***ELIMINATION #2 03.01.07 Official Thread***

[llabb]

Good info on song clearance by kurto and rubix. Also, until last year, with more mainstream industry acceptance of AI, many artists would not want to clear their songs. AI was/is seen as cheesy, pandering, and often bad karaoke. Good artists often do not want their songs sung by poor contestants on a cheesy show.

It's somewhat similar to why some artists do not clear for Weird Al Yankovic and other parodies (although technically parodies do not have to have clearance, but Weird Al goes by it out of his own integrity). They don't want their songs or their own images becoming jokes. Or even being too overexposed.

Overexposure can make songs become jokes/hated pretty easily. That's one reason cited why You're Beautiful got shut out at the Grammys, it peaked too early, and after being loved, it became overexposed and disliked/ridiculed. But record companies usually do not release songs timed for Grammy consideration the same way that movie studios do for Oscars.

Anyway, back to the topic, even Kelly Clarkson did not want to clear her songs for AI, despite coming from it. It wasn't until pressure from Simon and public pressure made her cave. Many artists coming from AI want to distance themselves and be "taken seriously" and not as an AI contestant, despite the show making them.

This has all changed somewhat, with Kelly and Carrie's Grammy successes, and now with J-Hud's GG and Oscar. It will continue progressing, as artists attain more success and more creative recognition. The songwriting contest should also help, as it should inject more creativity and relevance, vs the cheesy horrible crap they throw up there for the winner's victorious coronation song.

And, more pertinent to the competition, it's rumored that the producers screw with the contestants. Not only do they only want to try to clear cheap songs (why spend money that you don't have to?), they may only want to try to clear great songs for their favored contestants. Gossip from past contestants is that certain people found it easier to get songs cleared than others. You can take that as sour grapes, uninformed interpretation of the hard-to-clear issues above, or as the truth, whichever you think it is.

[llabb]

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you basically have no chance in this competition if you are asian or hispanic.

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AJ had no chance then as he is an asian and hispanic mix.

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White, too.

"An ethnic mutt! I’m part Filipino and Portuguese with Spanish, French, Italian and Chinese," was how AJ describes himself.

And apparently you guys don't remember Jasmine. Filipinas can do well on this show, and I would guess other Asians can do fine as well. But then again, she had an entire time zone voting for her, and she was hot besides. (Cute hot, in an acceptable/appealing way to girls, not an unlikeable hot, which is how some view Antonella, who has virtually no chance in this competition.)

[Arrion]

Interesting info on song clearance. I heard that the Dixie Chicks song was not Alaina's first choice this week, and that one of her earlier choices was rejected because someone else was singing it the same day. So there may be some favoritism going on.

[CharlieDontSurf]

wow i totally missed that Alaina made it onto American Idol lol...used to work with her and hang out with her...damn she looked good on the show.

[llabb]

Nice. Very pretty girl, nice voice, although not strong enough to make the show, so she was probably put there as fodder that might or might not stick. But Antonella took that spot, with the internet pictures controversy and a worse voice. I think Amanda Avila from a previous season would have been a better contestant for this slot, but she never had enough controversy (i.e. didn't show enough skin).

So how did you work with Alaina? I thought she was still trying to make it in music, but not necessarily in the entertainment industry yet. Thus the comments about her giving up if she didn't make AI.