Ok let’s pause for just a quick moment to talk about American Idol this week. First off, I didn’t get a chance to watch either of the nights live…so I had to catch up late last night via Tivo. Word to Tivo.

So we all know that Kevin Covais (chicken little – ok, maybe he does resemble the character slightly, but does this remind anyone of last year when Ryan came up with such nicknames as Scotty the Body? Ryan, stop the adlibbing!) was kicked off last night.

Now, I’ve never been a huge fan of Kevin (yeah he’s cute for a 16 year old and stuff – and don’t read too much into that comment), mostly because of the lisp. I thought, Simon spoke for many of us when he said he could never see Kevin as the next American Idol, and I agreed with that. I couldn’t imagine buying a cd and hearing that slurry “S” on every song. Kevin, however, was fun, he was playful, he had banter with Simon that was enjoyable, and he had a very happy go lucky attitude about his time. He got a little emotional watching the montage on him last night, and I liked that. He has a great future ahead of him, it’s just not in American Idol.

Anyway, the point of this brief blog is that I had a revelation while watching Barry Manilow sing last night. He has the EXACT SAME LISP AS KEVIN. That’s right, you heard it here first…I don’t know why anyone else hasn’t mentioned this yet, but every S that came from Barry had that same SSSSSSS that comes from Kevin. I thought to myself…wow…one of the greatest singer/songwriters/arrangers/performers of my lifetime, has what I consider to be this speech impediment, and all along I’ve been saying Kevin will never make it for just that reason.

So….I suppose that I learned a little something last night. We judge people on their body size, their dancing abilities, their clothing (even though it’s a singing competition Paula!), and also on their speech patterns. But if you look across the music industry, every single American Idol is out there somewhere. The big, the tall, the short the small, the country, the rock, the lispers and the non lispers.

Good luck Kevin…go back to school and build a future for yourself. And best wishes to Mandisa, Chris, Taylor, and Elliot .