I guess by now many of you have either read on the internet, or heard through the grapevine, that Phillip Phillips is the official winner of this season of American Idol (AI). This means that Jessica Sanchez, the new poster girl for Pinoy Pride, came in second.
First off, let us congratulate Jessica Sanchez. Even just being in the finals, she is already considered a winner. That enormous singing voice, that raw power, that is what made the judges’, and apparently a lot of other people’s, jaw drop. More than once. On the other hand, what ultimately may have led to her loss, and her near elimination a few weeks back, was that she wasn’t connecting with the audience, nor did they feel that they could agree with her song selection.
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A friend of mine brought up a very good point: Phillip Philips was more likely to win, primarily because he had never been in the bottom three at any one time. Apparently, the audience liked his style of presenting himself; his goof ball style was a hit with many female fans.
Even if Jessica did not win, the judges, and a lot of other established artists in the States have already recognized her powerful voice and technical prowess. She is already guaranteed a recording career; successful or not, only time will tell.
But enough about the contestants. What should this turn of events mean for the Filipino? I can summarize it in two words: absolutely nothing. Given the Pinoy’s rather pathetic learning curve, what do we expect the country to learn from this? Again, I can summarize it in two words: absolutely nothing.
I see on both my Twitter feeds and FB posts that there are still a few who are trying to distract themselves from the reality of the loss by saying things like “Jessica is now the new world idol”. Or something to the effect of “Jessica Sanchez is more popular in the world; Phillip Phillips is popular only in the US.” Hello? As if Jessica’s loss is the end of the world! There’s a reason it’s called American Idol; because the Americans decide.
There was even a segment on TV Patrol, according to a post in the Facebook GRP community, that showed a Fil-Am being interviewed and asking for a recount of votes. From there I also got a link to TV5’s report, and a ridiculous write-up from that petty, gossiping hen party tabloid sheet called Rappler.com.
In the TV5 article, the reportage is not the highlight; scroll down to the comments section, and you will find that some of them cried “SABOTAGE”. The Rappler write-up, on the other hand, is yet another example of the Pinoy tendency to focus on the irrelevant, droll, and lilliputian (petty) things. Charge of the idiot brigade, redux.
And once again, this brandishing of “Pinoy Pride”, this attachment of the entire Pinoy people to the individual success of someone who has some semblance of Filipino blood: Pinoys lose in RL (real life), and until they stop doing it, they will consistently lose.
Let me try to say it as simple as I can for any stupid morons left who have not accepted the result yet: grow up, get a life, and get over it.
Jessica Sanchez did not show what Pinoys are capable of, she showed what Jessica Sanchez is capable of. Whether Pinoys offered prayers or whatever or performed the flying voter dance through Skype, none of it would have mattered. She is thankful for any support coming from us, but it was not us who nurtured that talent to that extent. If she had been born and stayed here, the chances are high that she would have been just another has-been or cog in the wheels of big media’s talent pool. Whatever singing prowess she has wouldn’t have been given time of day, perhaps because she’s not a mestiza. As one of my friends has said, here in the Philippines, she looks so plain.
She did not lose because Americans are racist against Pinoys. She lost simply because America connected with Phillips more. That simple. All that talk about votes being rigged, sabotage, etc., Pinoys have never been able to take rejection gracefully. Hell, we Pinoys aren’t even graceful winners; we are the type of people who will never let others hear the end of it, and we pass it off as “credentials”.
If we Filipinos want to gain inspiration from Jessica’s incredible run, and to apply it to our lives, the way to do so is simple. Stop making “idol” time and “idle” time, and put more emphasis on “i do” time. Find out what it is what you want to do in life, and pursue it. Seek out people who encourage you to be all that you can be. Don’t settle for anything less than the best. If you find that conforming doesn’t suit you, don’t.
Additional lesson to learn: Jessica’s performance showed that there are cases where talent alone is not enough. You need to find a way for people to buy into you as well. This is the essence of connection with your target audience. It is summarized by the corny slogan I used to hear when I was younger: “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” This is reality; there is no denying, nor saying that “oh, things should be otherwise.” We either learn to deal with it, or face a tremendous stumbling block to our development both as individuals, and as a nation.
Friendly word of warning: the showbiz arena seems glamorous from the outside, but believe me, there is plenty of hardship, rejection, back-stabbing, and pain underneath all that glamor, and all that spotlight. Unless, of course, you’re a half-breed mestizo/a. I am saying this because there are some people whom I know and have met who believe that showbiz is their sure-fire ticket out of poverty.
Is it worth it? It is a hit or miss business. It is a profession entirely subject to the ever-changing and fickle whims of their audience. Showbiz is only for the most dedicated; yet it is not what our country needs to grow out of the pothole that it currently occupies.
Our nation needs more of the kind of people who are willing to engage in the dirty work of nation building. We need people who will form the basis of intellectual capital that the Philippines has been starving for ever since time immemorial. But that doesn’t mean we advocate that Jessica Sanchez change her profession into something else. No. She’s chosen her path; the best we can do is wish her luck in it. What we can do, is to start thinking for ourselves, and, as I mentioned above, draw inspiration from the many people out there who are living their dreams.
And please, let us once and for all put an end to this silly and moronic concept of false “Pinoy Pride”.
[Photo courtesy PopTower.com.]
