CANDICE GLOVER // ORDINARY PEOPLE

Every artist has a moment - that magical second they connect with an audience. From there, people just start to get it, whatever it is the artist is creating.

I have to admit I had my doubts about Candice Glover's chances when hype started to build around her at the Idol auditions this year. The American entertainment industry is littered with the bones of millions of big, black girls who can sing. Some become back-up singers for life. Others become vocal coaches. Precious few, like Aretha and Chaka, become stars. Jennifer Hudson doesn't count; Idol rejected her back when she was big and therefore seen as unmarketable. She fought her way back into the public eye with Dreamgirls, but even that rode on Beyonce's star power and the universal appeal of her power ballad, Listen. J.Hud is now skinny and is more successful than ever.

Candice Glover had a moment with Ordinary People. This girl has star appeal, I thought. She's comfortable on stage. She is an amazing story teller. She has a great sense of a song's beginning, middle, and end. She can colour phrases. She has range and power. And she is always in perfect control of a performance. This differentiated her from Amber Holcomb, who seemed like a scared colt most of the time. Candice is everything we expect a big, black diva to be. Still, I kept my hopes of a Candice victory in check because Idol has produced some pretty awful "winners" over the years. How the hell do you justify Taylor Hicks?!

This year Candice had some pretty formidable opponents, too. Never mind that it was a clear set-up for a girl to win, Devin Velez could sing his face off for days. Meanwhile, Angie Miller and Amber Holcomb were a music producers' wet dream: youth, beauty, talent, legs! And Kree Harrison is just a powerhouse country vocalist in a competition where country music does so well.

Which then brings me to my next point. A moment is worthless if you haven't got the right timing. Once that moment hits, you gotta be ready.

And Candice was. She delivered crazy-good renditions of I (Who Have Nothing), When You Believe, Emotion, Love Song, Somewhere. She proved she was ready, today.

Brava, America, for figuring out something we gays knew all along. Anybody can sing but only a big black girl can truly sang. We wish Candice luck on her career! May she enjoy success so we then can enjoy many more years of gorgeous music from her.

And keep the curves, girl, coz you're gorgeous just the way you are!