If Adam Lambert doesn't win American Idol, it won't be because he's too theatrical. Or because it seems likely that he's gay -- though I'll talk more about that in a moment.
I'm convinced a Lambert loss may come simply because the show wants him to win so badly, disgusted fans may react by kicking him off.
Tuesday's show was one of the worst examples of Lambert cheerleading I've seen, with every judge predicting he would survive tonight's elimination episode to compete in the finale, and at least one judge already pronouncing him the show's winner. Lambert's such a favorite, he's already scored a cover on Entertainment Weekly and made headlines two weeks ago when he landed in the show's bottom two.
Good as he is, Lambert's performances last night were hardly a lock. Danny Gokey's gospelized "You Are So Beautiful" and Kris Allen's acoustic take on Kanye West's "Heartless" were both electrifying, raising the promise of an amazing finale battle next week, no matter who lands among the final two.
Smelling the creation of a new star, the show has leaned Lambert's way for awhile, getting rare permissions for him to sing songs by Led Zeppelin and U2 (of course, judge Simon Cowell couldn't resist telling how singer Bono personally called so Lambert could sing "One"), and allowing him grand production gestures such as his walk down the white staircase during Rat Pack week.
Lambert may also lose just because the teen girls who fill so much of Idol's voting ranks go for the puppy dog good looks of dark horse Allen, whose offhand manner and coolly compelling performances are a silent rebuke for judges drawn to more flamboyant contestants.
Though the only people who seem to care about Lambert's sexuality right now are pop culture columnists and EW's headline writers, it's not tough to imagine teenyboppers choosing to vote for the guy who seems more like date bait.
During much of Tuesday's show, I wound up wishing viewers could vote off the judges, who were left to kibitz with each other in increasingly distracting ways as the competitors piled up quality performances needing little criticism.
I think it's in the final weeks that the four-judge format feels flattest -- by this point in the competition, judges mostly offer flattery, so one more person on the panel adds nothing but more airtime-eating platitudes.
Even the Dial Idol Web site, which claims a 97 percent success rate in predicting ejection this season, says the contest is too close to call. But with ratings sliding this season, its easy to see why Idol needs a singular performer like Lambert to rebuild its cred as a star factory.
So we'll see tonight if all the praise and support pays off for Lambert, or fuels a backlash that cuts his Idol dreams short.
Loading comments…
The post was made originally at a Clay Aiken site by someone who was given this information by a student at KA's school in AR.
38 million votes came from Arkansas. ONE state cast 38% of the total votes. Hmmm. Here's how it happened...
Hundreds of pre-paid AT&T cell phones were given out by organized KA supporters with West Coast area codes to vote long after the lines were closed in their time zone. They were able to text hundreds of times faster than it takes to dial in. It's actually possible to text vote approximately 40 times within one minute using a new smart phones, 2,400 per hour. Multiply that by the extra 2 hours for the west coast phones and you get 14,000 votes possible by one individual. Once the voting officially ended in Arkansas, the phones with the west coast area codes were used for the remaining 2 hours.
I have a AT&T land line and I was able to vote for Adam only about 25 times within 4 hours because of constant busy signals. Meanwhile someone in Arkansas had voted over 500 times that amount using power texting. You only need about 1,500 people to accomplish the amount of power text votes Kris received. If you remove the organizers from the equation, the number becomes the more realistic 60% - 40% margin that was originally predicted in Adam's favor.
If Kris wins it'll be a big upset, but so what if he wins? Adam is set for the brighter future, the next rock icon of the century. Isn't that what American Idol is about? Finding the star?
If they have to vote off a judge can they vote off Paula? As a matter of fact why not have a vote for which judges stay and which go. We can exclude Simon's *** since he has been hinting around to wanting to leave anyone. We will just automatically vote him off cause he gets on my nerves.
The other annoying thing with this season is the out and about orgasm these judges seem to have over Adam. I really like his singing but not enough to fawn over TOO DEATH like these judges (who are heavily interested in someone who lives up to their pop star dream they overall are looking for).
Allison and Danny have old souls in young voices. Allison's "Poppa Was a Rolling Stone" made me more interested in her voice and I became a Danny fan with his version of "PYT".
I too wish for that as well but alas TV and entertainment is geared towards the youth so good luck in your search for a more mature choice of TV. I know it stinks to death it's like that but it is what it is!!
Adam ruined that song. Those of us that grew up in the 70's and received a steady diet of Zepplin on the radio can attest to that...sorry to pull rank but. I know Led Zepplin...and Adam Lambert did them no justice.....
It would serve him well to do a Scorpions song...Now THAT is his huckleberry in my opinion....
Adam will be a success and has loads of talent. But he's a one trick pony that has no feel in his sound.
Danny I completely agree with you...and to be honest his vocal skills could be taught. Unfortunately his performance could not....
In our opinion, the talent competition has been over for weeks, the popularity competition is what isgoing to be decided.
Someone on this board correctly pointed out that Chris' appeal is his "puppy dog looks." I couldnt agree more. His talent is very mediocre when compared to other idol contestants. I am predicting a Chris upset, but a much bigger career for Adam, ala Chris Daughtry vs Taylor Hicks.
As far as Adam being gay, I rocked out to Queen and Judas Priest just fine so I am more than willing to give Adam a shot as well. Just make great music and the rest will fall into place.
Not exactly. Wander on over to USAToday and check out some of the comments posted by readers. Here's an example:
"I am sick about Danny being voted off This show is "American Idol' Do we really want Adam representing America? I have no problem with gays but when they post their personal activities on the internet, that's disturbing. Please send all those "Danny" votes to Kris!!!!!!!!!!"
There's an epidemic of homophobia going on over there that's really quite pathetic.
I know several of the idol contestants that if they made it on the show; they have prospered from it. (I mean finishing 20th place, etc.....You don't have to be a super star to win in the music business.