American Idol probably won't be holding a songwriting contest this year. Executive producer Ken Warwick recently told TV Week that the competition has been put on the back burner for the moment, because the launch of the Idol Gives Back charity has apparently made things a bit too hectic.Last August, producers announced that a contest would be held to select an original song for the sixth season finalists to perform. This contest would have given one very talented and lucky songwriter the chance to have his or her tune heard by millions of Idol's fans.
Now it looks like struggling songwriters are going to have to put their American Idol dreams on hold, at least for this year. It's too bad, really. I guess now we can expect the same old bland and generic first single from this season's Idol winner.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-26-2007 @ 9:41AM
countrydivaaj said...
I hope they don't ever do it. The idea is really lame. The professional songwriters are not providing the winners with quality songs, so the producers are turning to the amateurs? What is wrong with this picture? Most of all, the eventual winner transforms from talent show contestant to bona fide recording artist with the performance of his/her first single; if they performed a song written by another amateur contest entrant, that passage into legitimacy would simply not happen. Also, the plan was for past Idol contestants to sing the final song entries on a special show after which viewers would vote for their favorite. Not only would another viewer-voted competition distract from the main singing contest, the first single is to be debuted by the potential winner only. That is one of the most exciting moments of the finale, and to have the song previously performed, especially by another, familiar artist, would take the edge off that moment completely.
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3-27-2007 @ 1:13AM
Dan Krier said...
I think American Idol should start charging .25 cents a call to vote for your favorites.... That would stop all this crap with people voting for idiots and voting 100's of times for 1 person.. Take that money thats brought in from all these calls every week and give it back to the American people in the form of College Scholarships to help better our younger generation whether it be Scholastically or Musically...... Lets redirect all this to a positive outcome for our kids .....
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4-04-2007 @ 11:54AM
John thomas Oaks said...
Dear countrydivaaj, Perhaps the reason professional songwriters are not provinding quality songs is that the "professionals" haven't been primarily concerned with writing quality songs for nearly a decade now. Professional does not always imply quality. Did you know that the word "amateur" comes from the Latin word that means "to love?" It's very easy for a professional to get so engaged in pumping out a hit that she forgets what it's like to write a song out of love. In my opinion, the best stuff comes from love, and there are a lot of amateur songwriters out there who write songs that run circles around the professionals' offerings just because they love the craft. Your comments have effectively lumped the unsigned songwriters of the world into this general illegitimate category, and I think you owe them an apology. I found your comments to be completely offensive and founded in ignorance.
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