American Idol and the Arts

 
AI - Jordin Sparks1.jpg
 
 
Even though the T.V. show American Idol has been playing for 6 seasons (including this season), I have only watched the last 5-6 weeks. Thanks to the craze over Sanjaya Malakar, it perked my interest to find out what all the hype was about.

Yesterday’s finale was incredible. At the end, when Jordin Sparks (the winner) was singing, my eyes got misty. It is hard to believe a 17 year old won the whole thing. But it was well-deserved. She has a great voice.

It blew my mind away to think that 74 million votes were cast – hard to believe that so many people from around the world watched and participated in the voting!

Several things encouraged me:

1) There is talk that Jordin traveled with Michael W. Smith on his 3-week Christmas concert tour. You can read up on it here.

2) Melinda Doolittle (who was my 2nd favorite) did a blatantly Christian song on T.V. with BeBe and CeCe Winans, where millions of people were watching. This is huge! I can’t believe that American Idol even allowed a song like that to be sung. It was a great witness and testimony.

3) This just reaffirmed the “A” of the CHARGED acronym. I am praying that there will be more Christ-followers who will make a difference in our world by using their talents for the arts and media. We have become a media-saturated world – and if the message of the Gospel can be brought into a platform like American Idol then the impact can be tremendous. As we have been discussing many times before – the next Billy Graham of our generation might be an artist. We need to keep on fostering an environment where people with the talent and the passion for the arts can grow.

Here are the lyrics to “This is My Now,” which helped Jordin win the whole thing (it has been rumored that it was written by a Christ-follower):

There was a time I packed my dreams away
Living in a shell, hiding from myself.
There was a time when I was so afraid
I thought I’d reached the end.
Baby, that was then.
But I am made of more than my yesterdays.

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.

I had to decide.
Was I gonna play it safe?
Or look somewhere deep inside,
Try to turn the tide.
Find the strength to take that step of faith?

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.

I have a courage like never before, yeah.
I settled for less, but I’m ready for more.
Ready for more…

This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now,
And I am breathing in the moment.
As I look around,
I can’t believe the love I see.
My fear’s behind me,
Gone are the shadows and doubt.
That was then.
This is my now.
This is my now.

Here is her performance of the song on Tuesday night:

 
 
Personally, I appreciate her authentic and heartfelt version (after winning it all) – this is what moved me. I think Paula would agree 🙂

Spiritual ENTREPRENEUR, Church EQUIPPER, Leadership EDUCATOR, Ideas EXPERIMENTER & Global EXPLORER who is trying to transform lives and transform the world.
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