Back in February, I thought that Kris Allen had been a little lucky to win a semifinal slot outright due to the weakness of Group 2 (groupmates Allison Iraheta and Adam Lambert excluded). I also said then:
If Allen is a smart guy, he should take this golden opportunity and run with it. If there’s anyone who can take the underdog-who-got-much-better role this year, Allen appears to be it.
To say that Kris lived up to my early prediction is a giant understatement. He improved massively from the quiet, almost-tentative fellow early on to the incredibly confident, gutsy fellow who could take on contemporary songs like Heartless and put his own spin on it.
One would have thought that Adam, who has impressive vocal talents of his own, would have been a prohibitive favorite. After all, all the hype – from the usual media sources, even from some segments of the Idolsphere – had been all but crowned and hailed as The Next Big Thing.
Now, how could someone called that lose? It should have been obvious to everyone from Day One: no matter how good Adam was at doing what he does, that could only appeal to so many people. That’s true of any contestant, but that was more true of Adam than any contestant in the finale except Blake Lewis.
Our full analysis of the results – and the season – will have to wait until the weekend. However, here’s two big points that need to be pointed out from all the media coverage:
- This was not some giant “shock” as I’ve seen the headlines proclaim. Not at all. A lot of people bought into the Lambert hype – and their excuse for not realizing that is to call the results a surprise. It wasn’t, as I explained yesterday already.
- Two straight seasons have had strong manipulation by TPTB in an attempt to get the outcome they wanted. Both times America reacted poorly. If insanity is defined as doing the same thing and expecting different results, 19E is well on the way to that.
One more thing. Last year the gap between the two Davids, vote-wise, was announced – about 12 million votes. Now, this year, they announced the vote total, but not the margin (unless I missed it somewhere). I wonder why…
My theory on why they didn’t announce the vote gap between Adam and Kris – it was a huge margin and TPTB didn’t want to look all the more idiotic for pretty much acting as if Adam were the foregone winner over the past…entire season. I honestly can’t see another reason. If the gap was very small, you’d think they would have played up the closeness of the season.
I’ve loved both guys immensely, but in the end, I found Kris’s style more to my taste. For me, Adam peaked at “Mad World”, and I kept waiting for another “Ring of Fire” performance – which I loved – but never got. Meanwhile, Kris had caught my attention in the beginning as the cute one but quickly became, IMO, the most versatile and talented performer. I’m so happy for Kris, and I think Adam is going to have a fabulous career.
I don’t know how many readers you have, but you have definately been the most on target this entire season. I’m surprised that there are not more comments. I kept hoping that Kris would really bring a shocker and sing “Beautiful Moon” I hope he does a re-release or somebody uses it in a movie to get it more exposure because that is a beautiful song.
Well, Kris is one great performer, and his homecoming was more down to earth than the others. You’ve gotta factor in the likability of the guy since it is the whole package (and not just the singing) which sells.
Adam was great no doubt. At the start, i was an Adam fan, but Kris’s originality grew on me. Think of him as a David cook because of how he can change songs to his style, and an Archuleta for the teen vote. So you’ve got quite the voting bloc backing him up.
For those who can’t accept a Kris win and just wanna put him down, well, they’re just bitter folks. Look, everyone’s a winner ok, your horse just didn’t get enough votes. Let’s just all wish them well since they’re both nice guys. This was the most feel good finals of AI i had seen in a long while. Let’s savor the moment.
Nice article by the way. =)
Great job analyzing and recapping this season! You’re always on point. I think Kris’s upward trajectory in terms of performances propelled him above Adam, who began to stagnate and gave his weaker performances at the worst time possible. But you also had this theory about SONG AGE, and I think that played a huge factor here, too. Not only did Kris pick the youngest songs out of anybody, especially Adam who had a penchant for rock oldies, but even the comparisons are glaring: Kris gets compared to current artists like Mraz and Mayer, Adam gets compared to Bowie or Mercury. Decades apart. It’s pretty interesting.
This morning there was an article in the NY Post that agreed with your theory about the voting. According to their sources Kris actually blew away Adam in the voting. I agree that if the vote were close they would have hyped it. They did last year with the David’s and they always do during the weekly eliminations.
Fantastic recapping all season; I agree with the earlier comment that you’ve been more on-point than any other blogger. (I also appreciate that your material is well-written, not to mention spelled and punctuated correctly!)
I’ve been more vested in some other seasons than I was this year, and for some reason didn’t care about any of the contestants as much as I have about, for example, Elliot Yamin or David Cook. I did, however, enjoy the majority of the top 5 more than I ever have previously. I think it’s safe to predict careers for both Adam and Kris, and hopefully Allison, and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.
I tend to agree that the incredibly over-done pimping didn’t help Adam at all, and that perhaps part of Kris’ victory was due to a backlash against that. I also think that the growth of young Mr. Allen throughout the season was impressive and inspiring, as was his overall musical ability – instruments and instrumentation both. Adam Lambert came in as a consumate professional, and that never waivered. While it was always fun to watch, it wasn’t as motivating as seeing the growing skill and confidence of his opponent.
Good analysis! It was a pleasure to not have to roll my eyes at yet another recap of, “It’s the Christian’s, the south, the stupidity of American’s, the tween vote, blahdy blah, blah” analysis! It’s simply a matter of taste as to what you thought of Kris or Adam’s talents, and both of them ARE very talented, but I’d bet my last dime that Kris will sell more music than Adam will. Adam’s appeal will be a little limited as long as he continues to overdo the theatrics.
I agree that the vote was probably overwhelming in Kris’s favor, and I think a HUGE, (and I can not emphasize HUGE enough) factor was that America really, really felt a need to give the judges the finger for trying, shamelessly, to shove Adam down our throat week after week! Especially for those occasions when Kris was really wonderful and they would give him a perfunctory pat on the head and label the performance “boring”, (Simon) or “competent”, (Kara). That was overwhelmingly offensive- My kids and I voted our fingers off to get rid of Danny after the final three show. Tsk, tsk. America doesn’t like being lied to. “Master vocal class, indeed”.
I can’t wait to see what Kris will do in a studio, I’ve already downloaded all his stuff from itunes and it’s great! I got Mad World as well. It’s all good!
Very good analysis. People just don’t seem to understand that there is no wrong or right here. It is a matter of personal taste, which singer a person likes better.
My favorite all season was Danny, but Kris grew on me more and more each week. I think it is very likely that the voting was lopsided, because if Danny appealed to people over Adam, then Kris would be their next choice. There are some of us who are NOT “tweeners” who really liked Kris over Adam. For example, I am 60, and my best friend, who is a teacher, is 59. She said all of her teacher friends voted for Kris most of the season. They range in age from 22 to 64.
This was just a great season! We were thoroughly entertained by Adam, but didn’t really want to buy his music. We loved the likes of Danny, Allison and Kris and pulled each week for lesser talented to be voted off. I was always pulling for Megan Joy to leave. She is a very pretty girl, but I hated the tat, and her voice grated on my last nerve. It was all in fun, however, and I wouldn’t have missed a minute of it.