are singing shows promising career starters or are there going downhill?
Singing competition shows birthed talented, highly successful, well-respected people today: Jennifer Hudson, Usher, One Direction, and Fifth Harmony. But there is one thing that ALL these artists have in common...they did not win their seasons. Somehow, the people who became the runner-ups have found more success than the winners. This raises the question: are singing competitions show even worth it?
What raised this question for me is in 2020, Just Sam, a contestant on American Idol, was crowned the winner of season 18. However, that stardom was shortlived as Sam has now returned back to singing in the subways of New York in 2023.
In a recent interview, Just Sam addresses this by saying, "I thought it was gonna be easy. Just go to the studio, record put out music, and that's not how the world works. That's not how the industry works. It takes time, it takes money that I don't have. It takes patience." Just Sam actually had lost more money than gained due to the fact that they had to pay Hollywood Records just so that they can claim their already recorded music back. The lack of support from singing competition shows has now come to light after this recent incident.
With shows like The Voice, the concept is very intriguing. Judging a person based on the voice and not the looks really isolates the talent. They don't judge a book by its cover. However, one main thing that is noticeable is the judges start to compete with each other before they turn their attention to the contestant. They beg and plead for someone to join their team just so that their chances of winning are higher. Blake Shelton has won the majority of the show, yet, there seems to yet there is really nothing to show for it. There is also a factor in the popularity of the judges. Voting is a main part of The Voice, and with celebrity judges like Ariana Grande, Niall Horan, and Miley Cyrus, many of the votes can come from the judge's fame rather than the voice of the contestant. All the judges have to do is post their team on their social media, tell their fans to vote for them, and then based on their followers, their chances of winning are high. But who is the real winner here? Because the judges will get a trophy and the title of the winner, but the contestants might not get anything. To add an extra layer, some contestants come from small towns whose communities will vote for the contestant (s) no matter what. That causes views to go up on the show because those places want to see their star shine. There is nothing wrong with watching the show for support, however, if that contestant wins then what now? Will they go back to their hometown and wait for someone to contact them? Do they just grow impatient and release music on their own? I know that it is about patience but the winners have waited long enough, right? They won the show so they should get the prize. The judges will use the contestants to win, but won't use the resources to help them out. Also, the demographic of the winners for these singing shows clearly shows who is going to be favored
This picture on top was the bottom four of The Voice Season 22 As you can see, all four of these contestants are people of color. When these results were shown Twitter and other social media sites were set ablaze. People were calling the show 'blatantly racist and some were saying the bottom four had WAY stronger voices than the contestants that moved on. By the way, out of the four that moved on, three were from team Blake! On top of that, everyone in the top four was white. Eventually, Bryce Leatherwood, a white male country artist from Team Blake won the season, but that didn't come as a surprise to anyone. It is very clear and blatantly obvious that these results show who watches the show and who votes.
There have only been four African Americans that have won The Voice since it aired in 2011. Only fifteen African American have the winners of American Idol even though that show has aired 21 seasons and has been on since 2002. Even though this isn't a singing show, there have been only four African American winners on America Got Talent, and they are still so much overlooked talent. This raises another question: Is it worth it to go on a singing show as a person of color?
It seems like the contestants of color who did not win have to find their fame themselves. Even though they competed on the show hoping for fame, it turns out that that isn't enough. Jennifer Hudson is a great example of a Cinderella story. She was overlooked and was the clear winner, but then her dreams were taken away, momentarily. If she knew no one was going o help her, she decided to help herself.
Hudson is now EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy. Oscar, Tony), has her own talk show, and still has the most angelic and powerful voice that she had on her season of American Idol. It seems like most of the fame comes from losing the shows rather than winning them. A way that this maybe can changed is if the judges of these shows get more involved. For instance, judges can save the contestant more and they can just be more involved with their journey on the how. The Voice uses coaches to help them pick songs and improve their performances. but, once the show ends or the contestant get eliminated that's about how far their relationship goes. American Idol judges don't even conversate with the contestants. Instead, they get past winners and have them be mentors for a total of one episode. The judges should be more involved in their careers instead of just judging them. How are they going to get better? More importantly, the contestants need more than just a good voice to make it in the music industry. They need to know stage presence, how to handle the media, or maybe even some need help writing songs. They can't learn any of that stuff without help, especially the younger contestants.
Even though many people did not like Simon Cowell on the show because of his meanness, Simin was actually involved with the contestants' lives. He signed winners, losers, anyone that he deemed worthy of it, he gave them a chance. A couple of people that Simon as signed that came from singing competition shows are:
One Direction
Little Mix
Fifth Harmony
Cher Lloyd
James Arthur
Leona Lewis
and so many more.
Singing shows need more promise behind their prizes. Simon use to offer record deals and he really stuck his neck out for people that deserved it. Unfortunately, there isn't a judge or 'coach' that is willing to do that anymore. The contestants will still end up having to make a name for themselves. It seems like they have to work even harder than they did before. Singing competition shows are slowly starting to prove that the show is more about reputation than talent. The judges want to win but they make the contestants fight for them. It makes you wonder about the quality of singing shows and it makes you feel bad for those who get nothing out of it except for their fifteen minutes of fame.
Written by Mariah Sturdivant
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