Mandisa has struggled with weight issues most of her life. But never more publicly than on the fifth season of American Idol , during which Simon Cowell famously joked that the show would need a “bigger stage” to accommodate her. “I was watching the auditions with my friends and was so humiliated and hurt, but my friends prayed that God would have mercy on him and help me forgive him before I returned to move on to the next competition, and I did.” Now 80 pounds thinner, Mandisa is the