Yes, I am addicted
So perhaps the biggest shock in American Idol history occurred on May 20, 2009. The highly anticipated Season 8 finale seemed to drag on for hours before host Ryan Seacrest stood on stage with the two final contestants-Adam Lambert (27) and Kris Allen (23)-and announced who the winner was. The two contestants, who have promoted a very friendly image with each other (which was very genuine) over the course of the show, have been described by American Idol expert Jim Cantiello as such: Adam, the “over-the-top, drag-wearing, man-kissing drama geek” and Kris, the “all-American, Christian married guy”. And it’s more than true that these two contestants are on completely opposite ends of the music spectrum in style, range, and ability, not to mention that they lead extremely different lifestyles. Kris Allen is a college-age music leader from Arkansas who has been involved in quite a few mission projects through his church. He’s newly married and has said many times that he desires to be a good husband. Adam Lambert has been involved in musical theater for years in his home state of California. He wears guyliner, paints his nails black, and refuses to address the issue as to whether he is gay or not. Throughout the competition, Adam was a clear front-runner. Polls, blog posts, articles, and comments on the internet pointed to him as being the next American Idol. And even away from the internet it seemed as though he would take the title home.
But then America’s socks were blown off when Seacrest announced that Kris Allen was the winner of American Idol Season 8.
I, for one, was absolutely shocked. Even though I’d had a gut feeling ever since Danny Gokey was voted off that Kris might upset the competition, I still felt hot and fuzzy when I realized that we’d all been wrong. And after lying in bed for hours afterwards, thinking through it, I’ve convinced myself that it isn’t so shocking that Kris won, and that more things contributed to this shocker than “swooning teenage girls” and Christian voters. Below are my thoughts on the wins, the losses, and the factors contributing to it all.
Why Adam Lambert Should Have Won
-People who wanted Adam to win generally thought that he has the better voice. I, for one, think that he has crazy mad vocal skills that should have been showcased to the world long ago. So if I based it solely on vocal skills, I personally believe that Adam should have won. Other people think that his voice is awful, that Kris is the better singer, and therefore they wanted him to win. This argument is a battle of personal opinion. J
-Let’s face it-it’s usually the better deal to not win American Idol. You’re stuck in this contract thing that makes you put out certain songs and you have less freedom with what you do for the first few years. And as long as the show lasts, you are expected to show up to the finale (at least-they might even make you come back and sing as a guest). And like we’ve seen with Ruben Studdard, they may not even pay for your airfare (American Idol did not pay for Studdard’s airfare to the Season 8 finale). Okay, getting back on track. Adam should have won because then he would be the American Idol and would have to stick to this big schedule thing and his name would always be linked to that of “American Idol”. It seems like a silly reason, but a part of me wanted him to be limited in what he could do for the first few years so that Kris’s freedom wouldn’t be out-weighed by Adam’s popularity.
-Adam’s loss is going to over-shadow Kris’s win. I don’t even know how to explain this, it’s just so obvious for someone who has kept up with AI news over these last few weeks. If you read articles and blogs throughout the competition, you would know that Adam was pretty much a strong favorite among most readers. The polls pointed to it. The comments pointed to it. On top of that, Adam was a favorite among all of show-business world. He was featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, and singer Katy Perry had his name embroidered on her costume when she guest sang during Top 3. Interviewed celebrities openly favored Adam, and it was obvious that the judges did, too. Yes, Kris’s story is going to be inspirational and such and such for a while, but in the end, this will probably be known as “The season when America got it wrong.” One article writer says: “Adam is now in a position to have a stronger career because he ‘lost.’ Note that very few commentators or blogs are focusing on winner Kris Allen today.” And it’s true. I’ve been checking back with the AI news all day, and there is more about Adam’s loss than Kris’s win.
-And one last thought that perhaps amounts to nothing. But from reading comments and such online, it looks like those who are upset with Kris’s win are blaming either a) hormone-crazy teenage girls with super mad texting skills or b) Christians, for Kris Allen’s win. I don’t care so much about the teenage girl thing, but it is frustrating to see people blowing up at Christians (and even bad-talking them) for voting for Kris “just because he is a Christian.” That’s what they’re saying, even if it isn’t necessarily true. And with such a big upset as to see Adam Lambert take 2nd place, this could hurt Christian contestants in the future. It’s a more discussed issue now-how much support Christian contestants get from the religious world. If Adam had won, the Adam fans would have been happy and not had any cause to bad-talk Christians. Kris fans would have been happy that he made it as far as second place. No one would have had to bad-talk anyone, and future Christian contestants are safe from accusations and prejudices.
