American Idol Final 2! Adam Lambert vs. Kris Allen

Last week I developed a theory that was proven true for last week’s vote. Basically I believe that Adam Lambert won’t have the universal appeal to make him win the competition, but that both Kris and Danny were similar enough that they would split the fan base and one of those two would be eliminated. Then my theory continues that whichever of Danny or Kris that remained from the vote last week would end up winning the competition. So, if my theory is true, then Kris Allen will ultimately win this week. We’ll see! Actually, Kris Allen is my favorite and I really hope he wins.


After an especially long intro, we were finally treated to the singing in this singing competition, which began with Adam Lambert reprising his very popular version of the Tears for Fears song, “Mad World.” Actually, my 9-year-old daughter really loves this song and plays it over and over. I really believe that the Judges desperately want him to win for some reason. I agree that he’s very good, and his performance on this song was very good, but I just wish the judges would quit drooling all over him and would actually critique him. Simon is the only one with any sense of reality in his comments.

For Kris’s personal pick of the night, he chose Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Usually this song is performed by the R&B leaning contestants, so it was definitely refreshing to hear it sung in Kris’ personal style, which is mellower alternative, which is the kind of music I like. I’m still rooting for him. It was also nice to see the judges praising him as much (although not as passionately) as Adam. At least it doesn’t feel like they are trying to stack the deck for Adam.

The next songs of the night were picked by American Idol creator, Simon Fuller (not to be confused with Simon Cowell). For Adam, Mr. Fuller chose Sam Cooke’s classic song, “A Change is Gonna Come.” I really loved how the song began, but I must confess, I really hate it when Adam screams his songs. It’s probably just personal preference, but it’s the kind of stuff that I’d mock the glamour rock guys for doing in the 80s. Maybe I’m just getting old and maybe this style is going to make a comeback, but it’s not for me and he probably won’t be singing music that I’ll buy in his post-Idol career.


For Kris Allen’s song, Simon Fuller went back to the same era as Adam and chose Marvin Gaye’s song “What’s Going On?” Again, I really like the choices he makes in his songs and I think it’s great that it’s a competition between two very different styles of music. I think when all is said and done; it’s going to be a clear winner. By the way, I don’t think it was too laid back, as Randy and Simon said. It was in Kris’ style. Anything much more would have been something other than Kris’ style and that wouldn’t be fair to us as audience members.

Next up, Mr. Guyliner (Adam) gave his take on Kara DioGuardi’s original song, “No Boundaries.” It sounded to me like the standard inspirational anthem that the American Idol winners are generally saddled with, and his performance was just OK for me. It didn’t seem like he put as much into it as he has his other songs.

In all fairness, I was hoping that Kris’ would be a bit more mellow and acoustic than what he ended up with. Also I was disappointed that he sounded pretty flat through most of the first part of the song and forgot a word. Since Adam’s version wasn’t very interesting either, I’m writing this off as a bad song, and not that the contestants were bad. It’s too bad that the Judges were all but saying to him, “well you should be proud of yourself for coming in number two, clearly Adam has already won.” I for one, am voting for Kris and I hope that more than 50% of America agrees with me.

Well, that’s it! Tomorrow is bound to be a long and grueling event designed to get in as many commercials in front of us as possible as we anxiously await the results. My fast forward button on my Tivo is bound to have quite a workout tomorrow night!