Classic Rockers Featured on American Idol Finale
— May 21, 2009 1 30I don’t write much about American Idol here, but I will admit to being a pretty faithful viewer of the show. The fact that last night’s finale dished up a good share of classic rock certainly made it interesting for me, particularly the appearance of both Queen (or half of them, at least) and KISS.
Rod Stewart also showed up to perform “Maggie” for the crowd packed into the Nokia Theatre.
Seeing Adam Lambert with KISS was interesting, and it was a role he seemed to ease into quite naturally. My favorite moment however, was when he joined with Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen. I liked the fit there even better than with KISS, despite the winged glam costume Lambert donned for the occasion. According to what one might take away from the video below, perhaps even May and Taylor think it was a good fit!
I don’t recall them saying how close the numbers actually were for the final vote, but it would be interesting to know. I think a lot of people expected Lambert to walk away with the win, myself included. Even Kris Allen seemed shocked by the outcome, and said something to indicate that Lambert deserved to win.
I agree with that statement. Kris Allen really came into his own during the final weeks of the competition, but I thought Lambert was a solid and consistent performer all throughout. It may have been Simon Cowell, or one of the other judges that made a comment about judging the contestants based on the entire season, and that’s definitely the way I feel about it as well.
Lambert is a natural-born performer and I think he bested Allen on just about every level. In the long run it won’t matter all that much. I suspect Lambert will have ahead of him a musical career that will eclipse Allen’s, much like we have seen in the past with the success of runners-up Clay Akin and Chris Daughtry.
Perhaps events like last night’s are a big part of Idol’s whole appeal. Just when you think you have things figured out, the results prove how wrong you were. There are undoubtedly those who were expecting the Allen win and are not surprised at all. Obviously, he was well-liked enough to take home the big prize.
Although an awful lot of what we see on TV is fiction, one thing that struck me about Lambert and Allen was their obvious admiration and respect for each other. I think they both conducted themselves in a way that showed their genuine down-to-earth image of themselves. I imagine it would be easy for someone to get a big head (“Bikini Girl,” anyone?) after being on stage with a few thousand fans screaming your name and reaching out to touch you.
It’s not often we get to see true humility on stage during a competition of that magnitude, but I think that’s exactly what we saw last night. It’s hard not to think of them both as winners.
1 Comment
wow, congrats to Kris Allen, he may have been surprised, but oh well, he won!
it seems like he’s gonna have to grow into his new “crown”