Sound-Savvy's Open Letter to Lil Rounds

Posted by Mack of Sound-Savvy On 3:14 PM


Dearest Lil,

At the start of this season of American Idol, I had selected you as one of my finalists in the competition. You blew me away with your amazing vocals and I was certain that as the competition progressed, your artistry would blossom and you would shine as the star I knew you could be. Admittedly, I was wrong. Watching your performance of the infamous smash I'm Every Woman last night made me cringe and cower on my ever-so-plush sofa. What's worse though, was your valiant defiance of the judges' criticism last night, and when you had finished your rebuttal, there was one thought in my mind - SHE DOESN'T GET IT.

Contrary to how it seems, American Idol is NOT a talent show. If you were a contestant on America's Got Talent, you'd be a front-runner. Yes, you can sing -- you can blow from here to kingdom come. But American Idol is more than a competition to find the next best singer - Idol is about finding the next great artist. Lil, each week you hit the stage and do songs that are popular and well-known but you do second-rate renditions of the original version instead of top-notch renditions of your own version. Basically: If you do Whitney's song, the same way Whitney sang it, you'll be compared to Whitney... and do you really think you're better than Whitney? But if you do Whitney's song, but do it Lil's way... who can we compare you to other than you? Sure you add in your own ad libs here and there, but there is so much you could do to transform hits by legends into hits by Lil and you don't take advantage of that freedom. If I were you, I'd have used my big vocals to transform country, disco, or poppy songs into soulful versions. There are plenty of songs you could have easily transformed and applied your own style to, but you stuck with original versions, and while you continually sounded good, you weren't creative, thus boredom ensued.

Tonight however, I'm confident that you'll see the consequence of your failure to act - you'll be sent home. You've proven a failure to keep up with your competition, as they have each infused their own levels of creativity into legendary songs, which is why they've excelled. With you, you may as well perform to an instrumental track each week, and that has become boring. And so, it's time we say goodbye. I'm disappointed, not just because you'll cost me points in the office American Idol Pool, but because I had high hopes for ya. Well we'll see you on tour this year, and maybe some label will mold you into the artist they want you to be, since you don't have an identity as an artist yet. But hey don't worry, you'll join the ranks of the other robotic pop stars on the radio, just an ex-Idol edition.

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