American Idol PSA

America,

Please. I'm begging you. Do the right thing. Make this happen:


















As the folks at Entertainment Weekly would say: Put the 'Go' in Gokey!

Signed,

A concerned fan


As an aside, it's up in the air whether I'll be able to watch the show tonight, which pains me more than you know (Sigh. How did I get to this point?). I'm going to try and vote, but I'm still nervous as heck for my dream final three. Now, I've shared my disdain for Danny before on this blog so you might think I'm just trying to spite the guy, but I really want an Adam/Allison/Kris final three because I truly believe they are the most deserving contestants. Adam may be one of the most talented contestants this show has ever had, and Allison and Kris have advanced on this show based on their amazing performances alone. Neither of them got screen time at the beginning of the show and neither of them have ever been pimped by the judges or the producers. I still kind of can't believe they've made it this far with all of those things working against them.

For the (two) people who read this blog, you might be under the assumption that I'm some kind of hardcore Idol fan. The truth is, I have never been into this show. I'm interested in pop culture in general, so I always sort of follow it every year. I can name all the winners and the majority of the notable contestants. I've also watched all of the finales and have caught episodes here and there. The truth is however, I've always kind of resisted American Idol. I perceived it as over-produced, manipulative, money-grubbing schlock that only appealed to teenage girls and rewarded contestants for "yelling" rather than singing. I always sort of made fun of it from a distance. Yes, I'd watch the finales, and yes I had my favorites, but I've never picked up a phone to vote for this show, and I always swore I never would. I never cared about it, never got connected (I was really upset when Clay didn't win in Season 2 however, but that was a long long time ago and I'm still not really sure what I was thinking).

So what changed this year? For some ungodly reason I started watching this season since the auditions. I don't know what compelled me. I'm still trying to figure it out. I also ended up watching all 3 of the semifinal rounds (Zozizzle has a fabulous post about Group 3 here). So because I was familiar with the contestants, I continued to follow the competition. I very rarely watched the episodes, but I did check up to see who was doing well, who was doing poorly, and who was getting eliminated. Through all of my following online, I was led to believe that Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey were the only two contestants who mattered, and all of the other contestants should just give up because there was no way they could beat them. It was with that in mind that I sat down to watch my first uninterrupted episode of American Idol this season during Top 9 week. I resist front-runners. Don't like them. I've already said that I think this show is manipulative, and pimped front-runners are the worst example of that. So I watched the episode and to no surprise, found the two front-runners not exactly living up to their hype (Adam's performance was good, but strange. "Play That Funky Music"? Really?). So it was to my surprise that the last performer of the night, Kris Allen, a guy who I remembered liking from the semifinals and had been reading some pretty good press about but for the most part wasn't really on anyone's radar, came out and totally won the night. His "Ain't No Sunshine" was hands down the best performance of the night, much better than the front-runners', and it has stood up as probably my favorite performance of the whole season (watch video of it here). At first I was pleasantly surprised (there was genuine shock in my reaction post), and then I just got angry. I was angry that this guy wasn't pimped like the other contestants even though he was so good. I was angry that the judges just said that the performance was his best, but not the best of the night. So I did what any normal, sane person would do, I picked up the phone and voted. Only one time, but I voted. Kris ended my Idol-voting-virginity. I was ashamed of myself, but I felt like I had to right some kind of injustice or something. I then found myself doing crazy things, like watching all of his other performances on youtube and buying his studio versions off of iTunes. I started clearing my Tuesday nights so I could power vote for him and I TiVo-ed Lost so I could watch the results show live, because I had to see if he made it another week. Kris turned me into an Idol junkie! And I couldn't be happier.

American Idol is still over-produced, manipulative, and money-grubbing, and they still reward people for shouting (see: Danny), but it also shows off week after week, genuine talent from some extremely cool kids. It's exciting to see what they're going to sing every week and how they're going to do. And while the judges can be attention-hogging at times, the show is still more than anything, about discovering undiscovered talent. Kris is the kind of musician who I can see myself listening to. He doesn't have the "biggest" voice in the competition, but that's precisely why I like him. He doesn't shout and power his way through a performance, but instead is always subtle, nuanced, and controlled. You really believe that he thinks about the songs before he sings them, and as such, creates an emotional connection to the lyrics he's singing. He has come up with some extremely creative arrangements and is the only contestant to ever play two instruments on the show. I think he's given some of the best performances of the season (Besides "Ain't No Sunshine", my other favorite performances are "To Make You Feel My Love", "Falling Slowly", and "She Works Hard For the Money"), on top of being an extremely nice, humble, cool guy. I sincerely want him to be successful, and whether that's in winning this show or in getting a recording contract after his journey ends, it doesn't matter. I think he deserves all the best, and heck, they all do! I know I said I don't like front-runners, but I genuinely like Adam a lot (watch his "Mad World" performance. Amazing), and I absolutely adore Allison. True, I don't like Danny, but I think the guy is a great singer who does appeal to a lot of people (just not me).

So why am I writing all of this now? Mostly because I'm bored. But also because I'm super nervous and antsy about tonight. I wanted to get this out there now because as much as I hate to even entertain the thought, I have a feeling Kris could be leaving us soon, and as such, my Idol journey this season will be over also (well, I'll probably tune into the finale to see Adam win). I'm not going to say you should vote for Kris. If you are the voting type, vote for whoever you want! All my votes will go to Kris however, and I hope that maybe, just maybe, someone will read this and throw a few votes his way. Even though I am nervous, I'm still really genuinely excited about rock week. I think it's going to be awesome and I will definitely be posting my reactions, I just don't know when exactly I'll be able to.

So to wrap this all up, vote for Kris/Allison/Adam....and put the 'Go' in Gokey! :)