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American Idol 9: Why Michelle Lostby David Bloomberg -- 03/10/2010
View Printable version of this article Michelle was a rarity in the semi-finals in that she wasn't a horrible singer or somebody who mouthed off or anything like that. Was it that she could have been so under the radar that it can explain what happened to her? Why did Michelle lose? I’ve already addressed this key question for the other three who got the boot last week – Jermaine, John, and Haeley – but I left the most difficult for last. Luckily, we have a way of figuring out the answers to our questions, by looking back through What ‘American Idol 9’ Contestants Need to Know to see what could have happened to Michelle. 
We’ll start with the most obvious – did Michelle sing and perform well, in accordance with the first rule? Well, considering that the on-site judges seemed to spend more time talking about her outfit (and I don’t care what they said – it was atrocious), that’s not a good sign. Randy pointed out some pitch problems (I know, that’s shocking coming from him) and also said she didn’t do enough with the song. Ellen agreed with the latter. Kara was the opposite, feeling that it was believable, though not technically perfect. Simon was on the fence but leaning towards Kara’s view. None of them thought it was either horrible or great. So that wasn’t too helpful, though we may come back to it later. What did the Foxes On Idol writers think? Recapper Tyler said it was “the most boring melisma ever.” I was the only one in the We’ll Be the Judge of That! panel on Wednesday night, and I actually enjoyed the performance! The NGH Report’s Joseph fell somewhere in between, ranking it seventh out of ten and noting that her vocals were a bit too weak for the song. In other words, we felt about the same as the judges – and didn’t agree among ourselves either. 
So let’s move on. The second rule talks about the importance of proper song choice. Here, I think, Michelle encountered a problem. She was trying to do something different, so she chose a Creed song. As Joseph noted, “In the collective ‘huh’ moment of the season, Michelle Delamor sang a pop version of ‘With Arms Wide Open.’” Recapper Tyler similarly thought it was a bad idea. I understand that she was trying to avoid being predictable, but there were so many other possible ways she could have done that besides going in this direction. I think it just left many viewers kind of scratching their heads. The third rule tells singers to be consistent. I’m not really sure what to say about Michelle in this area. She was neither great nor horrible. So I guess we could say she was consistently… average? But that in and of itself is a problem, especially at this stage of the competition. Here in the semi-finals, you need to be unique (per the fourth rule) and memorable (per the fifth) and show exactly who you are (per the sixth). By being mediocre, Michelle failed in all of these areas. Was Michelle unique? I’d say no. She didn’t particularly stand out for any reason I can think of. We barely saw her before the semi-finals, which certainly didn’t help her. Was she memorable? Again, no. That’s what being mediocre does to you – in some ways, it’s better to be horrible, because then at least people remember you. This is where we go back to the on-site judges. As I noted, none of them felt that Michelle was either particularly great or particularly horrible. Michelle was there, but forgotten. Did we find out about her personally? Did she make herself into a complete package? For a third time, no. As Sting7 indicated in our column this week, “Michelle works with kids… that’s all we really knew about her, and she fell through the cracks.” Any of these issues independently could have caused problems for Michelle when it came to the eighth rule, which talks about how to garner a fan base. But all three of them together made it nearly impossible – unless she had been a stand-out performer. Unfortunately, she wasn’t. Heck, Michelle didn’t even do anything in her interaction with the judges to make me remember her. That means she followed the seventh rule, which I skipped over in the interest of continuity, but it also just contributed to her lack of being memorable. Michelle was not the worst – or even the second-worst – of the night. She certainly was not the best, though. She didn’t really show us or tell us who she actually is and didn’t stand out for any particular reason. Frankly, Michelle didn’t give viewers any particular reason to remember her, so it appears they forgot she even existed when it came time to dial the numbers. That is why Michelle lost. Now you can follow Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline on Twitter and on Facebook! On Twitter, you can get up to the minute notifications on article postings and other reality TV news by following us. So head on over to RealityNewsOnline’s Twitter page! On Facebook, you can become a fan, join discussions, and more! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol & RealityNewsOnline:
David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com. You can also follow him on Twitter! Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! Also make sure to check out RealityNewsOnline for recaps and articles covering other reality TV shows. For even more news about American Idol, be sure to check SirLinksALot: American Idol! View Printable version of this article
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