I know this is old news, but I am just now catching up on the latest from American Idol and had to throw my two cents into the fountain of collective outrage. Except as I write this I’m watching Julia Gagnon sing “Over the Rainbow” with tears clouding my eyeballs so it’s hard to be angry. Until I remember that “America” tried to vote her off weeks ago!

I was shocked but not surprised that a few episodes back, the remaining four contestants awaiting results were all extraordinarily talented people of color. Across the stage from them, all the contestants who had already made the cut were white or white presenting. It was a starkly visible divide. Lest anyone want to fight me and argue that this was simply a merit-based outcome, I will point out that:

1) the situation unfolding in real time horrified the judges, who based on their commentary were responding largely as trained vocalists not to mention super famous artists, and

2) some of the white girls fumbled the ball the week of this embarrassing elimination blunder (*not* McKenna Faith Breinholt, whose singing was incredible as per usual). The show is a competition and competition is about performing well under pressure, which is why I hated competing in piano and sports. I sure as hell can’t keep it together—I literally fumbled the ball far too often during games, to the point that it was a whole thing I had to address with coaches, despite being varsity team captain and all-state from high school through Division II college. All of that to say I’m not putting anyone down; there’s way too much of that on the Internet IMO. For example, YouTubers are obsessed with asking “Can [insert global pop icon] actually sing?” And I want to be like IDK can you?! This is about a structural issue, not trolling individual singers. While I think all the top contestants are amazingly talented, does it make sense for someone who Katy Perry openly acknowledged was having pitch issues to win over Jayna Elise, whose vocal and star power covering Whitney freaking Houston was out of this world? I mean, come on! And Nya, whom we lost a week before? Her singing is just beyond, in another dimension. Plus, Roman Collins (from Long Beach!) and Triston Harper (who was close to leaving) had phenomenal and deeply moving performances. Full. Body. Chills.

Shameful that the live results were not only obviously racist but classist, because the real-time voting window excludes people who have to work nights and/or don’t have cable. True, my indie rock and post-metal leanings leave me scratching my head at the Taylor Swiftness of it all, but I’m also one of many people, I don’t doubt, who secretly and devotedly watch the show because of an abiding love for music without having a chance to vote.

And then the producers bring back Just Sam, the 2020 winner, four years later to sing in person since they won during quarantine and recently admitted to struggling despite American Idol victory? The timing seems a little too convenient for PR. At least I can giggle at how their song, “One Moment in Time,” was a dig at not only American Idol but the broader US context of racist musical segregation, appropriation, and exclusion in which it is embedded. American Idol can’t fix the dumpster fire, but it could at least rethink live voting.