Review: American Gospel Idol 07/21/2013 American Gospel Idol 2013 was a total waste of time, energy and talent and from the moment I walked into the well-crafted Humble Civic Center, one was overwhelmed with the feeling that things were not quite right. The venue was decorated not with photos of the contestants or information of the competition but of “Bishop” Anthony L. Williams Sr. of the New Harvest Christian Outreach Fellowship Church which to me very self-indulging. In order to be an audience member one had to pay either 20.00 or 25.00 depending on the time in which tickets were purchased which sounded more like a night club who charges an additional $10.00 before 9:00pm or ladies get in free sort of special, this should have been the prequel to what was in store. Before the event started at 6:30pm, which was scheduled to start a 6:00pm, I was greeted with so much unprofessionalism ranging from the intake of the tickets to concessions. As one entered the massive ballroom which was converted to a performance space with a make shift stage, there was no one to assist with finding seats which was sectioned off in accordance to whomever one was supporting so if one could not recognize their person of support from a photo copied picture one was out of luck. The general atmosphere was lackluster due to no stage lighting, over powering of sound which was bass heavy, poor seating arrangements and utter disorganization. The pre-show was a PowerPoint presentation of various photos of the contests and of course of “Bishop” Williams being projected on a big screen in front of the audience with a various tracks of recording gospel artist in the background. The actual event did not start until 6:45pm which was presided by praise and worship session by an unknown artist who sang three songs. Once the event started, each singer was introduced not by a host or master of ceremony, but from various people chosen by the contestant. Please note that the sound quality of a singing “competition” should be on point in order hear every note including every whisper and gasp without having to strain to understand the words. Within this “competition” the music was entirely too loud, although the band sounded great, the volume was not the fault of the musician but he sound engineer or the person posing as a sound engineer and from my vantage point he did not once adjust the levels of on the mixing board. As for lighting, there was none other than the lighting coming from above the heads of the audience. The competition was moving along well somewhat enjoyable until Kim Burrell, whose resume includes being a mentor on SUNDAY BEST which is other singing competition and a recording artist, was asked to speak. As Kim was approaching the stage it was reported that she would not be singing at that point, the that information the first impression was that she was going to speak encouraging words to the inspire anyone who would like to be a professional gospel singers, but she chose to beg for money from the audience asking for additional 25.00 to 100.00 per person During that time period, she held the audience hostage for more than an hour stating that she will not leave until some money was raised which in my option was her appearance fee. Throughout this ordeal, the audience became disgusted, annoyed and began to leave. The competition featured Gospel Idol finalists (in alphabetical order): Pamela Agnew, Jasmine Antoine, Shonte Allen, BELOVED (Pamela Knight, Kristin Lewis & Chareece Wyatt), Jessie Bryant, Arrianna Farrington, Delicious Freeman, Wallace Grant II, Joshua Hawkins, Jasmine Myles, Idris Russaw, Alkendria Smith, Cher-Ron Thicklin, Myai Turner, Charles Walton Jr. and Krystal Williams. All the contestant did well especially BELOVED, I may be a bias, but it is warranted because they sounded the best, displayed great audience participation and professionalism. After sitting through five hours of excess talking, begging for money, promotion of a new church, self-indulging the winner of the event was named and a cash prize of 5,000.00 was given to Myai Turner. Although Myai won, information from the judges stated that BELOVED was the actual winner and the "Bishop” named Myai as the winner who just happens to be a member of his church. The “Bishop” told the contestants after the winner was revealed that she was chosen because of the most tickets sold which was not true and from ad sales again not true because BELOVED sold the most. Nonetheless, the silver lightning of this event was that one of the judges is a producer for Marvin Sapp and is interested in working with BELOVED to produce a project in the future. The lesson learned from this experience, if the church and or organization are allowing persons to participate who are affiliated with the sponsoring group do not participate because it may not be fair.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 23:05:41 +0000
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