American Idol 4: Why Celena Lost

Without any ado whatsoever, Celena was called to center-stage this week and told that she had received the fewest votes among the women. This was of pretty much no surprise to me, though many others thought it would be Janay instead. So what happened to send Celena packing? Why did Celena lose, especially in favor of some of the others?

We don’t have to just randomly guess at the answers – we have a blueprint to work from! Let’s look back at What ‘American Idol 4’ Contestants Need to Know and see what happened here.

The first, and always most important, rule is to have singing and performing talent. Celena had enough to make it to this point, but it is not exactly a shock that this is where the journey ended for her (to steal a cliché from the AI folks). How was Celena this week? Randy: “Just okay.” Paula: “I didn’t click in.” Simon: “you are going to end up [singing in a hotel].” Recapper Donna Reynolds: “it was sort of boring.” Commentators from We’ll Be the Judge of That! included Bruce: “off pitch, off tempo, and will send her off the show.” Paris: “I keep forgetting she’s on the show.” Me: “rather forgettable… nothing special. I think she’ll be heading home, and in a few weeks nobody will remember that she was even on the show.”

What does part of this first rule say? “Now you have to impress the viewers – and you only have a few brief moments to do it.” Celena had two chances to impress us, and she failed.

Part of the reason she failed is explained by the second rule, song choice. Celena did not pick songs that would allow her to stand out and show America who she really is. They didn’t stretch her vocally or let her show her personality or, well, anything.

The third rule says to be consistent. Celena was indeed consistent – but consistently dull. She needed to be consistently outstanding. She needed to treat these performances like they could be her last and, as the rule says, “be excellent every time.” She was mediocre every time.

OK, now look back to the quotes I gave earlier from both the on-site and Foxes On Idol judges. What is a common theme? Boring. Just okay. Nothing special. All of these show that Celena failed when it came to the fourth rule, being unique. If you are nothing special, if you are just okay, then you are not unique. You have not differentiated yourself from the pack; you have not made people want to vote for you.

And what was the other comment that came up several times? Forgettable. Considering that the fifth rule is to be memorable, which is the opposite of that criticism, I think we can see how well she did on that front.

The sixth rule is to avoid karaoke. While Simon did criticize some of the ladies for bad impersonations, Celena was not one of them. So we can move on to the seventh rule, which says not to argue with the judges. Celena didn’t do that either, so let’s keep on chugging along.

Eighth is the reminder to contestants that they are a package. That means viewers are voting not just on skill, but personality. Look at Janay Castine – there is no way she stayed in the competition this week based solely on her two performances. She is in because of her personality, among other things. But once again, we have the problem with Celena that what we saw of her was dull. Boring. Yawn. There was no package to vote for.

Of course, without showing personality, it’s hard to create much of a fan base. Yes, part of Celena’s problem was that she was not on-air much in earlier weeks. However, She could have overcome that with a good performance. Look at David, who was also eliminated this week. He had plenty of early airtime, and was still sent packing. Bo Bice, on the other hand, had minimal airtime and blew people away enough with his performances that he is still around and charging towards the front of the line. So it is true that she didn’t have the extra oomph from a pre-existing fan base that, for example, Janay might have had. But she didn’t do anything to create a fan base of her own, either.

In the end, it really comes back to one thing, and I said it in our “We’ll Be the Judge of That!” column: “Rather forgettable… nothing special. I think she’ll be heading home, and in a few weeks nobody will remember that she was even on the show.” Celena might have been “okay,” but okay isn’t good enough in the world of American Idol. She failed to shine, she failed to make an impression on people. That is why Celena lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out RealityNewsOnline’s American Idol recap:

David Bloomberg is the Editor of Foxes On Idol, and can be reached at RNO@pobox.com.

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