May 15, 2012 
You have to laugh or else you’ll cry.
Recently Jennifer Lopez was interviewed on The JohnJay And Rich Morning Show.
During this interview she was asked to select a Top 12 contestant she would sign to a recording contract if she had her own record label.
Well, guess whose name popped out of her mouth? DeAndre Brackensick, that’s who. Yes, DeAndre who was ridiculously eliminated at the Top 8 level of American Idol Season 11.
And, to be fair here, she also mentioned Jeremy Rosado, but DeAndre was her first pick. Why? Because she loves the R&B genre.
Hmm, so she loves the R&B genre and doesn’t mention Joshua Ledet who is comfortably sitting at the Top 3 level of this competition? Interesting. Interesting indeed!
It makes me wonder if the judges really have any say in who stays and who goes. More important, that Judges’ Save, which could have been used on DeAndre, was obviously kept in a safe place for one of the chosen ones this year. And used to much fanfare for Jessica Sanchez.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I love Jessica. In fact, in my MCL world, I would have loved to have seen Jessica and DeAndre as the Final Two. Now, that would have been something. I know many would disagree with me, but that’s what I thought would happen.
In terms of marketing, I thought both Jessica and DeAndre have something special to offer to the music industry. Young, talented, charismatic – the whole package.
But, at some point someone – perhaps Jimmy Iovine – had trouble jumping on DeAndre’s bandwagon, opting Instead for Joshua.
But, it still is nice to know that someone as knowledgeable as Jennifer recognizes DeAndre’s talent as special and unique to the music industry and someone who would go far if mentored correctly.
Here is the entire interview. . American Idol chatter starts midway through in case you want to fast forward.
So, what do y’all think? Do you think DeAndre has a future as a recording artist? I do, but would like your input as well. Talk to me on the comments section.
Special thanks to Taymaro for sending me this link.
Masterclass Lady On MySpace.Com
Vocalist.Org
MasterClassLady.Com 
J-Lo’s got it right here, I think.
Who’s the hottest selling male artist right now? Beiber. Guess whose current song is full of Dre’s style and falsetto? Beiber.
Who was the hottest male artist before Beiber? Timberlake. Guess whose songs were all full of DeAndre’s style..featuring a flasetto? Timberlake.
Before that, Usher. Oh look, similar styles.
Before that, Prince….getting the picture.
And DeAndre is easily a better singer than three of the four I just named. He’s good looking. He’s full of marketing potential with the personality, the natural performing instinct, the singing, and the style.
If I were picking out of this top 12, he’d easily be my first choice. I think he’s raw. And that would make sense considering he has only been performing modern/popular songs in front of crowds for about two years. But there’s a whole lot of potential to work with.
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Lynn – great call! Love it!! Why people are saying he isn’t marketable is beyond me. He is extremely so – better than Phillip and Joshua at this point, although both are great singers. DeAndre is just better and received little credit for the immense vocal gift he brought to this competition.
That being said, Joshua and Phillip gave wonderful performances last week with “Man’s World” (Joshua) and “Volcano” (Phillip). They really dug deep with these songs.
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I completely agree that he will make an impact. I thought him and jessica would be the final 2 too. I couldn’t believe when he was eliminated. But he will still have an amazing career because he has amzing talent(:
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Chelsea – what a perfect final 2 that would have been. Similar to the Davids in Season 2 but distinct at the same time.
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Rosanne…… Don’t you mean the Davids from Season 7? LOL!! I listened to Jennifer’s interview. I’m happy DeAndre is the first one she thought of. I always knew he was one of her very favorites. Lynn is so right about how marketable DeAndre is. He’s got such an INCREDIBLE voice, and has the marketability factor going for him big time! AI shot themselves in the foot that’s for sure!
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On Access Hollywood today, they showed Simon Cowell announcing the addition of Demi Lavoto and Brittney Spears as X-Factor judges. I still not sure what to make of the fact he fired Paula and hired those two girls instead.
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Haha. Anita! Okay, how did that happen? But of course I meant the Davids from Season 7!!! Thanks for the laugh!
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Lynn so true! This just makes me so so hopeful for Deandre. I felt from the jump that he was so so special. A raw star just forming. I so hope someone backs him and works with him and gets some music out to us.
