Jerome Bell Odds to Win American Idol

Jerome Bell is a singer from Lubbock, Texas. According to JoesPlaceBlog, he auditioned in Austin for the 10th season of American Idol and had made the Top 40. Jerome is basically a soul singer with RnB leanings. He apparently has a fair amount of stage experience on cruise ships and other places. From a genre perspective, Jerome seems to be starting with a huge deficit. Singers of his type have had terrible results for years on Idol. However, Jerome is a bit different than the typical black male singer than most of the ones who get chosen for the show. The question is whether he is different enough to capture the attention of voters on this show.

While I wouldn't say that there is a particular favoritism for white contestants on American Idol, it is no secret that black males have trouble getting votes on Idol. While Ruben Studdard did win, that was way back in Season 2. Since that time, a slew of contestants have come but almost always leave before the Top 6. Even Big Mike (Michael Lynche) from Season 9 had to be saved by the judges with 9 left before he made it to the Top 4. Now, we could argue over the various reasons why black males have had a tough time on Idol. But it is probably more valuable to just see if Jerome Bell has something different that may lead to better results than previous contestants.

There is reason to believe that Jerome is different. Essentially, he can be branded as a soul singer, not so much an RnB singer and certainly not a modern-style singer. Bell is closer to Ruben Studdard in style than most of the contestants that have fared poorly in the past few years. If he just focuses on the singing instead of being the drama queen like the Todrick Halls and Jerome Sellerses of seasons past, he may have a chance of going deep on American Idol.

On the other hand, it seems that Jerome has some issues with his singing that could use some improvement. Although the emotion is there, he does not have a particularly smooth delivery. Additionally, his vocal tone is certainly nothing special as far as live singing. There is potentially something special there with his recorded music on his MySpace. But Idol is a live singing competition. He needs to clean up his vocals and develop a consistent smoothness in his performances.

All things considered, it may seem that Jerome Bell has about a snowball's chance of winning Idol. But this seems to be a simplistic, racial look at the situation. In fact, he is more like a soul singer than a typical RnB singer and has the emotion to give good performances. We do know he needs more technical consistency. But if he does that and displays a likable, engaging personality instead of a self-destructive attitude like Jerome Sellers, then he has a minimal chance of winning American Idol's 10th season.

Resources:

JoesPlaceBlog Jerome Bell Spoilers

Jerome Bell MySpace

Jerome Bell "A Song For You" Performance