American Idol Season 8 Thoughts

When Kris Allen was declared winner of the American Idol 2009 couple of nights ago, there was more than a few who were surprised. While there will always be surprises when it comes to winner, especially the competitions of this magnitude, this one was a total surprise even for the winner who said "Adam deserves this” right after winning.

Not that Kris is a bad singer, Adam Lambert, the other finalist, was just too good not only through the rounds leading up to the final, but more importantly in the final. Two of the three performances for the final from Kris was just average. In fact, the judges underplayed a little bit by saying "America should vote for you not just based on today's performance but based on the performances you gave right through the season".

Apparently there is no real acceptable way of selecting a winner. While judges pick could lead to favoritism, voting/text over phone could lead to duplicate votes and winner getting picked for reasons outside the competition. Kris, IMHO, was picked because of his "boy next door" look and attitude, come across as family loving, soft spoken person with good talent to sing. Adam for some reason came across as over confident, try something new always, take it easy attitude person and sporting colorful attire (remember Carly from last season, who in spite of her singing talent was still not a popular choice with public) and nail polishes did not go well with TV watching public at all, I guess. Some of the news and pictures on the internet did not help him much either.

This will probably be the best thing to happen for Adam, who now is not constrained on what he has to do next. He is on his own in terms of next project and can sign up with any band.