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It’s funny, I made a comment today about whether DeAndre would be able to fit a Hula in his Idol concert performance! I also said he would find success after Idol, even if it is modeling. I also think DeAndre could become an International star.
I hope down the road, he could do a duet with Jessica. They both are so young, but I think they will be successful!!
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A finale with Jessica & DeAndre would have been very exciting and memorable.
We sometimes hear talk about the “it” factor and DeAndre seems to have everything you look for in a superstar…incredible voice, sincere and likeable personality, striking good looks, unique hair, and last but not least, he’s memorable.
As Lynn said above, Prince, Justin Timberlake, Bieber all these artists are famous for falsetto which made it all the more frustrating to hear Jimmy & others talk about falsetto as if it was a negative, to be downplayed.
I consider it unique, beautiful to listen to, and something that makes an artist stand out from the crowd…because you can’t autotune or manufacture sounds in the range and tone artists like De Andre produce.
I sincerely hope someone in the music industry takes note and works with him.
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Sunny, my sincere hope for DeAndre is that someone on tour takes him under his/her wing, signs him and helps guide him to make wonderful music. Usher did that for Biebs!
I hear about Skylar and Colton receiving attention already and nothing for Dre and I am frankly getting worried and frustrated. Why DeAndre’s door isn’t already being pounded down.
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DeAndre was actually showing improvement from week to week and this is why it was such a huge disappointment for me to see him leave so early.
I think Jessica’s comment about DeAndre showed the judges had their personal favorites which they could not express on the show. Randy produced Brook White’s film after she left the show.
I love Joshua and realize he has the fan support of Fantasia and Dionne Warwick but the retro-soul popularized by Amy Winehouse and Adele came from England where there is much love and support for this kind of music. Amy and Adele were (are) singer-songwriters and went to performing arts schools.
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DeAndre is a purist. He isn’t into all the computer enhancements and computer sound tracks. That may be where people are hesitant to take him on. He wants to play to real instruments and use his natural voice. As technology continues to infiltrate the music industry more and more people start to view it as the norm. The purity of the natural sounds and voices becomes old fashioned and out of date. People actually forget how to do it the natural way and start relying more and more on the machines.
If DeAndre doesn’t fall into that trap he will be able to out perform any artist in a live performance 10 years from now.
I just saw Hollie’s performances on Live! With Kellie and Access Hollywood. Her vocals were amazing. She is a great natural as well. No need for tweaking her voice or vocal stacking, added reverberation or any of those tricks. Technicians don’t want to work with people who don’t need help. It threatens their job security and the fact that they claim that the technical tricks are part of the artistic process leaves them with no contribution to the finished piece.
Both DeAndre and Hollie are going to find it hard to overcome the 21st century challenges of the music industry I am sad to say. They may end up having to produce their own recordings much like Adam Lamber is doing.
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I’m jumping off the Dre and Jessica bandwagon for this post! I can’t stand either of them, and I’m sure that puts me in the minority, but that’s just the way it is! MCL, when you write, “Young, talented, charismatic – the whole package,” about Jessica, I couldn’t disagree more. To me she has the personality of a wet washrag, and DeAndre wasn’t much better. Odd how we all see things so differently! I appreciate your blog and you being open to different opinions, as always!
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Wadahoot – different strokes for different folks. That’s what this blog is all about. So, who are your favorites this season! If any? Just curious. 🙂
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wadahoot, have you seen DeAndre in an interview? They didn’t show his personality much on the show, and to be honest, I didn’t know he was as charismatic as he is until I saw it.
Jessica, I like her a lot. Her voice is amazing. I think she’s a naturally shy person (like DeAndre), but she’s trained herself on how to act on stage and in interviews. So I kind of agree there.
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I enjoyed Colton,and I really like Phillip … he’s a long-shot I’m afraid for the win, but he’s such an artist and seems like a great guy! I think I’d like Josh better if he would just sing a song and not make such a production out of every one! LOL!
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Wadahoot – yes agree with your comments about Josh, Colton and Phil. Well, one thing is for certain. One of the guys will be in the Top 2. I can’t imagine both, but who knows at this point!
