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Date Posted: 07:25:20 05/14/04 Fri
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Did Hawaii Do In "Idol" London?
By Joal Ryan
For La Toya London, aloha may well have meant goodbye.
The mainlander was the odd diva out on Wednesday's American Idol, one night after Hawaii residents lit up the phone lines and seemingly helped island native Jasmine Trias emerge as one of two top vote-getters in the Fox singing competition.
The ouster of London, generally regarded, by the judges anyway, as the best vocalist among the Idol finalists, was called "a travesty" by panelist Randy Jackson, who must have been really upset because he usually just says "yo, yo, yo" and "dawg."
Fellow judge Simon Cowell quickly seized up Hawaii as a suspect in London's demise. "I think, Jasmine, you have a lot of thank-you letters to write to Hawaii," he said on Wednesday's show.
Trias, left in tears following shaky performances this week, seemed to be the consensus bootee among Idol observers, but her home state rallied.
Indeed, Hawaii residents attempted a record 5 million cellular and landline calls (read: votes) following Tuesday night's Idol, said Kevin Laverty, spokesman for Verizon, the Aloha state's main phone-service provider.
Of those, 1.3 million calls got through--another record, Laverty said.
Per the U.S. Census Bureau (news - web sites), Hawaii's total population, as of 2002, was 1.2 million.
By comparison, Verizon-served New Jersey (population: 8.6 million) got 1.2 million Idol calls completed on Tuesday night, Laverty said. (Total numbers for California, where London hails from, were not known--the mega-sized state relies on more than one provider.)
"They're leveraging their influence," Laverty said of the show's Hawaiian fan base. "If you talk to the people there, it's a phenomenon. People are there watching the TV and voting for the home girl."
And the TV they're watching is reminding them to support Trias. Hawaii Fox affiliate KHON-TV has been running 10- to 15-second-long promos hyping Trias, and, before her, fellow Hawaiian Idol hopefuls Camille Velasco and Jonah Moananu.
"The show was incredibly popular here long before we had Hawaii contestants," KHON marketing director Linda Brock said.
Brock said the locally produced pro-Trias spots do not run during Tuesday's Idol, the night votes are cast, although they may appear right before the show.
KHON isn't the only TV station to get behind a native. Fox affiliate WGHP-TV in Fantasia Barrino's hometown of High Point, North Carolina, hosts a weekly "watch and vote party" in honor of the 19-year-old.
In Oakland, California, Fox-aligned KTVU-TV regularly covered resident diva London's progression through the Idol ranks but stopped short of outright sponsoring activities or promos--"We're a pretty serious news organization here," Kenny Wardell, station promotion director said.
Still, KTVU was planning a blowout Friday in which Jack London Square would be renamed La Toya London Square. Then came Wednesday's voting results.
"This town is totally devastated," Wardell said of London's loss.
Wardell chalked up her defeat to viewers complacently believing she was going to win. "More power to the state of Hawaii" for its get-out-the-vote efforts on behalf of Trias, he said.
Homegirl Trias, 17, was due back in Hawaii Thursday to film an Idol segment and do a meet-and-greet with Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, per the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
London, meanwhile, was to do a stopover on On Air with Ryan Seacrest.
Wednesday night, the 25-year-old former wedding-band singer left the stage with the apt "Don't Rain on My Parade," one of the numbers she dazzled with on big-band week, leaving judge Paula Abdul (news), for the second week running, with a bad case of the weepies.
For London, it was disco that did her in. She sang "Don't Leave Me This Way" and "Love You Inside and Out" on Tuesday night's show. Abdul and celebrity guest Donna Summer heaped their requisite praise on the soft-spoken belter; Cowell and Jackson expressed mild reservations that London wasn't shining or some such Idol-speak.
Overall, viewers at home--even conspiracy-minded ones--would not have gotten the impression that the judges were trying to sway votes away from London. They might have, however, gotten the distinct impression that Trias' number was up.
Trias, never to be confused with a member of the Weather Girls, sang "It's Raining Men" and "Everlasting Love." Her rendition of the former left even Abdul and the guest judge with nary a kind word to impart--never a good sign. In the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, even her vocal coach, William Daquioag, said "she didn't have a good performance." Battered by the judges, Trias pulled an Abdul and puddled up on stage.
"I'm sure the pitiful sight of Jasmine smiling woefully through her tears [Tuesday] tugged at many hearts across America and [they] expressed their sympathy by voting for her last night," a poster on Fox's American Idol boards opined Wednesday.
Daquioag had his own theory on why Trias survived: "I believe it's the whole package the voters are looking for," he said in the Star-Bulletin, "someone who can really be a role model to young teens. The only thing I'll be surprised with is if she's out of the competition."
Idol's own studio audience, however, sounded surprised with Wednesday's results, booing when Trias was declared safe, and London and Barrino, another judge favorite, were relegated to the bottom two.
The last time London and Barrino polled among the lowest vote tallies--the week Jennifer Hudson went home in the season's previous "shocker"--pop icon Elton John (news) accused viewers of racism. (All three women are black.)
With London and Barrino scraping bottom again, Jackson, who is also black, was asked by Los Angeles' Fox 11 if he was ready to side with John, who is not. "Two great girls--they both happen to be black," Jackson said with a shrug, "I don't know, dawg."
A look at this season's Idol results show that no one has been truly safe, regardless of background or Hawaiian residency. Last season, en route to the final three, eventual champ Ruben Studdard ended up in the bottom three just once; eventual runner-up Clay Aiken avoided the dilemma entirely.
This season, among the show's remaining three finalists, Diana DeGarmo has been among the bottom vote-getters three times (most recently on April 14); Trias has been there three times (most recently on May 5); and, Barrino has sweated out the results twice (most recently Wednesday).
London's eviction came on the occasion of her third visit to the bottom group.
While controversy continues to run high at Idol, so do ratings. Fox, which declined to release this week's overall vote tallies, estimated 22.4 million caught Wednesday's water-cooler event. About 23.3 million discoed along with the divas on Tuesday night.
"The producers and network have gone to great lengths to insure the integrity of the voting process on American Idol," the network said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "America votes, an independent company calculates the tally, and the show reports those results."
The network announced Thursday that next week's performance show will receive a visit from music industry giant Clive Davis, whose BMG Records conglomerate is to strike a deal with the winning contestant.
DeGarmo, Trias and Barrino, meanwhile, will be put through the rigors of performing three songs--one selected for them by the judges, one picked by Davis and one chosen by themselves.
Trias might want to brush up on "Blue Hawaii."
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Hawaii Helps Singer Prevail on 'Idol'