| From This Week In Texas Music
Leah Labelle was perhaps the first red flag that
Paula Abdul was over medicating. As Paula’s wild card pick for the finals, Labelle never seemed to impress the other two judges and certainly not the audience. Her rendition of “You Keep Me Hanging On” became very ironic as America didn’t and sent her packing after week one. The judges kept pointing out her credentials as the niece of Bulgarian rock singer
Tsvetan Vladowski (come on, you all remember her), but Leah never lived up to her potential and eventually dropped completely out of sight. She has been performing back up vocals on small albums and became one of those “god, music, poetry, life” type artists. As a football lineman for the Rose Bowl winning University of Washington Huskies,
Matthew Rogers hardly seemed like a likely
American Idol winner, and he wasn’t. His charm, personality and acceptable voice pushed him into the finals, but after two dismal performances he was let go.
Amy Adams (right) may have looked like
Jay Leno’s sister, as Simon Cowell pointed out, but there was definitely no denying that the girl had a voice. Unfortunately, her pink hair gave fans
Nikki Mckibbin flashbacks so she lost her support early on. Like many of the
Idol women, Adams found success on the stage, and is currently touring with the Broadway cast of
Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Poor little
Camille Velasco had so much style and seemed so cool. Unfortunately her performances were disastrous, and her rendition of “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” even earned her the distinction of
Entertainment Weekly’s worst
Idol performance of all time.
Apparently her coolness caught on though, because she has been performing with mega stars like the
Black Eyed Peas, and
Lauryn Hill. Guess that just tells us how far Lauryn Hill has fallen.
Jon Peter Lewis sounded and kind of looked like a
Jim Henson Muppet, but squeaked into eighth place with some outlandish performances. He eventually went the singer/songwriter route and can probably be found performing his original songs at some two-bit coffee house in Billings, Montana. Following some dazzling performances during
Barry Manilow week by the three divas of the competition,
Jennifer Hudson,
Fantasia Barrino and
Latoya London, all found themselves in the bottom three. Hudson, who had been a fan favorite early on, was cut from the competition, causing
Elton John himself to call America racist.
After Hudson’s untimely dismissal, the voting public finally eliminated arguably the worst performer to ever make it to the finals. With his red hair, fair skin and crooner style,
John Stevens was the
Sanjaya of the season. He was signed to Maverick Records after leaving the show, and released one album titled
Red that only sold a handful of copies. Stevens, eventually, did the world a favor and retired from show business to go back to college. I’m convinced that fifth place
George Huff was dropped on his head as a child. However, his weird mannerisms and creepy smile that week after week became more discerning seemed to entertain audiences who kept voting for him to stay. Huff decided to turn to Christian music and has released a few Gospel albums that have garnered limited success.
Latoya London came out of nowhere with her Hollywood week performance of “All By Myself” to become an instant favorite. London, however, suffered from constantly picking the most boring songs possible and was eventually kicked to the curb. She released a virtually unheard album called
Love and Life, but found success touring with
Oprah Winfrey’s musical
The Color Purple.
Jasmine Trias was cute and perky and wore a little flower in her ear, but her voice certainly left something to be desired. With the entire state of Hawaii voting for her, however, she managed a top three finish and returned home to become a statewide sensation. She released an album, which garnered her several Philippine Grammy Awards, and hosts a music show called
Pacific Groove. If
Blair from the
Facts of Life ever took to the stage to sing, she would look something like runner-up
Diana Degarmo. Her powerful pipes and amazing vocals fortunately outweighed her precocious style, and she became the girl to beat after kicking the crap out of
Melissa Manchester’s “Don’t Cry Out Loud”.
When a single mother from the ghetto opened her mouth to share her voice with the world, people listened.
Fantasia Barrino may have come into the competition as the ultimate underdog, but her originality and her passion translated to millions of viewers, and she eventually earned the coveted prize. Fantasia’s first hit “Believe” skyrocketed to number one on the charts and her album earned her several Grammy nominations. Her success and story eventually caught the attention of the big O herself, and Winfrey cast her in the Broadway show
The
Color Purple. There you have it folks... updates on all the season three
Idols. |
His current gig is hosting the Discovery channels
The discharge, however, didn’t seem to hurt Hudson at all as she soon found herself up for one of the most coveted movie musical roles of all time. All of the African-American
Her album had moderate success and produced the number one Billboard single “Dreams”. Degarmo slimmed way down and captured a role on Broadway in the show