Paris Out....Finally

For someone who’s been consistently on the brink of elimination for the past few weeks, it must have been quite a relief for Paris Bennett to be finally booted off American Idol last Wednesday and be done with it.

And it showed.

While previous results shows showed Paris weeping like a child (wait a sec….. she is a child!) for each eliminated contestant, an unbelievably composed 17-year old girl was onstage Wednesday, beaming and singing her heart out moments after Ryan Seacrest told her she got the lowest number of votes.

Must have been the weeks of practice she got from being constantly at the bottom of the standings.

Oh well. I fell in love with Paris right on her first audition, and I still think she’s one of the best vocalists in the competition, and could have become the 5th American Idol. But with this year’s Top 5 seeming like the best Top 5 AI has ever had, Paris’ elimination leaves four equally deserving finalists, and I’ve got no problem with that.

In any case, Paris, with her youth and tremendous talent, will definitely have a singing career ahead of her. For a music industry that gave recording contracts to non-talents such as Ashlee Simpson and countless boy bands, signing up real talents like Paris could serve as a partial atonement for the musical atrocities it has committed against the listening public.