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Singing Contests Are Rigged

The problem with Televised Singing Competition shows

By Shanon NormanPublished 12 months ago 2 min read
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As a kid, I watched Lawrence Welk's variety entertainment show with my grandmother. It was lovely. As a teenager, I watched Star Search and dreamed about one day being famous as I hoped there was a competition that would help my dreams comes true. After the turn of the century, American Idol took off and we laughed at Simon's quirky remarks and voted for our favorite singers. We saw American Idol bring fame to several amazing entertainers through the years, and we watched many auditioners get rejected, and many hard working entertainers get lost in the shuffle of the show and business. These days people who still like the singing competition watch The Voice and the only one getting more famous for it seems to be Katy Perry, as if she's not famous enough. I think that show is coming at us like a Dark Horse.

It's ineffectual at this point. The glamour and wow factor have worn off. It's not amusing or entertaining anymore to see great talent get swept under the rug. It's extremely annoying to see how contrived and rigged the whole thing is. Showing us their back stories only proves how rigged the competition is. Every one viewing is either a wannabe singer/musician or a critic, and I as a critic resent the back stories. I don't care if the performer was born with a silver spoon in their mouth, or crawled out of the gutter. I only care about the entertainment value. For this reason, I don't watch those competition shows anymore.

A recent article got my attention when one of the judges from The Voice stated that an auditioner had an "interesting" voice. That could be said about Bob Dylan, whose success did not come for the same reasons as someone like Mariah Carey. I wanted to see if I agreed with the judge so I followed the link. Instead of letting me hear the "interesting" voice, they showed clips of the audition chatter and the auditioner's back story. I instantly knew it was rigged and I lost interest. The same feeling occurred for me last year when a new game show was being aired on television combining elements of "Survivor" and "The Real World". If the viewer gets the sense that the competition is rigged, interest in the show is lost to those of us who like genuine or authentic competition.

Competition in sports is based on rules. Competition in entertainment is supposed to be based on entertainment value. If the competition is just who plays the best violin, then it's rigged and not a valid competition. Please don't insult the viewer's intelligence.

Recently I was going to karaoke on Wednesday nights to sing famous songs in a contest. The winner was announced at midnight and was awarded the prize of $100 in cash. I don't drink alcohol usually, but I wanted to see if I could win that prize as getting $100 in cash for singing sure beats selling my blood or plasma for the money. The DJ specifically stated that the winner was chosen randomly and not based on song or talent. I was never chosen, however I did not get offended or take it personally. I don't go very much even though I love karaoke and I love singing because the karaoke contest is held at a bar where most people think only alcoholics or meat market seekers should be. I wish there was a karaoke DJ like that at a coffee house that welcomes smokers. That would be Heavenly.

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About the Creator

Shanon Norman

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