Kris Allen is in! Adam Lambert is in! And Danny Gokey is out! And now… American Idol is actually a race?
All the conversations I’ve had about last night’s American Idol results–in which Ryan Seacrest made Danny Gokey’s hopes of bringing his “movement” to the masses via a cheesy Kara DioGuardi song go kablooey–have focused on the fact that Kris Allen’s dark-horse ascent, aided most by him rising to the Top 3 show’s occasion with a well-placed cover of Kanye West’s “Heartless,” has made the outcome of next Wednesday night’s results show a lot more murky. Kris and Adam have shared a fanbase; Kris and Danny shared a religious background; and Kris and the tweens of America share a very special bond that will be discussed in therapy sessions for years to come. So who’s the real front-runner? If there even is one?
Perhaps we could look at the numbers of people who actually put in an effort as far as their Idol fandom goes by actually trying to acquire digital copies of the hopefuls’ perforamnces. Since Idol is notoriously stingy about iTunes chart data, why don’t we look at the next best thing–freeload statistics for the studio versions of Tuesday night’s performances, as culled from the awesomely batshit leak blog Music Is The Heart Of Our Soul:
Kris Allen, “Heartless”: 2,141
Kris Allen, “Apologize”: 1,136
Adam Lambert, “One”: 719
Adam Lambert, “Cryin’”: 687
Danny Gokey, “You Are So Beautiful”: 285
Danny Gokey, “Dance Little Sister”: 147
(OK, so I linked that in part because you all should see Vicki’s Courtney Love-ish raging about other bloggers. Who knew that the business of free single-trading would be so cutthroat?)
Anyway, there is a definite pro-Kris (and pro-crazy!) bias on that site, but those numbers are pretty startling. (Also, if I can say it one more time: Poor Allison.) It’s hard to discuss Idol without going into analysis of previous years, but part of me wonders if we’re seeing a sort of flipped-script Cook Vs. Archuleta battle this year, where the judge-anointed front-runner with a slightly dated aesthetic (Archie in ’08, Adam this year) is eclipsed by a contestant previously thought of as cannon fodder who peaked at precisely the right time, thanks in large part to new-to-the-judges reworkings of the moldy old pop hits that the Idol faithful are supposed to slog through (Cook / Allen) . Last year, of course, ended with David Cook and his warmed-over grunge taking the crown, and even though my instincts about Adam getting the boot last night were wrong, I’m wondering if we’re going to see a similar situation unfold next week. Especially if, as I suggested to someone this morning, Kris gets super creative and whips out his version of Fountains Of Wayne’s version of “…Baby One More Time”:
C’mon, you can see it, right?
American Idol [Official site]
Reading Vicki’s crazy rantings is one of my daily guilty pleasures. ;)
@LeighBlack: She’s amazing! I have one of the bits about her ASS as my AIM status message right now!
Danny going home was the only thing that could help me stomach the Washington Capitals’ devastating loss.
What up with Katy Perry pimping Adam on her cape? And did you notice (silly me, of course you did) her…outfit…was so skimpy in the butt area that her butt cheeks were overflowing it, and every time the “from behind” camera shot came up it was quickly cut to another camera?
Also, @whoneedslight, I’m still sobbing quietly to myself about the outcome of that “game”…
It’s not quite tasting Scott Tenorman’s tears, but no more Gokey makes me happy.
@KingofPants: It’s not quite tasting Scott Tenorman’s tears
Hahah beautiful.
I thought it was Travis who originated the acoustic take of “Baby One More Time.”
Just listened to the FOW version, and Travis’ version is better.
@RobMurphy: Apparently Adam actually is friends with katy perry, and they had worked together a couple of years ago, before either of them made it big. he said as much in his Top 36 package when he was talking about how he’d spent the last five years toiling in LA trying to catch a break.
I like Kris, I really do, but when I look at him all I see is Jamie Walters. And look where that went.
@anibundel: Servicey! That would also help explain why, just before her performance, when Danny was all “f*ck this, the commercials, the needless performances, let’s just do this”, Adam said, “I wanna see Katy Perry!”
Also, this: http://twitter.com/katyperry/status/1788233474
P.S. Did anyone else’s DVR cut out before Danny finished singing? Mine cut out after about two words from him, which was perfectly fine by me. But sheesh, the only two things that need to happen are the result and the sing-out, and they couldn’t fit it in on time.
This contest is over. Let’s not forget Kris somehow managed to make “Apologize” worse than the original. I know a lot of you guys don’t like Danny, but his cocky streak would have made for a better finale. I also have to say his “exit song” was about as good as I’ve seen on the show. It’s pretty ridiculous how Simon acted shocked about the results. Being a producer, he knew what was going to happen. A lot of this season reminds me of last year. Once the producers and public caught wind of Kris having a few songs on the iTunes charts, he started to get more votes. The same thing happened to David Cook in 2008. In a way, it kind of ruins the show. If the iTunes stuff had been going on since the beginning, it would have made every finale different(Daughtry, etc…). It’s not necessarily the 2 best, but who has the best chance of making 19 Entertainment money in the short run. I just don’t think Kris will be able to bring the goods next week. Generic Frayish covers of bad rap songs is not going to be enough. Not that it really matters, Lambert had 7 songs on the iTunes chart, so there’s your winner.
@jonian2008: danny sounded a LOT better last night than he did on tuesday.
I’m comforted just knowing that God didn’t want Danny in the finals.