Kris Allen is the winner of this season's 'American Idol.' He was crowned Wednesday night in the results show.Kris Allen is your new "American Idol." Who'd have thunk it?
Certainly not the "Idol" producers. They couldn't be bothered to show Kris at all before this season's semi-finals began, which is usually the kiss of death to all but the most compelling singers (Kelly Clarkson in season one, Bo Bice in season four). And they shamelessly, even by their standards, tried to stage-manage a victory for pet contestant Adam Lambert, giving him an abundance of screen time, better production values (special lighting and other effects) than any past finalist, and multiple chances to close the show near the end of the season.
Certainly not the "Idol" judges. They had trouble hiding their love -- or, in the case of Paula Abdul, worship -- of Adam throughout the finals. On Judges' Choice night last week, Simon went to the trouble to get U2's "One" cleared for him to sing, and talked about how pleased Bono was to have Adam singing one of his songs. At the end of last week's performance show, Simon Cowell all but begged the audience to vote for Adam so he wouldn't be a surprise elimination before the finale. And at the end of Tuesday night's show, after Kris had struggled through the embarrassingly mawkish "Idol" coronation song co-written by new judge Kara DioGuardi, all four judges were so condescending in the way they each told Kris that he should be proud of making it this far, the only way he could have been more insulted was if Paula had patted him on the head while Randy Jackson gave him a trophy for participation.
Certainly not me, for that matter, since going into the finals I ranked Kris dead last on a list of finalists with a chance to win.
Not even Kris himself, who moments after winning told Ryan Seacrest, "It feels good, man, but Adam deserves this."
But here we are at the end of another sometimes exhausting, sometimes thrilling, constantly frustrating season of "American Idol," and our champion isn't the guy that the show, the judges, and the media have been saying should and would win, but the quiet, unassuming guy with the acoustic guitar.
How did that happen?
Really, you have to look at it from two angles: why Kris won, and why Adam didn't. I fear the former is going to be lost in all the hue and cry over the latter, so let's start there.
Kris appeared to slip into the finals, after a mediocre semi-finals performance of Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror," on the basis of his smile and non-threatening good looks. (Remember: one of the largest, most passionate voting blocs on "Idol" is made up of tween girls.) But once the show moved to the bigger stage -- and, more importantly, once Kris was allowed to play an instrument, whether it was his trusty guitar or the occasional piano -- he proved himself to be one of this season's most likable, and, yes, talented contestants.
Yes, Adam (and several other finalists) could likely sing rings around Kris' limited range. But Kris, like David Cook last season, had an uncanny ability to bend the weekly themes to his skill set, coming up with arrangements that went well with his smooth, charming style and his skill with both the guitar and the piano. He turned Donna Summer's "She Works Hard for the Money" and Kanye West's "Heartless" into energetic coffee house jams, re-arranged Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" to make it sound more intimate and modern (then came up with yet another arrangement for Tuesday night's reprise), and was the only "Idol" contestant on Rat Pack Night to grasp that the key to those songs was in the phrasing and storytelling, not the ability to drill through solid concrete with the power of your voice.
Where the fun in the early part of the finals was in seeing just what song Adam might pick, and what crazy thing he might do to it (his re-arrangements were dicier, notably his sitar-inflected take on "Ring of Fire"), our frontrunner seemed to stagnate after a certain point. Viewers often like an Idol who grows over the course of the season (Kelly, Jordin, Cook), where Adam arrived as a finished product, and suddenly the growth story became Kris.
But while Kris' victory was deserved, some of his support at the end no doubt came from people who just didn't like Adam, who's one of the more talented contestants the show has ever had, but also one of the most polarizing. People either adored the versatility of Adam's voice, or cringed at the way he liked to wail at the top of his upper register. His fans compared him to Elvis; his detractors called him too flamboyant, or theatrical, and said he belonged on Broadway (where a number of past "Idol" finalists have found careers) rather than the pop charts. And as the show's cheerleading for Adam rose -- a few weeks ago, Katy Perry showed up on the results show wearing a cape with Adam's name on it that the show treated to a loving, dramatic close-up -- his detractors' resentment for him only grew. And the fans of the cast-off contestants, none of whom were treated as lovingly by the show, likely gravitated towards the guy going up against him.
Being polarizing isn't a problem in the earlier rounds of "American Idol." You want people to be passionate, because the ones who love you will vote for you like crazy. But at the end, when it's a one-on-one situation, the ones who hate you finally have a chance to vote against you.
And so we don't have the Idol we expected. But we also have one who earned his unlikely victory.
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