American Idol rarely surprises me anymore. I’ve now watched 3 seasons in their entirety (guilty pleasure, anyone?) and they’ve all basically followed the same formula. But this week’s episodes managed to provide a double shock. If you’re not a watcher of the show, the first surprise probably won’t be of interest to you. I was surprised to see Michael Johns exit when he did. Poor choice in neckwear aside (a cravat? really?), I liked the guy. Not a great performer, but a great singer.
The second surprise was that anyone who happened to turn on the end of Wednesday night’s episode might have thought they had accidentally stumbled onto one of those infomercials for praise music. Part of every results show is a group-sing from the contestants, usually one that pertains to that week’s theme. These are usually painful to watch. Case in point: this hokey version of "9 to 5" on the week when Dolly Parton was a mentor to the contestants. They actually line dance. Te-hee.
Anyhow. The group song for this week was…(wait for it)…"Shout to the Lord!" Yes, that "Shout to the Lord." I never in a million years saw that one coming. They actually sang a praise song! Now, I didn’t get to see Wednesday night’s performance because my DVR cut off before the ending. But you can check it out here. Notice they edited the lyrics to make them less overtly Christian, leaving out the name Jesus.
But last night (for result’s night part 2) they sang an unedited version. Check it out by clicking here:
So what do y’all think? What do you make of this? I hope you’ll leave a comment. I have a lot that I can say about this, but I want to hear what you have to say. How do you react to hearing one of “our” songs on American Idol? My initial response is to say “Hmm. Cool.” But there’s more. For now I hope you’ll watch the video and chime in. If you don’t, you’ll be forced to listen to me prattle on about it. And aren’t you tired of hearing from me? (Please don’t vote me off.)
The second surprise was that anyone who happened to turn on the end of Wednesday night’s episode might have thought they had accidentally stumbled onto one of those infomercials for praise music. Part of every results show is a group-sing from the contestants, usually one that pertains to that week’s theme. These are usually painful to watch. Case in point: this hokey version of "9 to 5" on the week when Dolly Parton was a mentor to the contestants. They actually line dance. Te-hee.
Anyhow. The group song for this week was…(wait for it)…"Shout to the Lord!" Yes, that "Shout to the Lord." I never in a million years saw that one coming. They actually sang a praise song! Now, I didn’t get to see Wednesday night’s performance because my DVR cut off before the ending. But you can check it out here. Notice they edited the lyrics to make them less overtly Christian, leaving out the name Jesus.
But last night (for result’s night part 2) they sang an unedited version. Check it out by clicking here:
So what do y’all think? What do you make of this? I hope you’ll leave a comment. I have a lot that I can say about this, but I want to hear what you have to say. How do you react to hearing one of “our” songs on American Idol? My initial response is to say “Hmm. Cool.” But there’s more. For now I hope you’ll watch the video and chime in. If you don’t, you’ll be forced to listen to me prattle on about it. And aren’t you tired of hearing from me? (Please don’t vote me off.)