I know a lot of people don’t like this show for principle reasons (it’s “ruining” the music industry or whatever) but after finally seeing it last year, I’ve become an avid watcher of the show. I wouldn’t say I’m a huge fan, and I certainly don’t view it as an “undiscovered talent” show - it’s more akin to a slickly produced musical reality-TV show - but I definitely find it entertaining.

Anyway, the audition segment of the show is the “meanest” and obviously set up to be the “rubber neck at an accident” sort of section, where people who can’t sing but think they can are showcased for audience amusement, insults, and ratings. Once in a while there’s a segment where the American Idol wanna-be is not just amusingly entertaining or shockingly rude or whatever, but manages to catch the imagination or hearts of viewers. They may not be the next American Idol, but they’re endearing.

Renaldo Lapuz was that person this year. Too old to actually compete, the producers still let him through to “audition” for the judges for what I’m assuming was his potential-entertainment value, and he struck gold, so to speak. The images of the judges dancing around to Renaldo’s singing is memorable and had me LOL’ing. He even made Simon smile! As a result, the man has gotten a lot of attention both in the media and on sites like YouTube, where creative folks have taken his original composition song and turned it into various re-mixed music and videos. He has his own Official Fan Site, which showcases a lot of those fun videos, but my favorite vocal remix isn’t there. But it is here on YouTube.

GoGo Renaldo. Thanks for the smiles and here’s hoping all this attention gets you something.

Oh and … I hope that scruffy hunk Michael Johns isn’t voted off too quickly. He’s entertaining vocally, but mostly, he’s just hot. I think he has a chance of being in the Top3, maybe, but I don’t think he’ll actually win.