American Idol Top 11 Redux Results

First of all, the contestant duet, trio, and group numbers were pretty good (mostly), and I liked watching them more than the celebrity guests. The songs were about collared greens, corn bread, and hot wings? Was I tuning into "The Next Great American Restaurant" reality show on NBC?

Sort of sick of seeing Jamie Foxx and will.i.am, or however he spells it on Idol so much. As for Fantasia? I really liked her on her season, thought she was a quite deserving winner, and am familiar with the hardships she had to overcome in life before going on Idol. Now, despite some personal and professional ups and downs she is a very famous and wealthy woman, and some decisions she has made in her personal life are loathsome and disgraceful. I will try not to get too ideological on what is supposed to be a fun American Idol post, so I will just leave it at that.

I would have rather seen audience member Kris Allen perform tonight!

Who should have been eliminated: Naima Adedapo and Paul McDonald
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Naima Adedapo and Thia Megia
Who was eliminated: Naima Adedapo and Thia Megia

So, I was doubly accurate on the double elimination. After last week's results show, this episode had far fewer surprises. I think Naima and Thia knew it was coming as well. As of now, I do not know if we will find out who was last and who was next to last. Maybe we will not know until we see what order they take the stage on tour.

Good luck to them both. I did not like all the artistic or musical choices they made on Idol but I think they are both talented.

Already a national television competition show veteran, Thia was the youngest contestant in the show's history, with the the age limit being lowered by one year. She said that she was originally going to try out next year instead and I wonder if it would have worked out much better for her had she waited. It was going to be tough for her to make much headway among teens with standouts Scotty McCreery and Lauren Alaina also in the competition. At least they all get to go on tour. Thia may turn out to be a very different artist as she gets older, but for now, her best bet for immediate career opportunities would be to try to make in the Phillipines or other Asian countries, such as how former Idol contestant Jasmine Trias was able to do.

Naima is an interesting character. I only really liked one performance she did, which was a musically relevant but vocally problematic version of "Umbrella." The mother comes across as such a positive person, so I hope good things are in her future. I could see her maybe having some success in what she had been doing musically before the show, as a singer/dancer in an ensemble that may resemble the 1990s group Arrested Development. Would she be willing to cut her husband loose professionally though if musical ability might be holding her back? In a way I am upset she will not get the chance to do any more African dancing on stage, because I wanted to make a joke, about how she was re-enacting the very dance performed bedside when Barack Obama was born in Kenya. Just a joke, liberals! Boom Fiyah!

Last week of course Casey Abrams may have become the first Jew to be "saved" on television without the aid of a televangelist or a baptism (and I maintain that his immediate religious related verbal reaction was nothing to be proud of.)

Since he is still on the show though, as expected, which of course, very much worked to the disadvantage tonight of one of the eliminated ladies, the first four eliminated singers in this year's Finals were all female, and all females of color.

I could make the case that Ashthon, Karen, Naima, and Thia are not as good as most of those remaining of course, but it also does say a whole lot about the voting demographic of American Idol and how it has changed dramatically since earlier seasons when talented African-Americans could be expected to easily make the Final Four or better almost ever year. Whatever minorities are still voting for American Idol are vastly being outdone by very young white girls and middle aged white women, who are both voting, not necessarily for who they think is the best singer, but who they think would make their best fantasy boyfriend.

Continuing to fight that trend next week will be the scrappy Haley Reinhart. If next week turns out to be songs from Tina Turner, I think we all know what kind of outfit Haley will be rocking on stage.