He did it! Kris Allen, from a town of population around 50k and a state that has less people than the city of Los Angeles, has made it into American Idol finale.
Kris is an amazing talent, both vocally and musically. He had some rough spots in the season, in particular judges berating him, but his imaginative arrangements of songs, smooth voice, and humbleness propelled him into a showdown with Adam Lambert, a contestant that may just have the best middle-range vocals of anyone I’ve heard.
In this week, Kris took a song that has been covered twice, once by The Fray and once by Kanye West and made it “better than the original” according to Randy Jackson.
And I love the song “Apologize.” I remember it best from the Jermain Taylor/Kelly Pavlik rematch in February of 2008 (JT, another Arkansan, lost by decision). Tough song choice but performed well.
I’ll post some YouTubes of other Kris Allen songs over the next week. For now, enjoy the song that most likely put him in the finale, “Heartless.”
First off, I was concerned with everyone on American Idol picking horrible, horrible songs. It made me worry that Kris might have picked the wrong song.
And at first, it might have appeared that way when he sang Michael Jackson’s “Man In The Mirror.” My initial reaction, never had heard him sing before, is that the song started to low keyed for him and he sounded a bit nervous.
But he quickly got over that. The chorus and mini-bridge in the song were performed very well. I felt better about his chances after he got through.
Of course, one judge (Kara) had to believe it was the wrong song. But all the other judges disagreed and thought he showed them something tonight (Simon seemed to think he could show a bit more confidence…).
So now, we get to wait until tomorrow night to see how he did with America. I know I did my part and voted for Kris quite a few times.
Other thoughts on tonight:
I thought only one girl really did well, one did okay, and the rest were really, really marginal.
Only Kris and Adam Lambert performed well top to bottom for the men.
I don’t see how this is the “most talent packed season of American Idol yet” as Ryan Seacrest has said multiple times in his voice overs. Talent this year is okay but lacking compared so far compared the last two years. Of course, this format does not lend to seeing everyone have a chance to get over first-performance jitters.
