratings. I'm still surprised they get so little choice this year though...

When he was confirmed as returning as producer he wanted to raise the contestant age limit to 35. When it was raised from 24 to 29, it was in the year that XF got turned for America so perhaps the refusal to allow the age limit to be raised was as a result of XF getting the go-ahead.

Learning a "new" old song is no differently technically from learning a "new" new song if the singer has any talent.

Many of the older songs might be trickier because they are so well written and in many cases are more complicated than the modern songs.

Getting them to learn a song and perform it is no big deal for someone who really is talented and wants to win. It will soon sort the wheat from the chaff.

And realising that they have faults and need help will cut some of the egos down to size.

Too many of the previous contestants were not versatile at all, not adventurous and just stuck to the one or two songs or songs of the same type that they could parrot.

1. Really? i didnt realise females had won it as many times as that i didnt watch right from season 1. The only ones i know were Carrie, and Kelly. Has it been more more male dominated in recent years though? (mind u the fact that Christ Daughtry, Jennifer Hudson and Adam Lambert didnt win shows that the US is a good at choosing their winners as we are! IMO of course!)

2. Yeah the one reason i loved Idol is the perception (real or not) that they had much more control over what they were going to sing. I totally agree that Jimmy has had a lot to do with this and it was actually refreshing to see Casey and James stand up for what they believed in last week. I got from Pauls interview that hed gone along with choices given him (i actually believe that Paul wasnt as committed to trying to win the show as the others for one reason or another) and looking back wishes he hadnt and stood up for what he believed in, whether it had got him voted off or not.

I think the final straw for him was being asked to sing James Blunt this week, which he said was totally against what he wanted to do (he wanted to do Ray Montagne although James Blunt may have suited his voice funnily enough)

I guess im one of the most cynical ones then, i believe fully that you can throw a contestant under a bus with song choice, performance order, critique and even costume. X Factor do it regularly. For example, Jamie who i thought would do well in 2009 was give the most banal, generic rock songs ever!! He told us he wanted to do the Killers etc but was refused constantly and Storm Lee who had a fantastic voice but was dressed up like a clown, made to look an idiot and given stupid stupid songs!! I think Paul was totally thrown under a bus this week. Poor song choice (yes he had fun but it didnt show off his vocals at all) going first and bland positive comments (still think totally negative comments actually help votes wise, look at Jedward they got voted off when Simon started being nice about them!) all was a recipe for getting him out.

Stefano wll be next (sorry Faria) then Jacob neither of them are too marketable and are fair game for manipulation.

Fantasia and Jordan Sparks also won


There were always lists provided, but as long as they could get clearance for song choices, contestants could go completely 'off list', there are a few examples of this happening, both David and Adam had songs specially cleared for them.

I think, this season, part of the problem is some who have a clear idea of who they are are having confidence shaken by Jimmy vetoing choices - but the other part is some, not all, have very little musical identify and not that much knowledge so have to be lead (Thia, Stefano and possibly Lauren spring to mind), trouble is Jimmy's leading is very much towards what the recorded version will sound like, at the cost of the live performance - and it's the live performance that'll win you the show.

I agree, Paul's got what he wanted, a name, his band's name out there, and he can probably make a nice little career for himself/the band.


Don't think he threw it, but I do think he's not crying about it.


Syesha, season 7 - although I'm pretty sure no one at that stage was expecting anything but a David/Archie final producers choice of the song from 'Happy Feet' - please, talk about making sure it falls the way you want

ahh forgot about Fantasia and Jordan; No i dont think Paul threw it this week but i think he felt like it was his time to go, his point about worrying that he may lose credibility was interesting (though tbh if u want totally credible dont go on a reality TV show) as i tihnk he may have thought that the longer he went on singing 'covers' (as he put it) the less credible he became; From what he said he was gonig to stand up to the producers and insist on a Ray Montagne song (but he though that owuld have got him voted off next week anyway) but i think hes happier being out and able to do his own songs.

Oh god i forgot about Syesha!!! and yeah classic manipulation there (most blatant manipulation was still this yrs X Factor semi!)

