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Chris Sligh has the vocal talent, but will his obesity become a liability
Have you been watching Season 6 of the hottest show on television today--American Idol!
You just gotta love a program like this where the dreams of being a
famous music superstar are almost immediately realized overnight if you
are fortunate enough to make it into the final 24 contestants with 30+
million people watching you each week.
Just look at what happened during last week's show.
Did
you see that adorable little girl who started crying her eyes out when
the singers were performing (although we later found out she was a "plant" by the FOX producers)? These contestants have barely even been in
the spotlight performing on television for about two months now and
they have already developed a fan base of "groupies" following their
every move and "Idol"izing them enough to cry over their singing! Only
in America!
One of the reasons I am watching this season is to see my fellow
Upstate of South Carolina resident Chris Sligh, who hails from
Greenville which is just a hop, skip, and a jump from my hometown of
Spartanburg, perform and cheer him on to become the next American Idol.
He certainly has the chops for this competition, although I personally
think Blake the Bodacious-Beatboxer and Melinda Doolittle the
Background-Singer-No-More will both give him a run for his money.
With
that said, though, I am and have been concerned about one thing
regarding Chris since he first started progressing through the
competition--his hard to ignore excessive weight problem. Yep, if you
haven't noticed it before, Chris Sligh is pretty fat along with that
now-famous big curly hair of his. If the tens of millions of people who
are voting in American Idol can look past the image of Chris Sligh and judge him on his singing, then he may have a shot.
But
at some point I believe his obesity will become a severe liability. I
noticed somebody was holding up a sign on Tuesday night that said
"Bringing Chubby Back" while Chris was singing, but I'm not so sure
about that sentiment. While the "fat acceptance" movement
people will probably enthusiastically agree with that statement and
tell him to not be ashamed of his large size, the reality is Sligh's
looks will begin to hurt him more than help him at some point no matter
how good he sings.
Plus, remember this is a television show
looking for someone who a record label can put out there in the public
eye as a marketable product. At least with Clay Aiken,
they got rid of the nerdy glasses and helped him look as polished as
that beautiful singing voice he has. For Chris Sligh, it's gonna take
some weight loss that livin' la vida low-carb could help him with.
Unfortunately for him, it won't be quick enough to help him before his American Idol experience comes to an end.
While
I'm confident Chris won't be going home for several more weeks at
least, I don't think he'll get past the top five precisely because of
his weight. The fact is there are prettier people left in the
competition who sing almost as good as he does. When it comes down to
it, looks will play a part as we saw the year Carrie Underwood won.
She's awesome and has gone on to do extraordinary things in her short
career so far, but would she have beaten Bo Bice if she wasn't a
gorgeous blonde?
I sincerely hope Chris Sligh does endure to the
end to make it into the final two, but I feel safe in predicting he at
the very least he should outlast Sanjaya (if this kid doesn't go home
tonight, then there is something SERIOUSLY wrong with this show!). The
17-year old Indian boy reminds me of another young teenaged contestant
named John a few years back with the red hair and sang like a lounge
singer.
Remember him? He kept getting in the bottom two week after week (like Sanjaya) and even beat out Jennifer Hudson
to the shock of everyone to reach the top 5. Of course, he was booted
out the next week, but people accused the show of being racist and
thought Jennifer Hudson got cheated. In the end it all worked out since
Ms. Hudson was recently given the Academy Award for Best Supporting
Role for her performance in the movie Dreamgirls. See, it all works out in the end.
Although American Idol does not judge the contestants on their weight and it is possible for contestants who have been overweight on the show like Ruben Studdard (who has since lost a lot of weight
on a vegetarian diet) and Underwood (who has DEFINITELY lost weight for
whatever reason since she won--I thought she looked better BEFORE her
weight loss), it still leaves the question about the long-term
implications of whether being fat will hurt Chris Sligh when all is
said and done.
In this incredibly superficial world we live in, I'm afraid at some point it will.
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THANKS for your comments about my column. The point of my article was precisely that the overweight and obese are discriminated because of their size.
As a former 400 pound man who has been through the pain of judgmental people making a*sumptions about me because of my weight, feeling self-conscious about my weight, and constantly trying and failing many times over to lose the weight for good this time, I KNOW how you feel because I have been there myself.
The difference is I found a way to overcome that struggle and have been able to maintain a nearly 200-pound weight loss for more than three years and counting. I'm sorry you feel I'm some kind of "jerk" and don't understand, but you couldn't be more wrong if you tried, Michelle. I do know what it's like to be morbidly obese and trying to lose weight.
I apologize if you were offended, but you obviously took offense where there was nothing to be offended about. You would certainly have a right to be upset with me had I not been through the angst of obesity in the past, but I have. Now I've overcome, but I still think and feel like a fat person.
So don't go accusing me or this web site of anything without understanding who and what you are responding to. I regret that you have chosen to unsubscribe because this is an excellent resource, but that's your foolish prerogative.
As for Carrie Underwood, I never called her overweight. If you'll reread my comments, you see where I said I thought she looked better when she was on American Idol than she does now after she lost weight.
Man, some people need to take a step back and breathe (and possibly take a valium or something!) before flying off the handle! Calm down and enjoy life to the fullest. That's what I'm doing now that I'm livin' la vida low-carb!
THANKS for your comments!