American Idol 6: Why Alaina Lost

It’s a bad sign that as I sat here getting ready to write about Alaina’s loss, I couldn’t remember who she was! In fact, I had to go back and remind myself which woman was booted last week besides Leslie. Is this a big part of the reason Alaina isn’t around anymore? Why did Alaina lose?

Perhaps walking through What ‘American Idol 6’ Contestants Need to Know will pull up some memories of Alaina and we’ll see what we can figure out in answer to these questions.

The first rule, of course, is to have singing and performing talent. How did Alaina do in this area? Well, Randy called it “a mess.” Simon compared it to Randy running in a race. And even Paula said she was off! Oh, that’s not a good sign. Recapper Jenn agreed, saying it was off-key and unmemorable.

The Foxes On Idol panel at We’ll Be the Judge of That! all felt similarly. Sandy wondered if she hit a single note correctly. Kathy said she lost her pitch. Bruce said her performance “was like watching Snow White sing Judas Priest.” And I thought she did a little better, but not enough to save herself.

It was a fairly rare unanimous judges’ agreement that she would be booted. Add to that the three on-site judges and recapper Jenn, and we have an even rarer across-the-board agreement. Not good for Alaina!

The second rule addresses song choice. It notes, in part, that picking a current hit “simply begs for comparisons between the Idol wannabe and the original artist. In most cases, the wannabe comes out looking like, well, a wannabe.” So recapper Jenn hit the nail on the head when she said Alaina was “committing the cardinal sin of singing a current hit.” When you factor in how poorly Alaina did in the performance, it made a bad idea even worse.

Third is to be consistent. If anything Alaina was consistently below average in her two performances. She just never really sang well. Maybe if she had performed well the first week, she could have made it past the second. But with two in a row, it just wasn’t going to happen.

Another thing that didn’t happen was Alaina showing herself to be unique. I’m sure she’s a very nice person, but there was nothing at all about Alaina that stood out. In a competition with the likes of Melinda and LaKisha – and even Antonella, for other reasons – Alaina needed to make us pay attention to her. She didn’t.

Thus the reason for my inability to remember who she was and her failure in the fifth rule. Nothing about her stuck in my memory – not her look, not her singing, not her personality. Her performance flowed through my brain like hot butter on Teflon – it just shot straight through, with no remnants sticking.

A contributing factor to all of this was that Alaina did not set herself up as a complete package. She was there, but that’s about it. She didn’t sing well and she didn’t stand out. She was a pretty package, but the wrapping was about all there was to her.

At least she did well in the seventh rule, in that she didn’t argue with the judges. Indeed, she even asked them for suggestions. The problem is that at this stage in the competition, most of their suggestions equate to “sing better.” They are, after all, judges, not advisors. And by this time, it was too late for her anyway.

The final rule tells contestants to create a fan base. Alaina’s problem with this was twofold, and recapper Jenn summarized nicely in calling her second performance “both unmemorable and not good, a bad combination.” It wasn’t just a bad combination for that particular performance, but for Alaina in general – and it sure was not the way to gain a bunch of fans.

Alaina was pretty much doomed from the start. She needed to show viewers something to make them want to vote for her. She needed to sing great, or have personality, or stick in their memories somehow. Alaina did none of these, and added a poor song choice to boot. That is why Alaina lost.

If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these other recent articles on Foxes On Idol:

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

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