April 22, 2012

"Did Christians punish Colton Dixon for singing Lady Gaga?"

"[I]t’s possible that his surprise elimination from ['American Idol' last Thursday] was because he turned religious viewers away by choosing a song that had the wrong message—a thinly veiled way of acknowledging that he didn’t choose a more Jesus-friendly worship song."
He seems to be suggesting that his fans actively punished him (“turned a lot of people off”) for choosing non-Jesus-friendly lyrics (“a better song,” “a better message”) in the form of Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance.” A commenter notes that his previous songs had been “Christian anthems up until this point.”

In case it’s not clear that Colton is devoutly dedicated to one thing and one thing alone, he also said that during his final song,
“I wasn’t singing for [the judges]. I wasn’t singing for my family or anyone in the audience. I wasn’t singing for anyone at home. That song was between me and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We had a cool moment onstage for sure. But I wanted to end it the way I started it and the way I told myself I would do this competition, and I’m glad I got the opportunity.”
And later Colton said: “I’ve taken pride in knowing who I am and taking a stance in my faith, and by choosing ‘Bad Romance,’ I turned off a lot of those voters, who are my core voters.”

30 comments:

SGT Ted said...

He forgot who his fans were.

Artists can only do this when they are writing their own music. If you are merely a singer, you are playing with fire crossing over genres. Especially going from Christian worship music to Lady Gaga, the functional crazy lady who is Americas self-proclaimed Fag Hag. Talk about oil and water.

SGT Ted said...

And, is "not voting" for a singer really a punishment?

Henry said...

Somehow Dixon's speech reminds me of Ivan Drago's "I fight to win. For me! For Me!"

Drago just forgot the part where he appends: "For me and my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

Clare said...

He was booted because he sucked. I never understood how he lasted that long.
But when I heard him screech out that Gaga song and then butcher September I knew he was toast.

Praise the Lord.

Ralph L said...

I could see this if he'd sung about his muffin in "Poke Her Face," but "Bad Romance" isn't that naughty.

Ann Althouse said...

"I could see this if he'd sung about his muffin in "Poke Her Face," but "Bad Romance" isn't that naughty."

But if you have been singing love for Jesus while you built your fan base, when you sing of this intense love for a bad sex partner, it hurts. The fans do punish you at that point by withholding their love. You weren't true to them. You cheated on them. I think that's the way the young girls' hearts broke this week.

Colton, however, has a great chance to go on to be all for Jesus now. It's his come-to-Jesus moment, which is such a great move, it's as if he planned it this way.

ricpic said...

A lot of the same people who mock a Christian's intimate relation with Jesus go through life with a sense that they are being watched (and watched over) as in Saroyan's "my witness witnesses."

Elle said...

I think it had more to do with the cheesy winking and Phillip Phillips making the teeny-bopper - Cougar demographic all tingly, and less to do with Lady Gaga.

And I'm guessing this now means county crooner Skylar's days are numbered, since she sang "Born this Way."

Whomever will the judgmental Christians vote for?!

Elle said...

"country crooner" - you know.

Lyle said...

God willed it Colton.

SGT Ted said...

If he lost their votes with his choice, its really his own fault. No punishment there. He made a choice, he lives with the consequences.

Larry Davis said...

If he were honest with himself, he'd know it was his awful performance -nothing to do with song choice.

Synova said...

Is it "punishment" if they just don't like that song?

leslyn said...

Althouse said,

"It's his come-to-Jesus moment, which is such a great move, it's as if he planned it this way."

I suppose the same could be said about Chuck.Colson, whose recognition from you was that he wrote "Nixon's enemies list." That was not, however, his life.

All you need to do is take a look at his life for the last 36 years. "By their fruits you shall know them."

If you want to attack someone who has put their faith front and center, try this example: Tim Tebow becomes main attraction at Easter service. By his remarks at this service, one could project that it was Tebow's great move toward running for public office.

But I think he was just a young man whose scope of view became distorted by fame, and who mistakenly thought he was doing a good thing by training the spotlight on himself. He has some growing up to do.

For both these young men it will be their life to come that will define them, like Colson.

Ann Althouse said...

"Whomever will the judgmental Christians vote for?!"

