What is “American Idol” exactly? Is it a place to discover unknown talent only? Or can semi-professionals play too?
Tonight I’m watching the show and noticed a couple of oddities about the new crop of contestants who’ve been moved to the finals in “Hollywood.” As in “You’re going to Hollywood.”
Two sets of players are already in Hollywood, thanks. The 17 year old Sposato twins were extremely accomplished. Well, their dad is Frankie Blue, a long time Hollywood musician and composer. The family lives in Malibu. Frankie Blue accompanied his kids tonight as if he were just a random guy. According to his bio, he “wrote and recorded with Animal Logic (Stewart Copeland, Stanley Clarke), and ventured into the world of remixing and programming for artists such as Tricky, Garbage, Jamiroquai and The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Dave Navarro and Chad Smith),”
This doesn’t mean his boys aren’t talented. They certainly are. But they have a website, they already tour and record, and have been in business for four years at least.
Then there was Amelia Hammer-Harris, a very talented 26 year old singer. Her father was a famous but obscure early rock and roll singer and writer named Jack Hammer (real name Earl Burrows). She told the judges that her dad wrote “Great Balls of Fire” and “Yakety Yak.” In reality, he is credited as a co-writer on the former. But “Yakety Yak” was written by Jerry Lieber and Mike Stoller. Jack Hammer did write a lot of other early rock songs like “Fujiyama Mama.”
Amelia had an amazing voice. Here’s a cover she does of “Crazy in Love.” At 26, I’d say there’s an argument that she’s far more accomplished than the other contestants. She should already be having a career. This may be her resume, in fact.
