“Wouldn’t it be wonderfully interesting if you change American Idol by winning American Idol?”
These are Katy Perry’s prophetic words which she spoke to Alejandro Aranda after his live performance of “Poison” on an episode of last year’s American Idol. The episode from the season which Laine Hardy won and Alejandro came in second to most of America’s surprise.
The new season of American Idol premiered last night (Sunday, February 16, 2020) on ABC, a subsidiary of Disney Studios, the epitome of Hollywood. They began the episode with celebrating Laine’s last year’s win. Then they continued by saying that even though he didn’t win, Alejandro Aranda has taken the world by storm and has been performing as Scarypoolparty in sold-out concerts across the world. They showed his appearance on Jimmy Kimmel who introduced Scarypoolparty by holding up his album EXIT FORM. Their tribute to Alejandro lasted for several minutes and he was mentioned several times throughout the 2-hour show.
They also mentioned how Alejandro had changed American Idol forever. They actually proved it during the very first audition they showed us.
The first person to audition was a man missing a front tooth, dressed in blue-collar-type work clothes. He announced his name, Doug Kiker, age 27 years old and that he was a garbage collector. In addition he told Lionel, Katy and Luke that he had never sung in front of anyone before. They began asking him questions regarding whether he could sing with an accompaniment or had he warmed up. He responded by saying he had no idea what they were talking about. It became immediately clear that this man had no musical training of any kind. He didn’t even have a vocabulary which included any musical technical knowledge. They told him to let Ryan Seacrest take him somewhere to warm-up. Ryan took him outside to the streets of Mobile, Alabama, where he “warmed up” by performing in front of the crowd gathered outside. We didn’t hear the warm-up but when he actually sang for the judges, it was clear that this guy had a voice of pure gold. He then sang to the accompaniment of Luke Bryan on piano as well as singing in unison with Mr. Kiker, Rascal Flatts' "Bless the Broken Road" as Lionel Richie, Katy Perry and Ryan Seacrest cheered them on. Of course the toothless garbage man made it to Hollywood.
Thus began the first season of American Idol since Alejandro’s appearance. The season where a simple garbage man would be nurtured by the judges, Ryan Seacrest and the producers in order to have a successful audition. It was beautiful. American Idol was actually trying to help him be the best he could be. And all of that was really because of Alejandro, a former dishwasher and street busker from Pompona, California.
Several of the new contestants made the statement that it was because of Alejandro who gave them the inspiration to audition for American Idol. Alejandro was given lots of props for changing Season 3 on ABC of American Idol. It's really Season 18 for the franchise. It has been run basically the same for the last 17 seasons. But Alejandro changed that forever.
Now I understand what an amazing compliment this is for Alejandro. This is huge that a Hollywood mega-company like Disney who owns ABC. Idol just gave credit to Alejandro for changing the franchise and changing the almost-holy tradition of Idol for the past 17 years. Honoring Alejandro with this compliment has just been a game changer. Not only does Alejandro have the total love from the fans he has now - those of us who have given him room to experiment and discover so many types of music, so many incredible new sounds. The fans who had voiced their disappointment that Alejandro's first album wasn't acoustic have just been overridden by Hollywood - the big guys who determine where to put their money and their reputation - the big guys who can be very scary for an independent, unbridled, creative artist like Alejandro. But now, even after making the music of Scarypoolparty to be experimental and cutting-edge through his own choice, he is being blessed by the Hollywood gods. That's a big deal. That's not just a game-changer for American Idol, that's a game-changer for Alejandro. It gives the very competitive world of pop music permission to include Scarypoolparty a place in the top echelon of focus . It gives those musical professionals and corporate executives a directive. Their compliment almost demands the rest of the big guys to take Scarypoolparty seriously. It's a subtle message to the many music critics and professional musical entities such as Billboard, Rolling Stone and the Grammys.
"Hollywood loves Scarypoolparty. Hollywood thinks Alejandro is historically significant. Hollywood wants you big guys to consider him a game-changer."
This is a lot of pressure on those musical entities. It's a lot more pressure on Alejandro. He now has to consider the fact that a big spotlight is shining brightly on him. They have blessed him with their permission to do his own thing. Do it big. Do it knowing that you are allowed to be original, creative, unique and experimental. That's a huge advantage for Alejandro if he decides to pay attention. We know he would rather create in the shadows of his private room than in the bright lights of Hollywood. We know he demanded that he be allowed to perform his original songs last year on American Idol. We know that Hollywood Records must have given him a sweet deal to make his own choice for the music of Scarypoolparty be performed on his first sold-out tour - to make his own decision for the songs included on his first album. We know that he would rather perform to a room of 5 doing his own music than perform covers or music chosen by the producers of Hollywood in a sold-out arena of thousands.
Hollywood just gave Alejandro a big pat on the back. I know it might be difficult for him to want Hollywood to hug him, but he now has the choice. American Idol, the ABC network, Disney Studios, thus Hollywood has just given Alejandro a choice to accept "the rose."
Long live the bachelor! Long live the king of whatever he chooses! Long live the game-changer! Long live Alejandro!
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