Gospel Ghosts on American Idol

I haven't paid much attention to American Idol since Season Two (the Ruben-Clay matchup), other than to cry at the hairdresser's at the end of Season Three when Fantasia sang "I Believe."

But I happened to have the show on this evening and discovered that one of the contestants, Paris Bennett, is the granddaughter of Ann Nesby. Nesby was, at one time, a lead vocalist for Sounds of Blackness.

There's also been quite a bit of coverage of Mandisa Hundley since she was voted off the show(hat tip: SirLinksALot.com), particularly related to The Advocate's "discovery" (ahem) that Hundley is a fan of Beth Moore's (Which means, for those of you who haven't made the immediate connection, that because Moore's site includes links to ex-gay ministries, Mandisa must be "a gross, amoral religious jerk who refuse[s] to do . . . that whole 'love everybody' stuff"). She sounds pretty gracious to me in this Q&A she did with the magazine, which also covered her departure here.

Mandisa's got some great credentials--she's reportedly a former Fisk Jubilee Singer, has led worship at Lifeway conferences, and has performed with Take 6 and Larnelle Harris, among others. She's deciding which direction she'd like to take next in her career.

Next post: June Pointer (1953-2006)

image credits: www.americanidol.com, www.chartattack.com