I don't think it's that they are judgmental generally. It's that Colton won love on a particular premise, then turned into somebody else.

Skylar is consistently what she is, and the people who like screamy, stumpy, country-esque, tough gals get that and vote for it.

It does nothing for me.

Paddy O said...

Whether or not he did lose fans because if this, he's feeling the internal brunt of selling out.

Solomon had bad romance problems too that caused him to be rejected.

Presley Bennett said...

I think Colton's assuming an awful lot here. We have no way of knowing what the vote totals are on this show or what the voting demographics are for a particular contestant. He didn't sing particularly well and some of the other contestants did a better job and may have inspired their fans to power vote. For all he knows it's skinny white boys with weird hair who've been his biggest supporters and they were turned off by his wardrobe choice.

Colton is no Tim Tebow.

wyo sis said...

Entertainers are especially subject to falling out of favor, and that's a risk they choose to take when they choose that as a career. He might not like it and he might have had his moment with the song, but the people who vote get to decide whether he stays or not. That's the agreement he made. How he justifies it is his way of dealing with it. It would be a mistake to assume he knows what went on in the voter's minds. You get it right until you get it wrong or vise versa.

Palladian said...

"Colton Dixon" is a perfect gay porn pseudonym.

kimsch said...

He butchered September and was a bit arrogant in the "after he sang" mini interview bit. I think that's why he had the least amount of votes. Not because he did a Gaga song.

wv: sperson trays

MayBee said...

Was it even that obvious he is Christian? I don't think so.

He didn't sing well that night, as Jimmy Iovine noted. The girls who vote for the best cute boy would have picked up the phone for Phil Phillips.

Being the designated cute boy is a big vote getter, it seems much bigger than being the designated Christian singer. Kris Allen and Lee DeWyze can tell us that, as can Mandisa.

Ann Althouse said...

I meant stompy. It got autocorrected to "stumpy." Didn't mean to call Skylar "stumpy,"

Wally Kalbacken said...

Sorry, I'm not watching that particular ant farm. No doubt it's g-r-r-eat entertainment.

el polacko said...

the hardcore 'christian' voters still have gospel-singin' joshua...unless they should happen to figure out that he's gay too.

AlanKH said...

Looked in Wikipedia for the scoop on that round of Idol: "The contestants will sing two songs: one by Queen, and then another of their own choice."

What was the Queen song he picked? "Radio Ga Ga," maybe?

(Man, that would be painful for me - trying to bring down a Freddie Mercury song a couple of octaves.)

YoungHegelian said...

Maybe the Christians just didn't cotton much to the "I'm a freak bitch, baby" line.

Or, maybe, the crystal rosary and the sign of the Cross in the video was just too papist for them. (yes, I'm joking...)

Pete said...

I show up in the comments of this linked post, pointing out that "punish" was the word Dehnart chose, not Dixon. I'm with those who think Dixon's fans didn't "punish" him because he sang a non-Christian song; they didn't vote for him because he performed badly. (At least that's what the commenters say on the Facebook thread of this episode.)

It seems to me that Dehnart's choice of the word "punish" was an attempt to portray Christians as an uptight, judgmental group, ready to turn on their own kind for the slightest reason. Truth is, Christians are like non-Christians when it comes to enjoying music; they like what they like and they don't like what they don't like. In Dehnart's eyes, failure to vote for your favorite if you're a Christian is punishment; failure to vote for your favorite if you're a non-Christian is not punishment.

MadisonMan said...

He didn't sing well. That was the problem. His second song -- can't remember what it was at the moment (and doesn't that say something) was particularly bad. The Gaga song he at least did okay with.

Lauderdale Vet said...

I think people are reading way too much into this. I didn’t vote for him that night simply because I liked the other performances better. I was quite surprised when he was cut. I imagine he lost because most people simply assumed he was going to survive, and voted for the performances that actually pleased them. Why does it have to have a deeper meaning? It’s a mercurial competition, and this week he simply didn’t rise above it.

Thorley Winston said...

Somehow Dixon's speech reminds me of Ivan Drago's "I fight to win. For me! For Me!"

Heh, I know it’s probably a minority opinion but the training montage from Rocky IV alone makes it my favorite movie of the series.