Twist and Shout by Mookie Morris

Last night I gave the next Canadian Idol a shout-out when his sister handed him my phone. He promised he will give a blow-out performance that will make me proud next time around.

On the first of the top ten shows, he went on a little bit of a detour, taking on a slower pace doing a David Bowie song. Sienna watched the video this morning. Without me saying anything, the 7-year-old noticed something and went, “Mookie wanted to go faster. The drummer beat the drum too slow. He has to slow down.”

I first met Mookie when he was tagging along his mother to our dinner together. He was a bit taller than the dinner table at the restaurant. I knew all about him picking up guitar, working in his make-shift studio at home and much more. I was just not into pop music and certainly not his either. That doesn't mean I had no ear for anything unique and special. Every song that hits me with a certain familiarity emotionally at my first listening is or will become a hit. Mookie caught me with that frensh kind of familiarity as if he weren't the boy whom I am so familiar with.

Singing familiar songs, he seems to be genuinely imitating the originals. Almost by accident, something new and unique to himself got pushed out of him. I call that Mookie's "twist and shout." Look at how he did with last year's hit that is familiar to all. He condensed a complicated story of “Valerie” into a convincing narration of an adolescence’s yearning and anxiety, practically with one shout. So hip and so up to date. No frill. No room for doubt.

In a competition where you are supposed to show all kinds of talents you have, Mookie is already building up his own style. He is so consistent and has been blessed to gain such an amazingly widening appeal with his simple yet not simplistic style. All those numbers put together could well make up an album of his own already, except his last Bowie song.

I guess one shouldn't step outside the halo that gives you the shine as well as the limits. I am relieved the trend will continue now that he is aware and back on track. Canadian Idol will just be one of his many options. I am certain the boy whom I have been familiar with for all these years will go far in the years to come.