This has surprised and shocked many. Underdog throughout this latest season of American Idol, Kris Allen, has been declared the winner of the most coveted singing title in American television by Ryan Seacrest, the host of the show after a glittering two hour special season finale of the eighth season of the show at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
And the first reaction of 23 year old Kris? Well he merely spoke: “It feels good man, but Adam deserves this.” Some modesty indeed, but an honest one from the lad from Conway, Arkansas.
Adam Lambert was already deemed to be the victor by many in the media and by large sections of the fans of the show. Their different styles of singing was apparent from the fact that at the show, Lambert performed with KISS wearing heavy leather stuff and gave a rocking performance, whereas the mild mannered Kris, came up with Keith Urban, the country star and sang the simple “Kiss a Girl”.
While the judge Simon Cowell never even got up from his chair when the winner was announced, there were certain dazzling guest appearances by Steve Martin, Rod Stewart and Kiss and even a duet performed by Kara DioGuardi and Katrina Darrell (remember the Bikini Girl?). Performances keenly appreciated were by Steve Martin, Nick Mitchell, Lionel Richie, Queen Latifah, Santana and Cyndi Laupe.
A first for Allen is that he is the first ever winner of the American Idol to be honored with a trophy which has been designed on the basis of an old model of a microphone.
So this season has gone, as expected, very well. For the finale, around 100 million votes poured in, taking the overall count throughout the season to a staggering 624 million votes.
Good wishes to Kris, who obviously gets to sign a lucrative recording contract as part of the winning prize. May his album sells good and breaks records, and also pop up more surprises for us, than we can imagine.
The eighth season is now all wrapped and gone, leaving behind some great singers in the making and some fond memories to look back.
Do write in your thoughts on it.
-Tal Talbot
