A Moment Like This

I like musicals, partly because I’m a girl and it’s in our DNA and partly because of the comic relief of watching as everyone spontaneously breaks into song and dance. I still haven’t figured out how everyone on that high school campus knew that Danny and Sandy were singing “Summer Love” and jumped right in with them in the blink of an eye, or the zombies knowing the Thriller dance. While we always criticize musicals for failing to truly imitate life, living here is sort of like living in a musical. Man, they LOVE to sing and dance here, or they think that Westerns love to sing and dance. Maybe they have watched too many musicals and think that is really what life in America is like. Anyway, they are always asking me to sing or dance…I politely decline the invitation.

For once, however, I was asked to JUDGE other people singing and not to perform myself. Whew! That’s right…I got to try my hand at being an American Idol Judge. Don’t be jealous. I really was not looking forward to it because I didn’t know what I was getting into and it didn’t seem particularly well organized since it was rescheduled three times before today.

I arrived at the teaching building and was met by an English Home rep who showed me to my room. Everything was in characters! I said, “I thought this was an English song competition. I can’t read this!” They translated the form for me so I could read it and we got underway. Silly me, I thought that my job was only to judge. Clearly, I don’t watch much American Idol. They interrupted my judging in the middle of some kid’s performance to ask me to make some comments. I didn’t know I needed to be taking notes. Well, I managed to finesse my way through the first round and started to take notes for the next group.

You may be wondering which Idol judge I was most like. You may have an idea, but I might surprise you. Normally, I would say that I would be most like Paula, who I used to sing in the tub when I was a little girl, but I was kind of salty that day. Knowing that I could not blast these poor kids out of the water with my Simon impersonation, I tempered my comments and struck a balance, ending up like Randy. At least, I think. Some of the performances were rather laughable, some I got a headache from trying to understand what they were singing, and a rare few truly impressed me. If I was not already tired of hearing “My Heart Will Go On” from when Titanic first came out, I certainly am now. I notion of picking a song in your range has apparently escaped many of them.

One performance in particular was my favorite, not because of his vocal skill or performance, but because of his facial features. My best friend’s older brother used to sing, but when he sang, he contorted his face so that he looked like a fish. We (my bf and I) would often sit together and get so tickled watching him. He seriously looked like he was in pain when he was singing. Well, this kid did the exact same thing! Even now, I am getting tickled thinking about it. He sang Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” but I had a hard time believing him with his face so screwed up. Somehow, he made it to the next level…maybe I’ll be lucky enough to get a repeat performance.