Australian Idol - Final 4

Wow, things are really getting a little controversial now, aren't they! Chris clearly wasn't too happy with his choice of songs, Dean was obviously bothered by something (and the judges all cut him slack for it instead of roasting him for not being up to it - favouritism?), Damien got Idol's first double-Touchdown, and Mark mocked Marcia for finally saying something worthwhile! (I was with you, Mark - even if the crowd backed nicey-nice-girl Marcia. The sound of one hand clapping is what Marcia hears at her concerts, don't worry.)

I certainly thought Damien lucked-out with two great songs that suited him, and I thought it was apparent from the outset that Chris had the opposite end of the luck spectrum with the song choice/selection/draw. He got crap songs and/or sang crap versions of them. He just wasn't interesting to watch. (The Crowded House one not so much, but the first one was certainly uninteresting.)

Jess was very much on fire (particularly how well she performed such a boring - for mine - number with that second song), and Dean knew his time was up.

It's no surprise to me that Dean is feeling the weight of the attention he's been getting. I'm not going to roast him here, despite him surviving another week where he really doesn't deserve to. I can totally understand what's bugging him, and the judges eluded to it tonight. The constant press and media attention Dean's been getting (his muscley photo shoots from his earlier modelling days re-surfacing now that enterprising photographers see a quick way of making money by hitching their wagon to someone else's shooting star, for example) and the mad screaming reaction young (and slightly more mature) girls have been giving him whenever he walks into a room or his name is said, is clearly playing on his mind. It's surreal, it's wrong, and it's not what he's about.

Whether I think he's a talented musician or not, that's without-a-doubt what he wants to be, and how he views himself. And he's not an idiot. He knows that he's getting through the competition because of the 'hunk' factor people have attributed to him. If his faith means anything, he must be really bothered by the fact that he's being viewed and judged in the light that he is. And I think he's starting to feel ill about the fact that if he gets to the Grand Final (whether he wins it or not), he'll feel that he didn't get there for his skills as a musician.

That's only fun for the first half of the finals process, surely. I think right about now it's starting to make him feel cheap and patronised.

So I say this to 'Team Dean': Stop voting for him. He doesn't deserve to win it because he's not as talented a singer as Jessica and Damien. So don't make him feel like a piece of crap who was only voted in by a bunch of condescending tweeny-boppers and drunk middle-aged women who think they're watching Manpower ... which is precisely what you'll do to the poor lad if you help him survive the next elimination.

PLEASE.

Vote for Jessica or Damien.

Do it for Dean. He wants out so the furore can die down. Let him cut an album and release it. Maybe then he'll make something of himself - on his own merits.

But back to Chris Murphy. Well, son - you certainly take bad news and criticism far better than your sooky-la-la brother. He might have made it a step further than you two years ago, but you're far more mature than him.




And really, that's what matters. Rock on.


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