Watching American Idol tonight, I was unbelievably shocked when Jared Cotter chose to sing a Stevie Wonder song. Why? Because the media and blogging worlds have been abuzz for countless seasons in a row now about just how sick we all are of hearing these wannabes singing bad renditions of Stevie’s plethora of songs. One by one, these bad to mediocre performances are slowly murdering poor Mr. Wonder’s career and musical legacy. Now, whenever I think about Stevie, I can’t help but feel the pangs of so many bad Idol memories coming back to haunt me.

    So I’ve come up with a plan. Someone has to save a little self-respect for Mr. Wonder, indeed, someone needs to save us all from future murderous performances. I think that we can all do something about this; like I keep saying, sometimes it only takes one person to save the world. Hehe.

    Here’s the plan: I suggest an automatic 200 vote penalty for any contestant who dares to sing yet another Stevie Wonder song. This may sound harsh, but think about it – if the performance sucks, they’ll get the punishment they deserve. But if they actually do Stevie proud, then they’ll prove their true chops by overcoming the point deduction. Makes sense right?

    I say they institute this plan right away. Mr. Wonder deserves it, as a show of respect if nothing else. And we as the audience deserve the break from such hammy performances. I think it would urge the contestants to search for someone else’s musical catalogue to plague, and really, won’t that bring a little bit more originality to the show? Song choice, song choice, song choice, people! As Randy would say, let’s keep it real and show Stevie Wonder the respect he deserves.