I felt bad for her at the time, it had been obvious for weeks it was heading for David/Archie, and I honestly don't think she stood a chance of knocking either out, but to stick that song on her was pretty awful by the producers. I liked Syesha, she fought tooth and nail for her place and had some really nice performances along the way.

http://mjsbigblog.com/paul-mcdonald-...elly-video.htm

shamelessly promoting paul here his performance earlier today on regis and kelly BTW this is a great blog for all AI stuff

Females may be well represented amongst the winners and indeed finalists but the recent trend has certainly been for the males to do better.

Last year Crystal was second but the next best female was sixth. In 2009 the best female Allison finished fourth and the next sixth or seventh (double elimination). In 2008 Syesha was the best placed in third.

You have to back to 2007 for the last year the girls outshone the guys and if I remember rightly the boys that year were poor. In 2006 they did ok with a 2nd, 5th and 6th (but the boys were never in the minority). In 2005 they were placed 1st and 3rd but the next best was back in 8th.

In 10 seasons I'd say the girls have faired better than the boys on 3 occassions (seasons 1, 3 and 6) with maybe a couple of years where honours were even but the trend of the past three years has been for the guys to do considerably better. Maybe its just the way the talent has been distributed but personally I doubt it.

So what would your reason be for the audience suddenly deciding to vote more for boys than girls over the past few years, particularly in a day and age where contemporary female artists are generally more successful than males?

Personally I think Crystal was robbed of a win and Siobhan of a far higher placing than what she got, and Allison robbed of at least third place behind Adam and Danny (Lil was good but never hit her stride in the live shows) but Syesha batted well over her average with a third place showing.

I think it's just the way the cookie (no pun intended) crumbles.

Fantasia won season 3 and Jordin Sparks won season 6.

Jennifer went out in a week when the bottom three was all-female (but by the law of averages that wasn't a surprise because the contestants in the finals that year were mostly female ................... I believe that was the reason they split the top 36/24 stages into male and female to ensure an even split in the final 12/13). Of the other two girls in the bottom three with her, one ended up third and the one won (Fantasia).

The reasons for Adam's defeat are not exactly a one-off in AI terms or in terms of any talent show, but suffice to say they had nothing to do with talent (or with Adam's sexuality either).

Christ Daughtry? He's good but not that good!


I don't remember seeing Casey stand up for his song choice and little time as I have for Jimmy in the context of this show, James insulted his ability to spot a hit song (but, hey, it's oochycoochy icklewickle James with the "condition" that means he can't help doing and saying these things ).

It was Jacob who most stood up to them for a song choice, though it was for purely self-interested reasons. I mean, do you think he doesn't know how a large part of the AI audience would react to a gay man singing sexually suggestive lyrics?

I would have rather heard Paul do a James Blunt song than that Ray Lamontagne song. In fact I'd rather boil my own head than hear that Ray Lamontagne song.


Jamie was my favourite that year but he totally slaughtered Get It On that I thought he would nail.

I think the live shows exposed Storm's voice as being not really all that and his breath control appalling. I still remember his effort to hold that last note on Born to Run as if he had been vaulting around the stage when he had only been sitting on a bike. He had no problems at the time with his hair colouring and make-up (a look that he is just not pretty enough to pull off). It was only after being voted out that he moaned about it.


Do you mean the change of public votes only back to judges' decision because Cher got the lowest votes?


I started to see that blog in a different light (in pretty much the same light as I've always seen Rickey.org and that I see Rickey.org even more so since 2009) when it virtually became a Kris fan site and Adam bashing site because the woman who runs it is a Kris fan. It still continues to be that when appropriate. Some of the comments that were being allowed to get by on there when Adam performed on Ai a few weeks ago were priceless.

The first rule of wanting a blog to be taken seriously is to remain neutral but neither of these seem to know the meaning of the word.


I don't know how she made it that far. Her appearances in the bottom 2/3 to make it to third must be some sort of record. She's the weakest third placed contestant on the show ever IMO, though she's better than a couple of the winners.

Ahh the manipulations of these shows, dont you just love it

I think the standout singers will generally get the votes no matter what sex they are but when it comes to the also rans the voting demographic lean towards the males. I suspect the years the females have done well have been years where the male contestants have been poor (I can't say this with any conviction because I only started watching regularly the year Jordin won ).