What a rock star

Since my favorite sports season is still a couple of months away and the new seasons of the best TV shows (No, The O.C. does not qualify) have yet to air, there is really only one show currently airing that I make a point to catch – Rock Star: Supernova. No, it’s not a great show, but it serves its entertainment purpose and it keeps TV interesting until we can sink our teeth into season two of Prison Break or BSG. Supernova is TV’s version of Antoine Walker. On a bad team, he’ll score 25 a game and make the All-Star team. But standing beside Shaq and Wade, he’s just another guy to pass them the ball.

So in light of this and the fact that the first Rock Star: INXS winner is doing a concert here in Manila as I write this, it seems appropriate that I pick my favorite for Rock Star: Supernova.

In my opinion, this contest is a five-horse race. There are two clear-cut favorites, two outside favorites, and a dark horse. I’m going to rank them based on my personal preference, which may or may not coincide with Supernova’s pick. Here are my Rock Star rankings, in reverse order.

5. Magni. The only rocker to date to get two encore performances (though by the time this comes out, he may share the honor with someone else). Even after that, he’s still an outside favorite to win this thing. He’s arguably the best singer in the competition but he lacks the aura of a rock star front man. What Magni lacks, this next one overflows with…

4. Storm Large. She’s an outside favorite. With the confidence of an acrobat and the curves of a porn star, Storm commands the stage and captures everyone’s attention like a pro. Her stage presence was evident in her performance of Anything, Anything, which earned her an encore. The only knock on Storm is that her performances tend to reach theatrical proportions.

3. Dilana. To be honest, she scares me – like, how witches scare little children. Dilana certainly has the talent. In fact, I think she’s the frontrunner based on Supernova’s comments. She has rocked every song she’s performed so far. Why isn’t she number 1? For one, I cannot picture her fronting Supernova. It’s not a sexist thing. Two, these next two are better fits, less talented or not.

2. Lukas Rossi. Let’s get this out of the way. Lukas Rossi owns this show and will probably win it. However, he looks like the evil twin of Gerard Way and dresses like the evil twin of Don Johnson circa 1984. He can rock anything from the Rolling Stones to Coldplay. His performance of Radiohead’s Creep was probably the second-best performance this season. His only flaw is that he often falls in love with using his throat to sing. Which some people think sounds better, actually.

1. Ryan Star. Now here’s a dark horse. The guy has the look, he has the voice, we recently discovered that he has the showmanship, and he has the name of a rock star to boot. I haven’t seen anyone raise the bar for a performance for two consecutive weeks quite like Ryan did with Live’s I, Alone and R.E.M.’s Losing My Religion. The latter is, by a hair, the best performance by anyone in this competition this season (edging out Lukas Rossi’s Creep). Why is he a dark horse? He doesn’t seem to be popular with the worldwide audience, for one thing. He also tends to show his nerves a little bit onstage. Despite that, this guy is my pick to win this thing. The odds are against him, true. That’s what makes it interesting.

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For questions, comments or corrections, please e-mail me at emailcarlramirez@yahoo.com