Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Kree Harrison, Angie Miller and Candice Glover are the front-runners on Season 12 of American Idol.

So says Nicki Minaj, who addressed the topic of Idol favorites and many others during a conference call with the media Monday afternoon.

Which started late, of course.

In addition to having amazing voices, Kree, Angie and Candice have made a connection with Idol fans, Nicki says.

And while Idol’s first-year judge says she can probably most see herself collaborating with Burnell Taylor — “he has a John Legend thing” — she doesn’t think the chances are good that a guy will win Idol for the sixth straight time this spring.

“Absolutely not,” she says.

Twice during the conference call, Nicki declined to answer whether she’d consider judging Idol again next year.

While she commended the folks at Idol for taking a chance on her and for being great to work with, she said she thinks it’s more fun if fans are kept guessing about who the judges will be from year to year.

For her, judging Idol came with plenty of anxiety because she’d never done anything of the kind before.

The anxiety level was particularly high in the auditions, Nicki said.

“I’d tell the producers, ‘I can’t do this anymore. If everyone’s going to give a good critique and I’m going to be the only one being honest, America’s going to hate me. I going to be seen as mean.’ The producers said, ‘Nicki, trust us. America is going to appreciate the honesty.’ I took their word and I came in every day and was myself.”

As for all that advice she dishes out on makeup and fashion … Nicki isn’t certain appearance will make the difference in who wins Season 12 of American Idol.

But she is certain the singers will want to make it in the real world of the music industry after the show. And, like it or not, image is important at that stage.

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with thinking about how you want to present yourself to the world,” Nicki said. “They need to hear criticism on their look on the show because that’s what they’re going to be criticized on in the real world.

“They’re going to go on blogs every single day and find themselves on a worst-dressed list or a best-dressed list or (read about people) saying they look fat or whatever. They need to start getting an idea of the real world.”