Why Adam Lambert Did Not Win
-America did not want to be told who to vote for. Especially not by Simon Cowell. By the time Top 4 rolled around, Adam was already a celebrity. Entertainment Weekly wrote an article about him and put his picture on their front cover. He was discussed among many TV anchors and reviewers on public TV. And perhaps one of the most controversial issues is that guest singer Katy Perry embroidered “Adam Lambert” on her costume when she sang for the Top 3 night. Not to mention when Simon Cowell practically got down on his knees and begged viewers to vote for Adam. Sometimes Americans are very gullible and listen to everything the judges and media tells them, and sometimes they are stubborn and rebellious and do the exact opposite. In this case, I think some people got tired of voting for the man that everyone expected to win.
-Adam’s style of singing, his choice of songs, and his voice are very polarizing. You either hate him or you love him. While a large majority loved him, more people obviously didn’t care for his style. From Top 13 to around Top 6 or so, Adam was a clear front runner, and I believe that this was because he had his own style but he also mixed things up. He toned down a bit from his usual crazy wild rocker songs and sang a few slower, more laid back songs such as “Tracks of My Tears”, “Mad World”, and “If I Can’t Have You.” But once it got to Top 4, there was almost no variation. Everyone knew what to expect: loud rock music, super long and high notes, and the moaning or the “screeching” (as some people call it). One article author wrote "If I had to listen to an entire album of Adam on my iPod, my head would explode." His music and voice got to be too much, too redundant, and too narrow for a majority of people to enjoy. In this case, I think that people really followed the general Idol voting rule: who’s album would you buy?
-Let’s face it, Adam isn’t “normal” by our country’s standards. He wears black nail-polish and guyliner every week. He talks kinda funny…would the word be “prissy”? Some of his outfits are just weird. Everything about him is different. Different is good, and in this case, it really worked for him. But more people must have been turned off by the over-the-top difference. When they saw two people side-by-side, Adam and Kris, and compared them, they chose the more laid-back, “normal” kind of guy. Kris is the kind of guy that most of us identify with, and thus we voted for him. We wanted Kris-the normal one-as our winner, not Adam the weird one. But perhaps that is going to work in Adam’s favor. He has spoken quite often of his desire to promote the idea that being different is okay, if not better than being normal.
-Perhaps you have never heard the rumors that Adam is gay, perhaps you have. I realized that the people who don’t read up on the contestants online are kind of in the dark about this kind of stuff. You may have been observant enough to realize, even without reading about it, that Adam exemplified some aspects of a not-so-straight sort of person. Most people who are upset that Adam lost use this argument as their biggest defense. They say that everyone who did not vote for Adam did not do so because they are homophobic, bigots, and/or prejudice (seriously, I’ve seen all of these words used). I am personally not so inclined to believe that Adam’s sexuality had too much of an influence over the voting. Sure, there are a lot of people who didn’t want a gay man as the winner, so they didn’t vote for him. I bet there were a lot of people who didn’t want a Christian man as the winner, either. But it isn’t an issue to brush off entirely, considering it is the biggest issue. I guessed from the Top 10 that Adam was gay, but I still listen to his songs and didn’t really care if he had won or not, and I’m a conservative Christian. Like I said, I think that most people thought, “Who’s album would I buy?” not “Which one is gay? Oh, Adam. Well I’m not voting for him.” And as one article writer puts it: “If America really had some issue with Adam Lambert and his sexuality, he never would have made it to the top two. The ‘fear’ of him or the speculation that he might like kissing men would have reared its ugly head and had him cast out weeks ago.”
-Adam was definitely a very confident guy. As one article writer said, he had that “Say my name, retard” kind of attitude. Sure, he was a nice guy and seemed to genuinely admire his fellow contestants. But as exhibited to us on the Top 5 night, he knew that he was a good singer and a favorite. He was confident enough in himself to fall for Ryan Seacrest’s “pick a group” gig (shortest explanation in the world: Ryan divides the group into two groups, the top two and bottom two, then tells the remaining person to pick which group they think they are in). Adam is the first person I have ever seen to actually pick a group and not sit down in the middle of the stage like Melinda Doolittle and David Archuletta did. And he picked the group that was obviously the top two vote receivers. (And just for the record, we could all say “ha” in Adam’s face when Ryan revealed that he was in the Bottom 3). I think that some people thought that Adam was just too confident in himself and his abilities, and they didn’t want to vote for someone with that kind of attitude.