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wadahoot while I agree Jessica doesn’t seem to have much personality, I disagree about Deandre. They never showed him much on the show so you couldn’t see how much personality and charm the kid truly has. But in the interviews he was all personality and has quite the sense of humor to. Michael Slezek even said he was surprised that Dre was so chatting and fun. IMO that is one of the ways they kneecapped him. His biggest issue to me was in knowing how to play the camera. He was not good at that at all. Colton was a pro with using the camera.
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Aubry – absolutely. I have another theory that I just might blog about later on, pertaining to why he was dismissed so early. Have to think about this for a while. 🙂
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HA I hope you do blog about the why’s because I still can’t fathom why Jimmy or the Idol PTB could not recognize and hear they had a star. Was Dre green yep but he just needed a little coaching and facetime.
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He left early so people would be thirsty for more and they would sell more tour tickets.
That’s not so hard to figure out. Duhhh! LOL j/k. I would like to read MCL’s, reasonings for his early departure.
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Taymaro – okay, I’ll bite. When Jennifer was asked in an interview who she would sign as a recording artist if she had a record company, it got me thinking. I was surprised when DeAndre and Jeremy popped into her head out of all the singers.
I wonder, during the contract negotiations with the judges, if they have any say over “ownership” of certain artists. In other words, if Jennifer loved DeAndre – and she obviously does – perhaps she would like to work with him once the show is over.
However, with her leaving, Idol may not be agreeable to this, especially if DeAndre was Top 3 or higher. He would be too valuable to them and would keep him on a tight leash.
But Top 8 – different story. He is more accessible. Maybe she does want to sign him to a recording contract – who knows? I know this is all gibberish, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out. I don’t think she is finished with this kid.
Isn’t she involved in a Spanish-themed competition in the near future? I know he isn’t of Spanish heritage, although he certainly looks like he is. Or maybe she loves the ethnicity of his look and the uniqueness of his sound. I know I do. It’s a great package.
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Well that makes sense. Usher has made zillions discovering Beibs.
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Aubry – ain’t that the truth?
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MCL oh how I would love for Dre to be the success story and hit it big like Beibs.
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I saw an interview with Dre from the Kohl’s event they did the other day and he insinuated that he has had some offers for stuff, though he obviously doesn’t clarify since he is still under contract with AI and wouldn’t be able to even explore these other offers until towards the end of tour when his contract is up. I don’t think there is any chance that Jimmy and company would sign him, but I do think he’ll get picked up elsewhere.
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Ray – I hope this works out for him. I am confident it will. He is just too, too talented to ignore. Love that kid!
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Rosanne-I hadn’t visited IdolHeadEd’s site in a while and wanted to know how he felt about DeAndre. I noticed in his comments he said DeAndre was the least talented singer of the Top 24! Boy was I surprised. I wasn’t expected to read that! He thought Heejun was a more talented singer. I was just so sad to read that. I’ve always really liked Ed, and he’s always been very fair in recognizing incredible talent, even though I realize he does prefer female singers. I’m hoping to comes to his senses soon about DeAndre. Maybe during the Idol tour.
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Wow, is that right, Anita? However, in his defense, Idol did nothing to showcase DeAndre’s incredible talent to the public. So for most people DeAndre’s style didn’t resonate and left them confused.
For me, he was the most gifted male vocalist in the competition hands down. Everyone has to run to YouTube and check out his videos.
Someone recorded this. I think it was taken very recently while he was preparing for the Finale. http://v.tumblr.com/tumblr_m49dpoeDgu1ruw8vg_r1.mov
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Rosanne-You are absolutely right about AI! They are mostly to blame for others not connecting with DeAndre. I hope Ed will get a chance to watch his home videos, and chage his mind! I’m 100% with you that DeAndre is the most gifted male vocalist. It makes me want to cry that someone feels with was altogether the worst of the Top 24! AI should be so ashamed of themselves!
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Rosanne-By the way, thanks sooo much for the recent video of Dre singing Master Blaster!!
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Me thinks Ed isn’t paying attention. If he did ust one tiny youtube search he would think differently. That tumble shows how great Dre sounds in a stairwell. The resonance in his voice, the rasp etc all impecible. So good.
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Aubry – I replay that stairway clip of Dre so often it’s ridiculous. He is so “in the zone”, totally oblivious to everyone around him. I love this kid!
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