American Idol 6: Why Gina Lost

As regular readers of Foxes On Idol know, I threw my hands up and walked out on my usual pre-performance prediction article with Sting7, and then even sat out “We’ll Be the Judge of That!” Darned good thing I did, too, because I would have once again missed the prediction mark, as least before the Tuesday night performances. However, that’s not to say we can’t answer the important question here, which is why Gina lost.

I like Gina. In fact, I’d go so far as to say she was one of my favorites this season. But I still know there are some pretty good answers to that key question. And we will find those answers by digging in to What ‘American Idol 6’ Contestants Need to Know. Please join me for the ride.

I didn’t put my comments on performances out for the world to see this week, but that doesn’t mean we can’t judge how Gina did in terms of the first rule. Did she sing and perform well?

According to the on-site judges, the answer is essentially yes, but perhaps not ecstatically so. Randy thought it was nice and controlled and he “actually kind of liked that.” But as recapper Betsy noted, it was rather “weak praise.” Paula said all sorts of good things, but that’s not exactly helpful. Simon couldn’t rave about the vocals, noting that a couple of the other women outsang her. We’ll get to that more in a couple paragraphs.

The We’ll Be the Judge of That! panel had mixed feelings. For example, while Sandy “wasn’t crazy about Gina’s look,” Kathy thought it was “nice to see Gina’s face without her hair thrashing about.” They were similarly of several minds when it came to her singing. Sandy and Kathy thought she was fairly good, Bruce thought she had good control but had some specific criticisms, and Tyler thought she was great – but not in comparison to the other exceptional performances of the night.

This, along with Simon’s comment, points to a key problem Gina had. She could sing – I personally thought she was pretty damned good. But she didn’t have a superpowered belting voice like some of the others in this competition. While she might have thought it unfair to be compared in that way, as Simon did this week, the fact is that this is a competition and of course people are going to compare. That’s kind of the point and I thought Gina was smarter than that – she certainly should have learned that lesson after Antonella lost while making the same complaints.

One thing that deserves mention here is the part of this rule that says, “you need to be confident when you are up there. … But don’t overdo it and become overconfident, because then people will turn against you, thinking you’re egotistical.” While I personally did not believe this applied to Gina, I’ve heard from others that many people did think that very thing about her. Whether I believed it to be true or not doesn’t matter – it’s what many other viewers believed that counts, and those impressions may have affected their opinions of her performances.

The second rule deals with song choice. In general, she did a good job of picking songs that would showcase either her personality or her voice, and sometimes (but not always) both. For several weeks, Gina showed her rocker colors. But the past two weeks have not been nearly as edgy for her, with this week in particular being rather more sedate. The problem is I’m not sure what she could have done much differently.

This brings us directly to the third rule, which talks about consistency. When she had the opportunity, Gina was, as I noted, mostly a rocker chick. But she also proved she could do well in other genres as well.

Normally, I’d say this is a good thing! But it also brings up an issue with the fourth rule. When Gina was in her rocker chick persona, she was certainly unique. In fact, she was the only rocker, male or female, this season. But when she dropped the rocker persona to do other types of songs, she lost part of what made her stand out. Then she was just another woman singing a ballad; and when you’re another woman singing a ballad with this particular group of contestants, you could be in trouble – fast.

Even though Gina was unique among this group, she also had a bit of a problem being memorable. We heard about LaKisha and Melinda early. Then Jordin kicked into gear. More recently, Blake and even Haley have been discussed a lot. But what about Gina? She was often forgotten in the mix, even when her performances were stupendous. It seemed like Gina was perpetually in the middle. People didn’t talk about her because she was great, and they didn’t talk about her because she was horrible (I’m looking at you, Sanjaya). On a show like American Idol, you want people to talk about you – for some reason!