AI8: Finale Moments

The Adam Show
It is common opinion that the show's producers and judges pimped Adam Lambert to no end throughout the entire season. Some would say it isn't unmerited, but some would also agree it went overboard. The finale results show was no exception.

• The coronation song "No Boundaries" was written for Adam's range, and even he suffered from the high pitch. Though I think they lowered the pitch for the results show because Kris didn't struggle much with the high notes then.
• Adam got to perform with Kiss, and Kris got to perform with Keith Urban. Isang malaking NGEK.
• The final two got to sing with Queen, which is right up Adam's alley, what with online opinion calling him the next Freddy Mercury.
  

Nitpicking much? :P

I read in an online forum that Adam was offered to fill in Freddie Mercury's spot in Queen. If it's true, then way to go Lambert! Take the gig!

Favorite Moments
Anyway, here are my favorite moments from the final results show:

• Norman Gentle/Nick Mitchell rocks AI once again!
• Kara DioGuardi's nice tummy trumps Bikini Girl's new boobs!
• Kris's winning moment. Kris fumbled with words and blurted out that he himself was expecting Adam to win. And I swear, I heard him say to Ryan, "Are you freakin' serious?!"
• Kris's moment with his wifey. Prior to that he was channeling shock and disbelief, but I guess the happiness only sunk in when he could share it with his wife.

One thing to like about Kris
I liked this commentary on Kris's victory: Kris Allen gives American Idol back its heart
(Note: this is not an anti-Adam article, as the excerpt may seem; read the whole thing)

Excerpt:

But while the public gaped in awe at Lambert’s virtuosity, one quiet young man, week after week kept delivering performances that were a quiet way solid at worst, and often intensely beautiful. We never saw his audition video. We never saw his Green Mile sing-off. Nothing cued us to expect anything of Kris Allen. Indeed, every week he seemed almost to expect to be eliminated. But he stayed and little by little, while others' virtuosity flowered, Kris Allen slowly came to embody the "American Idol" dream – the idea that a kid from the outskirts of nowhere could line up to sing a song, a few months later, if he stays true to who he is and where he came from – a world beyond his wildest dreams could be his.

That was never Adam’s story. One always had the slight sense that Adam understood that Idol was just a step in his career. That while others thought they had reached the pinnacle of the known universe, Adam understood there were in fact, higher peaks waiting ahead for him. An understandable sentiment from anyone with a bit of exposure to the entertainment business, but not one that brought tears to people’s eyes when they thought of his journey.

I first talked to Kris at the party after the Top 13 announcement. I found him standing alone while other contestants were being mobbed, and I asked him if he was prepared for his life to change completely. He seemed taken aback by the question, focused on how thrilled he was just to be there that week, and it seemed, with little expectation of anything more being handed to him – let alone his “life being changed.”