With two and a half weeks to go until the 2008 American Idol season premiere, 2007 alums Jordin Sparks and Blake Lewis are making the rounds promoting their freshly released albums, both of which are slowly sliding down the charts. While Jordin is playing radio-sponsored shows and having her “promise ring” namechecked on top 40 stations in preparation for for her big, Idol-crossovertastic Super Bowl appearance, Blake is stopping by MTV and letting the people know that he pretty much knew he wasn’t going to win the show as soon as he heard the first note of this season’s coronation song, the Verizon campaign-ready piece of Christian-lite-rock treacle “This Is My Now”:
BW: When you first heard “This Is My Now,” the ballad you had to perform during the finale, did you think you were toast?
BL: Oh, totally. Me and Jordin went in a room with some guy who was producing that song and I was like, what the f– is this? This is a piece of s–. And you’re not going to let me arrange it? OK, cool. Thanks guys. I didn’t want to win American Idol anyway; I wanted to get second. Then we found out we had to learn it in, like, three days or something ridiculous. It was dumb. [Laughs.] It was just like, are you kidding me? It was really a piece of crap song. And the guys who wrote it were like, we’re sorry, dude.
BW: It seemed totally unfair…
BL: When I found out they wouldn’t let me change it, I was like, you’re kidding me. I mean, my range is alright but … I don’t do power ballads. And if I do, I write them and tailor them to my voice. But this one, I was just like, ummm… So I totally just, like, brushed it off and picked a key that I shouldn’t have picked. But it didn’t matter. Honestly, I picked Jordin to win during Hollywood Week.
Oh, sure you did, Blake. Like you’re going to admit in public that you were secretly betting on Antonella Barba from day one?
Exclusive: Blake Lewis Talks About Getting Screwed On ‘American Idol’ [MTV Buzzworthy, via MJ's Big Blog]
So when he says “arrange”, he means “add beatboxing”, right?
I know you’ve been down on Lewis all along, but he gets major points from me for pulling no punches here.
I think it’s also a sign that Idol’s own finalists see the show as vulnerable for the first time in a while; most participants — even Daughtry and Clarkson — have been way more diplomatic than this in an interview. I wonder if, now that the commercial machine connected to the show is broken, they feel freer to talk smack.
@dennisobell: Aw, I wasn’t down on him all along. I didn’t like the beatboxed Bon Jovi and dude’s visual aesthetic is a clear sign that he needs to get a vision plan with his Idol payout, but his singles are catchy and I did really enjoy the way he performed that Robin Thicke song at the finale. I do think your theory about Idols feeling more free to talk smack about the regime is correct, though.