Celeb News: Forbes take back what they said about Nicki / Mariah

The Lambily

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I was wrong about the new lineup of judges for American Idol Season 12. Or maybe I was right. Actually I was right and then I was wrong.

I first suggested in this column that the big shakeup from last year, with two of the three judges leaving and being replaced, plus the addition of a fourth, and wrote that this could spell trouble and be the show’s weak link. That has turned out to be true.

Then, after just the first couple of audition shows, I made a premature judgment call and wrote here that the new judging panel was working. That turned out to be my big mistake. To further compound that mistake, I criticized Mariah Carey for her diva ways, fake accents, faux sophistication and generally putting on airs. On the other hand I wrote here that Nicki Minaj “has been very solid, and her comments were generally the most literate and profound of the group.”

They both proved me quite wrong.
Based on the small number of performances I included, I think these generalizations were true at the time, but the data set I analyzed was too small, and I should have waited longer – those of you (many) who wrote in defending Carey turned out to be correct over the longer term. She quickly shelved the accents and pretentious comments and in sharp contrast, has become a bit of a shrinking wallflower. If she has a fault now it is being too nice and not critical enough: if Carey says “I’ve seen you perform better,” it is her version of when Simon Cowell used to describe performers as cats caught in blenders and the like. But what she has done is successfully replaced original favorite Paula Abdul as the always positive and generally inoffensive judge – and the one with the least to say. I’d like to hear more from Carey but compared to Minaj she is a blessing and this is an example of why you should only say more if you have something to say.

Sorry Little Ladybug, it just isn't working out.

Minaj in turn, has completely taken over the dramatics, not just with the occasional foreign accent but her frequent slippages into what I can only describe as baby talk. Coupled with her extremely annoying propensity to call performers “my little ladybug,” whether they are men or women, teens or adults, this shtick gets old really fast. It is already old – the majority of her critiques are now annoying and laborious to watch. She also seems to have been schizophrenic throughout the final shows leading to the Idol Top 10: one day everything sucks, another day everything is great. When everything is great, she tells performer after performer that they are her favorite and the best. She disagrees with her fellow judges more than anyone else on the panel, which in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the fact that she is constantly at odds with the majority suggests that it is her opinion that is the odd one out. But it isn’t her opinions that annoy so much as her mannerisms and “ladybug” approach, which peaks when she says she wants to marry certain contestants’ voices, have other’s babies, or cuddle some of her many “favorites.” My tolerance for Minaj ran out when she started dispensing fashion and style advice to the singers, which is sort of like Lindsay Lohan giving safe driving tips. Here’s a style tip – stop touching your hair all the time, it’s like a nervous tic.
I wonder if the other judges find it as annoying as I do when she essentially makes faces during their comments if she disagrees. She does the big eyes, the shocked face and the jaw dropping, “I can’t believe you are saying that,” in a way so obvious it borders on disrespectful. And while she has toned it down, she had an almost automatic reflex to roll her eyes visibly whenever Mariah Carey spoke – regardless what Carey had to say. The friction between the two is far less palpable than it was during auditions, but it is still there every time Minaj rolls her eyes for no reason.

There is good news: Randy Jackson has been at his best as a judge this year.

The show has always had at least one big celebrity on it, like Abdul and Steven Tyler, sometimes more, including Ellen DeGeneres and now megastar Mariah Carey, yet Minaj is the only one I can remember over all those years who insists on referring to how “my fans” will vote, as if she is a politician controlling voting blocs and suggesting that her critiques will make or break performers – despite the fact that Carey has the much bigger fan base.

