Syesha Mercado's American Idol Performance on May 6

Syesha Mercado Isn't Tina Turner -- YET

All along, I was a Syesha supporter. From the first of her auditions when she introduced her dad, who was a recovering drug or alcohol abuser, to the Hollywood auditions when she lost her voice and carried signs to communicate. I was rooting for Syesha. And when the other two African American girls, Asiah and Alexandria, were eliminated, that left brown-skinned Syesha to carry forward. She was one of six girls, all ranges of vocal style, from country to rock. Honestly, Amanda Overmeyer was my favorite among the girls because she had attitude and independence, and she could care less what Simon thought about her. A true rebel. Syesha seemed to shrink in the background. She was an attractive young woman on TV and she had great fashion sense. She wore colorful and cute outfits, and her nappy full head of hair screamed, "This is me". How many African American entertainers do you know that wear their hair in natural styles?

She could have styled tattoo-ey Carly and raggamuffin Brooke, who seemed as if they shopped at the thrift store. When Syesha was the last woman standing, my thought was now she can relax and really knock a song out the ballpark. However, the performance on Tuesday, May 7, 2008, was a head scratcher. Why was she imitating Tina Turner on Proud Mary? The high-high heels and the short-short dress and full head of hair was a Tina knock-off. The movements from the finger snaps to the twirling was a Tina knock-off. Why? She could have taken Proud Mary slowly, nice and easy all the way through. Did she not listen to Randy and Simon all season? Their mantra was take a song and give it something different. Syesha gave Proud Mary the same arrangement as Tina.

Her vocals were on-key, no problem there, but it was an embarrassment to watch her do the Tina imitation almost three months after Tina and Beyonce performed on the Grammy Awards. Or perhaps she was doing it in homage to Tina's return to touring. The Proud Mary performance by Tina takes every minute of five minutes and Syesha had only 1-1/2 minutes to perform it; that was not enough time to feel the full effects of the performance.