А вы, друзья, как ни садитесь, все в музыканты не годитесь. – But you, my friends, however you sit, not all as musicians fit.
BREAKING: Remaining grade school level science-oriented subjects to be replaced by DepEd with singing and dancing.
Geez. What will they think of next? BS Show Business in university? (pun intended) And people wonder why our educational system still sucks.
All I know now is that Tommy Mottola is now rubbing his hands in delight as he had signed an artist that would only have been marketed to the US by AI producers. He now has an artist that has automatic access to THREE markets: the US, Mexico and the Philippines.
This was confirmed by Mottola’s wife Thalia (also popular in the Philippines for her telenovelas):
https://twitter.com/thalia/status/205109358177157120
Bottomline: it’s all business, baby 😉
To quote from Marimar: Aw! 😛
Hahaha! Thought this would happen. I was glad she didn’t win. AI winners usually disappear into obscurity while their runners-up sell massive hits.
Besides, the first time I heard Philip Philips, I knew he was gonna win (even before hearing his accent). Country music is such a big thing in the US. I think they’re both talented, though. I just couldn’t understand why Jessica’s fans would belittle the guy just to drive home the point that she’s talented.
I bet Mexico didn’t a have national day of mourning for the loss suffered by their American born half-blooded Pinoy Mexican in an American talent show, didn’t have a senate resolution to honor said reality tv show contestant… and these buwayas say we are the ones with Colonial Mentality? Gits.
I’m guessing Mexico didn’t do that, too. And that senate resolution…egad what’s our country coming to?!
More like what’s it not coming to… What it’s coming to is pretty much a given.
You must follow a lot of lousy jolog twitter users and have a lot of bakya FB friends.
You can always unsubscribe and sleep better. That’s what I did.
Seriously, people take AI way too serious. It’s just a freakin’ TV show.
Well, what I can do is ignore the whole brouhaha, eve after the gard finale. I had a life and frankly, it’s more interesting but a bit hard compared to a Tv show.
Don’t we all? =)
Hahaha. But their pettiness is such a gold mine of things to play around with.
And yes, people take AI way too serious. What a coincidence that AI also stands for Artificial Intelligence. Or in the case of Pinoys, Always Inutil. 😛
LOL. Crazy.
Artificial Intelligence? That’s Google. =)
Seriously, I take AI seriously. AI as in ‘Artificial intelligence.’ I had to because I have to make a living doing research about it and implementing its algorithms all the time.
Some Pinoys simply won’t decide what AI to take seriously.
Yes. The few that have perspective and a grip on what this all means in the overall scheme of things. As Rick in Casablanca said “don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you’ll understand that. ” Not you of course but all the people that think AI is the end of the world.
Or from Gone with the wind: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” 😀
Phillip Phillips is the American Idol. Love it. Like it. Live with it!
People from Philippines ‘showed the world’ their undying love and support to JS, and they also showed the world they can’t accept defeat…not a good sport, really.
They can’t get over the WGWG (white guy with guitar) thing. Americans have their own type of music…they don’t dig Filipino’s love for ‘karaoke/videoke’ style of music just like what JS did the entire season. Americans love musicians, not just ‘singers’…so don’t blame WGWG if they win this thing.
Lordy, why can’t they get over the fact that Jessica can’t sing squat any country music and squeaks by just enough for R&B.
I am so glad Philipps won,I liked his raw talent since the day he auditioned. The entire household were all rooting for JS. When she lost, they were making all these stupid excuses like it is all “racist” ..etc.
I just kept rolling my eyes. I told them just because someone can sing those whitney or mariah songs doesn’t mean you should be the winner of American Idol. It is a matter of personal preference.
tapos ung sinasabi ng iba na “world idol”…duhh,pathetic! as if ang Africa,Europe or Oz may pakialam sa ganyan..LOL
Jessica Sanchez lost, because, although she’s a great singer, she lacks the ability to connect with her audience, she lacks the personal charm. Of course, Filipinos will say “That’s not true! She connects with our hearts!” Yeah, she connects with Filipinos’ hearts, because every Filipino sees her as their own personal claim to fame! She’s not a charming performer, she’s too sweet and cute and shy. Great singer? Yeah. Great overall performer? No. I personally wish Filipinos would just go away and stop winning anything at all, because the moment they don’t win the biggest title of the entire contest, all hell breaks loose! They actually become rude, angry, and sometimes even violent and spew below-the-belt, offensive attacks! Such a savage people! So they shouldn’t be allowed to get anywhere in the contest, in the first place! Just look at Ms. Universe contests! Before, when no Filipinos would even make it to the semi-finals, everything was peaceful; but now that Filipino women are making it to the top ten, top five, look what happens! All hell breaks loose every time they don’t come home with the crown! It’s the most pathetic thing in the history of mankind. Same thing that’s happened with this year’s AI. I wish she hadn’t even made it to semi-finals, so everything would just be peaceful. Filipinos are always sore losers, disrupting the peace, crying foul play, etc. It’s such a pain in the ass. I really want this to blow over and stop having to read all my Filipino friends’ bitter posts on FaceBook about how “she lost, but she’s better”, “she lost, but she’s the real “Idol” while Philipps is just the “American” “, “she lost but she’ll be bigger”, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah…. Apparently, nothing better is going on for Filipinos other than singers singing in contests and women joining beauty contests! It’s the only caliber of success that the Filipino people know! The entertainment industry!