American Idol 6’s Melinda Doolittle: What Happened?

This season, I have been watching American Idol with folks who have never seen the show before. From the audition episodes through Antonella-gate and on through the fables of Sanjaya, this crowd has been steadily growing. There seemed to be an Idol for everyone. Folks had their favorites, but respect for Melinda seemed to the common denominator. Love who you want, but grasping Melinda’s skills and talent was a no-brainer.

Perhaps this is why when Melinda was given her walking papers, we all made a gasp that was almost cartoonish in its intensity. Suddenly, there we were making ‘omigod’ faces at each other. We were genuinely surprised. Maybe we shouldn’t have been. Did we see this coming?

First, there were the stupid criticisms. Why does she always have to look so surprised? Why are we judging on that?! Maybe she’s a humble woman is does not want to appear arrogant, and she’s not really sure what to do with her face when so many compliments are coming her way! It was a criticism that annoyed me as much as, “she has no neck.” Last I checked, there aren’t any neck-otomies for her to get. If those sorts of things caused people not to vote for her, those people don’t deserve to vote.

Perhaps a more substantive complaint was that Melinda never actually had “a moment.” Melinda was always, always good. She was downright clutch! But did she have a “You Give Love A Bad Name” like Blake? Did she have an “I (Who Have Nothing)” like Jordin? Well… no.

Even on the top three performance show, there was something kind of special with Jordin and Blake. Melinda was just rock solid and delivered – just like every week. But maybe that rock solidness translated badly. It translated as, “she’s going to be fine whether she wins or not.” True as that may be, it’s not very fair to Melinda!

I’ve never quite understood the “I just wanted to make the tour” mentality. Jasmine Trias made the tour, but do you think she’d rather be in Fantasia or Jennifer Hudson’s position? Of course she does! I think Melinda knows this very well. I think Melinda has been knocked around enough that she would suffer through singing about rainbows and unicorns to make her way to the kind of album that she wants to do.

Song for song, Melinda’s body of work has been good enough to make the finale. Did she, like LaKisha, peak too soon? Once Sanjaya was gone and this became a true competition again, it seems like Melinda wasn’t able to take it to the next level. Her bar was so high, maybe she just didn’t think she needed to raise it another level. That could have come across as complacent. Meanwhile, Jordin was quietly raising her level of difficulty every week. Blake was rolling dice, smartly assessing his place in the competition and measuring out his Blaking (I won’t call it beatboxing because that term does not completely encompass what he does).

In short, Melinda let Blake and Jordin pass her. If she had decided to do another new song (like Blake) instead of choosing “Woman” as her own choice, could things have been different? One wonders.

There was also an argument that Melinda couldn’t make a commercially acceptable album. I can’t imagine why not. Melinda is not a video girl. She won’t be the alluring songstress that Beyonce has fashioned herself to be. She won’t be trounced out in bling and designer clothes a la Mary J. Blige. But there is always a place for a woman who can sing a song the way it’s supposed to be sung – a singer who can touch you. We get so consumed with measuring success in numbers of albums sold – J. Lo can’t touch Melinda’s gift with a thousand gold bangle bracelets! Melinda will be just fine.

Have a nice day.

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