One final comment I feel compelled to make to Minaj: please stop misusing numbers. I know there is an old expression to “give 110%.” It’s an unfortunate expression, since it defies both mathematical and literal sense, and no can give more than 100%, which means the sum total of what you have, but it is with us none the less. It has caught on with sports broadcasters who like to describe athletes as giving more than 100% despite the fact that this is completely impossible. I’m certainly not the grammar police and there is poetic license in word usage – you probably see that here it in my columns all the time. But occasionally misusing 100% is one thing – and long popular with Idol judges. Constantly agreeing a thousand percent, or a million percent, or a million billion kazillion percent, and just making up numbers, as Minaj loves to do, is ridiculous. It’s something a three year old would say, and maybe that explains her frequent lapses into baby talk. By itself this would just be a mildly irritating habit, but thrown on top of all the other silliness it makes me wonder why the show’s producers don’t tell her any of this.

One last thing that I have been right about all along – the four judge setup just doesn’t work well. I wrote about this in an earlier column. To say the show was very successful for eight seasons before tinkering with the formula and adding a fourth, Kara DioGuardi, is the understatement of the year. Idol was one of the biggest successes in entertainment history, absolutely dominating the ratings with three judges. Since the change it has been slipping, and the turnover of the judges has been more rapid fire. Last year when they returned to three it made the show smoother and the pace better and was a reminder why four was a mistake, yet it is a mistake that has been repeated. This is especially obvious during the longer episodes with lots of performances – now essentially half the season. It just takes too long to go through four critiques of every performance, and instead of a built-in majority you know have a tendency to split, forcing them to bring in producer Jimmy Iovine as a tiebreaker (though this season he was only used once). Fortunately, there is a very easy solution to this problem since the show already has three good judges who would make a great panel.

But I am going to stop making judge predictions, since my previous ones did not pan out too well. My track record is far better when it comes to contestants, and in my next post, I am going to pick the winner and Top four finalists of American Idol Season 12.

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SupremeGoddess

XChrisX

Mariah seems to be the most liked judge out of her and Nicki and most respected of course

JungleDisturbia

Wasn't this posted a few days ago?

@michael

The picture + gif combined are giving me giggle fits

Rule the World

KORDEI

I don't see any REAL reason in that whole article for them to change their mind on Nicki. Going off of what you put in bold, she has cute little names for the contestants, flips her hair a lot, gives fashion tips, says "110%" and sometimes doesn't agree with the whole panel and these are the reasons? Sounds like personal pet peeves to me.

Robbyyy

Quote:

Originally posted by YeaBey4ever

I don't see any REAL reason in that whole article for them to change their mind on Nicki. Going off of what you put in bold, she has cute little names for the contestants, flips her hair a lot, gives fashion tips, says "110%" and sometimes doesn't agree with the whole panel and these are the reasons? Sounds like personal pet peeves to me.

Couldn't have said it better myself, what makes matters worse is that she's always been doing this since day one. The nick names, the fashion tips, the touching of hair, & she's been standing against the panel consistently since day one as well. So it lacks logic to one moment says this is what makes her great, to these are her flaws. My only issue would be the dramatics at times, but that's just what makes her unique on the panel. We expect this from her, because it is her.

Poe Dameron

Luke

Couldn't agree more. Just Nicki alone makes it impossible for me to sit through one episode, she's so desperately playing to the camera it's unbearable.

FierceBitch

MonstahDDCJ

sounds PERSONAL to me

Pop pop123

The picture! The gif!

Superiore

Quote:

My tolerance for Minaj ran out when she started dispensing fashion and style advice to the singers, which is sort of like Lindsay Lohan giving safe driving tips. Here’s a style tip – stop touching your hair all the time, it’s like a nervous tic.

dman4life

I'm waiting for the Nicki stans that were co signing and all on his dick when he made the first article

That being said I kind of feel sorry for her, she shouldn't have accepted this job in the first place because now everybody knows she is a clown and not just us folks who keep up with the music industry

Rick

I posted this article a few days ago... But yes, I agree with what they said

collin

I don't watch the show but the % thing seems more like a pet peeve. Get over it?

KarlosVzla

Been saying the same thing for a while. Idol has actually made me like Nicki less.

JLO_FeEN

I been seeing this way before Idol.

And the article...

Ammer

Oh no. An article in Forbes hates Nicki Minaj. I'm sure she'll be devastated.