pinch me.

Last week, on Idol Gives Back (ok don't judge me for watching American Idol. It's a way cool show. Haha), the idols closed the 3-hour long show with a finale (complete with pyrotechniques and everything) singing Shout to the Lord.

Here is the video.



It was a very, very strange and surreal moment for me. I have been singing Shout to the Lord in church ever since I don't know when. And to hear that being sung by a bunch of American Idols, on American Idol was just weird. In a good way. The interesting thing about it was
1) they chose it as the finale song
2) they did not change the arrangement of the song (same standard stuff people do in church, verse, chorus, verse chorus chorus last line x3)
3) they did not jazz it up the way they did "this little light of mine" in some of the earlier episodes
4) shout to the lord is a distinctively worship song written by Darlene Zscheche for HIllsongs Australia and is sung in churches as a song of worship. It is quite different from "Jesus take the Wheel" or "You Lift me Up"

And to add to that, they even sang it again on the results show the next day (back by popular demand). Isn't that just odd? What does Shout to the Lord have to do with raising money for AIDS infected Africans? I don't know. What does Shout to the Lord have to do with Anything on American Idol? I don't know! In any case, I suppose it's a very good thing. I for one, found the performance very -edifying-.

The things that puzzled me was how did Simon Fuller get the non-Christian idols to sing something that was so personally and clearly Christian? Some part of the lyrics go "Shout to the Lord all the earth, let us sing, power and majesty praise to the King, mountains bow down and the hills will roar at the sound of your name... I sing for joy at the work of your hand, forever I love you forever I stand..."

"Forever I love you"? So declaratory! How do you get someone who's not in the faith to sing something like that? A good thing still to me, I guess.

Either Simon Fuller just had a full-fledged Jesus encounter, or I really don't know what any more. Haha. But all is good for me!