American Idol-Charlotte Auditions

American Idol-Season 12.  Sounds a little strange, eh?

Lots of changes to the show.  First off, new panel of judges(excluding that holder-on Randy).  Let's break them down, shall we? 
First, we have Randy Jackson.  Fairly dependable in that he votes through most anyone who's beautiful and can hit at least half of their notes.  Less than beautiful?  Good luck with him.  At least, that's what it feels like.

Second, we have Mariah Carey.  I was expecting Mariah to have some talent at judging, but alas, that seems like a false hope.  Mariah is easily comparable to J. Lo and Paula Abdul.  That is, she doesn't say anything important and doesn't offer any reasons for her voting, other than that the person was beautiful(see J. Lo).

Third, Keith Urban.  I expected to not like Keith Urban.  After all, he's a country artist and I'm just not a fan of country.  But he manages to say things to the contestants that are more than just buzzwords.  He actually critiques them.  Kudos.

And lastly, Nicki Minaj.  Now, I hate her music and I'm not really that fond of her as a person.  But, she leaves Mariah and Randy in the dust as a judge(except for the few occasions when the person is wearing matching eye shadow as Nicki).  She, like Keith, really tries to evaluate the person on the stage, rather than just make up words or call them dawg.

Now, let's talk about that "fight."   I'm fairly certain that a fight was not what we watched, but the producers must've felt that this was a better thing to show.  Here's what happened:  A girl came in, sang a song.  Nicki said she liked it.  Keith asked about her roots.  The girl replied that she had "done the country thing" and that she wanted a soulful country thing now.  Keith was a little offended that country was a thing you could do(but with singing, it totally is(see Taylor Swift)).  And Mariah and Randy essentially said that if she didn't say that she was going to sing everything with a country view, then they didn't like her.  And Nicki essentially said, now you've given her an ultimatium and this forces her to lie about what she really likes.  They voted the girl through.  Randy said that he has experience and he knows.  And Nicki got pissed and stormed off.

Here's the thing.  Nicki was right.  And Randy and Mariah were mean and patronizing to Nicki.  Even though Nicki is closer to an American Idol than either of them.  She literally came up through YouTube, for goodness sake.  At this point in the auditions, it is not important to know exactly what kind of singer each of these kids is going to be.  It's important to get the best singers, regardless of how well they know themselves.  That is it.  You can work on  the rest if they make it through.  That's what the mentors are for, right?

Anyway, a lot of my friends are mad about how immature Nicki Minaj was last night.  But here's the thing, it is not immature to walk/storm away from a fight.  Never.  Although, parents seem to think so.  But it is not.  It is mature to remove yourself from a situation that could escalate and to take a breath.