-And the last (and what I think one of the biggest) factor to Adam losing the competition. Simply put, the finale show. I read somewhere that it’s fairly certain that there are a lot of people who tune in to the finale show who don’t watch the whole season. Some of those people vote based on first impressions and on the performances of that night. And if you saw the finale show, you’d probably realize why Adam might not have been a favorite among first-time viewers. For his first song, he wore a trench coat. A big, black trench coat. And for that song there was a bunch of fog and stuff, and Adam looked so emo and dark, it was just…a leeeetle scary. His next two performances weren’t bad, but they weren’t his best. Just the usual rocker Adam kind of stuff. Now I know very well that it takes a long time to warm up to Adam. I hated him at the beginning of the competition and loved him by the end. So for less-frequent or first time viewers, he was probably just too weird, especially compared to Kris, who delivered some very smooth, very great songs that night. Plus, he looked normal and cool. That factor alone may have pushed Kris ahead of Adam. Considering only one million votes separated them the week before, I wouldn’t be surprised if the finale is what put Adam under.
Why Kris Allen Should Have and Did Win
-The biggest reason that I am happy that Kris won is that he is a believer. I’m a little wary of the fact that he seems hesitant to talk about his faith in regards to the show, but there hasn’t been much coverage on that subject, so I’m not going to jump to conclusions. Anyways, in the battle between the (most likely) gay guy and the Christian guy, the Christian guy won. Yeah, people are going to be upset and blame the Christians for it, but at least we haven’t made a gay person the winner…yet. Instead, someone who will hopefully glorify God with this experience has been named the winner. And I believe that God had a hand in this, so I’m trusting Him that something good will come of it.
-We all love the underdog story, and this is the ultimate underdog story. Kris beat out some of the most popular, praised contestants, Adam and Danny Gokey. It was speculated that Adam and Danny would make up the Top 2. And when Kris was announced to be in the Top 2, people were pretty shocked. Who would’ve thunk that he’d end up winning the whole thing? Many of you may remember when I nearly put the money down that Adam would win the competition. But Kris’s win was the most surprising in all of American Idol history, and people like the story of the underdog winning the whole sha-bang. This isn’t so much a reason why he won as it is why it’s simply good that he won.
-As mentioned above, a big factor that Kris Allen was probably the fact that more people identify with Kris. More people in general like him and his style. He’s clean-cut, good-looking, not at all scary or weird, and has a good voice. So while some people were “wowed” by Adam, more people wanted to see a guy that they could understand and identify with as the winner.
-When Danny Gokey was voted off, it was revealed that only one million votes separated Adam and Kris. So what made up for those million votes and pushed Kris ahead (unless, of course, he was ahead of Adam the week before, which we may never know)? As mentioned above, I believe part of it had to do with the finale. I also think that a lot of voters who had been Danny Gokey fans voted for Kris during the Top 2. Now I do know that of course not all of them did, but for those who did vote for contestants after their favorite was eliminated, the most obvious choice was to pick Kris. They have similar styles. They’re both Christians. Both are pretty normal. I personally don’t think that Kris won because all of the Gokey fans voted for him, but I do think that that aspect played a part in it.
-An issue that links on to that is the one that all of the Christians voted for him. It’s well known that a large part of Idol’s audience is Christians. And Kris was the perfect choice for Christian voters: he’s humble, nice, good-looking, a great singer, and a Christian! What’s wrong with wanting to see a brother in Christ as the American Idol champ? Nothing! In fact, it’s terrific! At least, so say we who voted for him. People who wanted Adam to win say that the Christians voted for Kris just because he is a Christian. I bet most of the gay people voted for Adam (I’m just guessing, so don’t quote me on it-although I did read an article comment a gay man made in which he supported Kris 100%. Yaay him!).
-As already mentioned, some people hated Adam. And as humans, we tend to do anything we can to see the one we hate go down. So although I don’t think that a lot of people did this, I do think that many of the people who hated Adam voted for other contestants just so that he would lose. And when it was down to Kris and Adam, those who did not want to see Adam succeed may have voted like crazy for Kris.