Taylor Vaifanua

Taylor Vaifanua | American Idol

noreply@blogger.com (Erik) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:23:00 +0000

I was looking at some photos of Taylor Vaifanua, and looking at them reminded me of another previous American Idol contender, Kelly Pickler. I actually thought Kelly seemed really sweet and sincere but I thought that one of the things that shouldn't have happened was the makeover. She went into American Idol looking young, and fresh, and perky, and when she made it deeper into the American Idol show, she was still perky and at times funny, but the makeover she was given made her look old. Old. She went from a teenager to someone who looked like she was past middle aged. Not that I have anything against people who're middle aged or anything, because I don't. But geez. Why did they have to make Kelly Pickler look so old?

And that's sort of the feeling I got looking at the photos online of Taylor Vaifanua. In some of them she looks young and sweet and well, young. I mean she's still in her teens after all. But in some of the others, mostly the ones where she's wearing makeup, and in at least one video I saw, she looks old. Old. And I just don't get it. Where's the upside to looking old? Is there some sort of expectation that a singer who looks older gets more respect? I mean, I just don't know if that's true. Look at David from last season (Archuleta, not Cook, though I liked them both). The guy looked young. I mean, he was young. As young as Taylor Vaifanua is now, I believe. And while they did try to spruce up his look, they didn't try to make him look middle aged.

I mean that was part of his charm, the fact that he was young. And I'm thinking that same youth could play to Taylor Vaifanua's advantage. She could give off the kind of energy and excitement that's expected of young people. Maybe people might be more forgiving if she makes the odd mistake or two because, well, Taylor's young so she has room for those types of mistakes. But if they make her old, well, she might just look tired, even if she doesn't actually act that way. And I just don't see how that can help her on American Idol.

I'm hoping that Taylor Vaifanua brings her A game and her A voice over to American Idol, especially if she makes it deep into the competition. That said, I hope she takes the time to also be mindful of the entire performance package. She doesn't have to look perfect. Maybe the industry expects it, but I personally don't mind quirkiness. All I'm saying though is that she needs to make sure that she doesn't handicap her chances by going through a makeover which I think is more handicap and hindrance than help.

Taylor Vaifanua

noreply@blogger.com (Erik) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:51:00 +0000

One of the more interesting American Idol hopefuls this season is a lady named, Taylor Vaifanua. She's quite young. Currently at 16 years old. I wonder how she'll compare to some of the other quite young contestants from previous seasons. Some have made it past Hollywood only to falter later, while at least one young contestant from last season appears to have done really well for himself.

She has a website based on her name, but going there doesn't yield any additional information. Only a huge, This site is down for maintenance image. Maybe this means that she did well in Hollywood, so she hasn't yet been eliminated. My feeling is that she took it down for privacy and confidentiality related reasons. Still, the fact that she has her own website (I'm pretty sure it's hers since it uses her name in the url.) means that she's really serious about pursuing a career in music. She's really actively promoting herself to the world at large, using the internet. Or at least she was before her site went down for maintenance.

Like some of the other contestants identified so far, Taylor Vaifanua has herself a MySpace profile. It's got an image of her at least, so you can see what she looks like, but like her website, there really isn't much information on it at all. It's pretty clear though that she really is serious about a music career because it looks like she's already released an album.

It's called Taylor Vaifanua Timeless. It was released back in 2006, and it's supposed to be a religious album. It's got 10 songs (Deeper Still, Brand New Every Day, Timeless, Inside Outside, Can't Say Love Enough, My Heart Your Home, Reach Out, Carry Me, Bigger Picture, and Sunshine). It also looks like there may be some choir work on the album.

There's a lot here that seems promising. She's got an album so that probably means she at least has a decent voice. Also, she seems to be actively pursuing a music career so hopefully that means that she has the talent for that kind of work, but more than that, she has some drive. One thing I like about some of the older contestants from previous seasons is that you got the sense that they knew who they were, what kind of music they did, and they were comfortable in their own skin. They seemed more professional as a result. My beef with some of the younger contestants was that sometimes they just seemed to get lost. They would get confused. They would shift from style to style, music genre to music genre, perenially trying to please the judges, instead of going with something solid that they favored. Hopefully, Taylor Vaifanua will be fairly mature for her age. The American Idol competition just has a way of chewing up and spitting out those contestants who don't have a strong core of self belief.

Well, anyway, that's what I have so far on Taylor Vaifanua.

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noreply@blogger.com (Erik) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:48:00 +0000

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