Scott MacIntyre makes "American Idol" Top 10 summer tour

Blind pianist and singer Scott MacIntyre will go on tour with the "American Idol" top 10 after making the cut tonight. He is pictured performing on the March 17 show.

It has been interesting to watch the show accommodate MacIntyre's visual impairment. He's allowed to sing at the piano. (Other Idol contestants can perform with instruments as well). Paula Abdul, who is usually the nicest Idol judge, told MacIntyre March 17 to stop using the piano as "a crutch" and become more of a showman. Simon Cowell, usually nasty to the contestants if he doesn't like something they do, actually defended MacIntyre's performing at the piano, citing other talented pianist/singers such as Elton John, Billy Joel, and Stevie Wonder. MacIntyre said he would mix it up sometime and may perform without the piano at some point.

For dance numbers with the group, the show has gotten creative. In tonight's show, MacIntyre was the pianist and the group moved around the piano. In other instances, when the group files onto the stage, another Idol contestant will discretely lead him.

Congrats to Scott MacIntyre for making it into the Idol top 10! Once again, his participation will make the summer tour have to consider accessibility issues and that's always a good thing. It's obvious that MacIntyre is a very talented Idol contestant and is not receiving "pity votes," a topic the NY Daily News addressed last week:

Guess what America – Scott MacIntyre doesn't need your pity vote.

So if you called in last night to cast a vote for "American Idol's" first blind finalist, it better be because you loved his rendition of Michael Jackson's "Keep the Faith."

So says, Soula Antoniou, president of a non-profit which promotes programs for artists with disabilities and who worked with MacIntyre in 2008.

"We really think a pity vote is patronizing. We really want to be clear on that," she said.

Antoniou, head of VSA arts, said, "Part of our work is to promote the merit of an artist and we don't want the pity vote. We want [MacIntyre] as an artist to be on par with everybody, and so does Scott."

Simon Cowell and Randy Jackson didn't like MacIntyre's song last night, and slammed him for a bland song choice. But Paula Abdul and the straight-talking judge Kara DioGuardi again fawned over the 23-year-old Arizona native, skipping any negative remarks and praising MacIntyre for "staying true to himself."

The judging panel singled out Adam Lambert as the best of the bunch on Tuesday's Michael Jackson-themed show after his rocked out version of "Black or White." But a look at the show's popular online forum shows that plenty of fans were still campaigning for MacIntyre during the post-show voting hours.

Last week, those same ‘Idol' worshippers wondered whether the judges on the hit Fox show might be going easy on MacIntyre because of his disability – or because they wanted his inspiring story to draw more viewers to the show.

One fan posted the question, ""If Scott wasn't blind do you think he would still be getting all that praise?" and the chatter took off.

A look at the resume posted on MacIntyre's MySpace page shows that he really doesn't need your pity. He received the VSA arts organization's 2008 International Young Soloists Award along with his two siblings as part of the trio the MacIntyre Family Singers and performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in May.

He has already produced six CDs, he has a master's degree in piano/vocal performance from England's Royal College of Music, was accepted at Oxford and Cambridge for further graduate research and he has been awarded both a Marshall and a Fulbright scholarship.

"This isn't someone who isn't out there living his life," Antoniou said, adding that he has her vote – hands down.

And no pity.

"Who wants that?" she said.