Yes I have been following American Idol - and I hate reality TV generally.

Basically this is a glorified Star Search and most of it is considered pop fluff - but I decided to watch this after a very large unattractive man named Ruben won last year - so i figured the people must be voting for reasonable talent over just looks.

This year the talent is insurmountably superior with two young African American women(can I just say Black these days or is it not PC). LaToya London and Fantasia have impressive pipes the latter reminding me of a Tina Turner/Macey Gray mix - only Fantasia has a much better voice...and I saw Tina live front row. Granted Tina was 60ish but still.

The others are ok and certainly good enough to put out a pop cd or two - but these two women could front any Jazz band in the country and make Ella or Billie feel proud.

Interestingly if anyone saw the episode where they all sang Gloria Estefan songs - my opinion of Gloria Estefan went WAY UP. All the singers had a lot of trouble with the fast beats and lyrics - I thought Gloria's music would be relatively easy and these Idol singers had more trouble with that than what audiophiles consider "Serious upper class more difficult" music -- when judging by this Estefan is far more difficult to sing than Big Band Jazz or everything else they've done.

regardless how the stupid voting public votes already getting ridof a few who should be there still - You will see Latoya and Fantasia with a CD - I hope they don't go for the pop bucks and go for the Jazz bucks - so that Jazz can become more popular - or Big Band etc.

If you have not heard em give em a go some time - try and see a couple of episodes because some nights they sing songs from horrible artists like Barry Manilow - and no one can pass that schlock off as decent...even Elton John didn't work.