While people in the United States are discussing Ellen DeGeneres' fitness to be a judge for American Idol, people in the United Kingdom are discussing the fitness of the Mercury judges. For the record, here are the judges and their occupations:
Janice Long
Former BBC Radio 1 DJ, now of Radio 2
Charles Hazlewood
Noted British classical music conductor
Jude Rogers
Guardian music columnist
Arwa Haider
Metro newspaper music critic
George Ergatoudis
Head of Music, BBC Radio 1
Conor McNicholas
Former editor of NME. Now editor of Top Gear magazine
Mike Flynn
Jazz editor, Time Out magazine
John Kennedy
DJ and presenter of X-Posure new music show on XFM
Mark Findlay
Head of Music, Global Radio
Dean Jackson
DJ BBC Radio Nottingham
This begs the question - what are the minimum qualifications to judge the quality of music in a particular genre?
P.S. A former music judge is looking for work:
