Joplin's American Idol contender one of only five with no professional experience

American Idol has been tagged as a follow-up to ancient shows like Talent Scouts and Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, but as Boston Herald music columnist Christopher John Treacy notes in a column today, only five of the final 20 contestants, including Joplin's Asia'h Epperson, are true amateurs:

“American Idol” is redefining the concept of a level playing field. Sure, anyone can audition. But most of this year’s final 20 are seasoned performers taking their second and third stabs at stardom. There are few diamonds in the rough in this lot.

Last week it was widely reported that tattooed contestant Carly Smithson had released a major label album in 1999 under the name Hennessy. It flopped, even though MCA poured $2.2 million into promoting it. But Smithson isn’t the only season seven hopeful with professional experience: Only five current contenders - Chikezie Eze, Asia’h Epperson, Jason Yeager, Ramielle Malubay and Danny Noriega - truly qualify as untested talent. One way or another, the rest have already been around the block.

The rest of the column explores the pasts of the American Idol finalists.
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Asia'h Epperson will perform again on Wednesday night's show, which will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Joplin area on Fox 14.