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J Records Decides Another Idol Winner Isn’t the Right Fit

Well, this is sure going to set the rumor mill abuzzing, and the pure fact of the matter is, the rumors and innuendoes will never be proven, and it’s just going to cause a bigger mess and more uncertainty for the upcoming season.

J Records has announced, with incredible timing, ten days before the start of American Idol season 7, that they’re dropping season 5 winner, soulman Taylor Hicks, from their label. And this is after not long ago that they also dropped Ruben Studdard. There were a host of problems surrounding the representation of Studdard starting with lawsuits immediately after his win, along with his runner-up, Clay Aiken, having much better record sales. So what gives this time?

Slow record sales seems to be the blame for Taylor being dropped as well, and while they aren’t saying as much, it’s not the runner-up this time, but most likely the guy voted out in fourth place, Chris Daughtry. While Taylor’s record sales weren’t the best, neither were those of runner-up Katherine McPhee, however 4th place finisher Chris Daughtry and his band was out-selling them all. For the guy that Simon initially didn’t even want to send to Hollywood, but eventually humbly admitted to being wrong about.

However, no one has done better than Carrie Underwood, winning awards all over the place, and certainly Kelly Clarkskon’s success can’t be argued, with a few awards under her belt as well. And what about Jennifer Hudson? Need we remind anyone that the girl was dismissed as an also-ran, then went on to win an Oscar last year? Fantasia’s season isn’t looked upon fondly, yet she’s on Broadway right now. Some asked why Kelly Pickler and Bucky Covington were even in the top 10 in their season, yet they both have successful records out. Anyone out there own the albums of Justin Guarini, Kimberley Locke, Josh Gracin, Jon Peter Lewis, George Huff, Bo Bice, Constantine Maroulis, Elliott Yamin, Mandisa, and Blake Lewis? I’ve got two of those, along with nine of the ones mentioned earlier.

I just don’t think we can look at any of those people, though, and say they weren’t good recording artists. There are six ex-Idols up for Grammy awards this year and only half of them are winners. I think the ones that don’t do well were just mislabeled being Idols. If I wanted to be a recording star and I was between the ages of 16 and 29, I’d be showing up an American Idol audition whether or not I liked the music of Whitney Houston and Stevie Wonder.

I really thinks that’s all it comes down to with Taylor Hicks and Ruben Studdard. I don’t think they were the right fit for the Idol machine marketing, yet both excellent artists in their own right. Taylor was my favorite for that season, and you can’t argue against his originality, but maybe he was too original. And when you look at it, neither Taylor or Ruben were sitting around waiting to try out for American Idol. Ruben was dragged there to support someone else, and Taylor was being chased by Hurricane Katrina, and on a lark decided on getting on a plane that would take him to Las Vegas, where they just happened to be holding American Idol auditions.

So what does it mean for the future? It means Jordin Sparks knows she has to perform better than she currently is, or she’ll be dropped, free to do the music she wants. And for any of the current final 24 that are sitting around waiting to start performing on February 19th, they know if they just suck it up and do what’s asked of them, they could end up the winner. They aren’t guaranteed of anything, though, just one million dollar contract for one album, which to them right now seems like the world, but really all they need is a few months on our TVs every week so that we’ll go and find their music on iTunes about six months after the show ends.

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For more information on American Idol, see SirLinksalot: American Idol, and for more about Taylor Hicks, see SirLinksalot: Taylor Hicks.

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