Saving Jessica Sanchez

April 18, 2012

Telltale Signs 
By Rodel E. Rodis

If the Chinese Navy invaded the Kalayaan municipality in the Spratley Islands and captured all 223 Filipino inhabitants there, I am uncertain if the campaign by the global Filipino community to save them would come close to the current massive united effort being mounted to save Jessica Sanchez from elimination in the American Idol finals.

I have never seen anything like it. For the last several days, I have been bombarded by emails from everyone I know or even don’t know, including virtually all my yahoogroups, to please, pretty please, remember to vote on Wednesday night, April 18, from 10PM to 12 midnight (Pacific Time) for Jessica Sanchez. Not just once, but as many times as possible. And not just by phone, landline or cell, but also by Facebook or Twitter.

Even though I have voted for Jessica in my Facebook page for the past several weeks, I was initially annoyed that the same global concern for saving a fellow Filipino was not expressed for Dondon Lanuza, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in death row in Saudi Arabia for killing a Saudi in self-defense. Lanuza has been pleading on the Internet for 12 years for Filipinos to save him by raising funds to pay the “diyya” blood money demanded by the aggrieved family to secure his release.

With the help of Loida Nicolas-Lewis, national chair of US Pinoys for Good Governance (USP4GG), enough funds were raised to spare Lanuza’s neck from the beheading sentence handed down by a Saudi Sharia Court. Somehow “Save Dondon Lanuza!” does not have quite the same ring of urgency that “Save Jessica Sanchez!” possesses even though, in Lanuza’s case, the effort would be literally saving a life.

The push for Filipinos to vote for Jessica eclipses all past support for Fil-Ams who have made it to the American Idol finals including Jasmine Trias, Camille Velasco, Thia Megia, Ramielle Manubay, Sway Penala or Melinda Lira. Before it’s over, it may even surpass all of them combined.

Filipinos all seem to agree with the three AI judges – Jennifer Lopez, Randy Jackson and Steve Tyler – that Jessica is one of the best singers to perform in American Idol ever.

Many ardent viewers of AI were convinced that Jessica would make it to the top three finalists and that her most serious competition would come from Joshua Ledet, an African American male, and Elise Testone, an Italian American female.

So when the millions of votes were counted and announced on Thursday night, April 12, it came as a total shock that rather than showing Sanchez, Ledet and Testone at the very top, they were all bunched at the very bottom, with only young white singers remaining in the top 4. “Expect the Unexpected!” was flashed on the screen and it was right on the nose.

AI host Ryan Seacrest then announced, as tension mounted, that Ledet was safe. When Seacrest announced that Testone was also safe, it meant that Sanchez was the week’s lowest vote-getter and was out. WTF! I screamed.

As the audience whistled its disapproval, Sanchez tearfully sang her swan song as was the standard routine for the eliminated singer. Less than a minute after she started singing, the AI judges walked up to the stage as Jennifer Lopez took the mike from Jessica and announced that they had unanimously voted to use their one and only save of the season on her. “We are saving Jessica without any doubt,” Jackson declared. “This girl is one of the best singers in America ever!”

Before the evening was over, I counted dozens of emails inveighing against those millions of white American teen viewers of AI who only voted for their favorite white singers. Others thoughtfully analyzed why Jessica received the lowest number of votes.

Former Miss International Aurora Pijuan wrote that American Idol is not a talent contest but one based on popularity and “the profile of voters are American teens. Jessica comes across as demure and conservative, not exactly someone they will hoot for. Packaging has to appeal to this profile. Not all songs are equal. Though judges appreciate her performance, this contest is decided by mainstream audience who may not care much about nuances. She may have to choose a more “baduy” song and be a bit outrageous to appeal to the voters. Entertainment, like politics, is after all a buyers’ market.”

The Washington DC-based Migrant Heritage Commission (MHC) called on Filipinos all over the world to vote for Jessica Sanchez. In her email, Grace Valera, MHC Executive Director, wrote: “Dear Kababayan, family, friends, friends of friends. . . Our dear JESSICA SANCHEZ almost got eliminated from AMERICAN IDOL tonight had the Judges not saved her… Kababayans, please vote for her every Wednesday night…right after the show…all of your cell phones, landline, online Facebook.”

Nony E. Abrajano of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) wrote everyone he has ever known and to every organization that he has ever joined to “please take time to give this girl our votes. It is all right to VOTE as many times as you can. She needs all our votes.”

Former San Francisco Consul General Rowena Mendoza Sanchez emailed from Manila to advise that even Filipinos in the Philippines can vote by logging on to http://www.americanidol.com/vote/ or to https://www.facebook.com/notes/i-got-scoop/american-idol-vote-online/202987886379211. But do so only during the two hour window of time after 10 PM on Wednesday, April 18, Pacific Time (around 1 PM Thursday April 19 Manila time).

I must confess that I have voted in the past for some Filipino contestants simply because of their ethnicity to provide America with visible Filipino role models. But I am proudly voting for Jessica this time because she is a deserving, supremely talented singer who happens to be a Filipino-American. I agree with the judges – she’s the best.

If tens of millions of Filipinos all over the world vote for Jessica Sanchez this week, and every week until she is proclaimed this year’s American Idol, it will disprove a canard that Filipinos can never unite on any issue. If we can show the power of our unity, watch out world!

(Rodel50@gmail.com)