American Idol Concludes with Shocker

by Vinny Preti

10:02 PM. It’s a warm Wednesday night, and in his hands Ryan Seacrest holds the answer to the one question on the world’s mind. The two young men to his right hold onto each other, both in hope and in fear of Ryan’s next words. Millions of viewers hold their breath as the moment they have been anticipating for four months nears. No more commercial breaks. No more stalling for time with senseless pausing designed to test our patience. In less than ten seconds, one singer’s dream will finally be realized.

“And the winner of American Idol 2009 is…” Now before I ruin the ending, let me go back and explain why Season 8 of American Idol was the best yet. One change the show made this season was the addition of a fourth judge. The three veteran judges Randy Jackson, Simon Cowell, and Paula Abdul were joined by songwriter Kara DioGuardi, whose presence made things that much more exciting from the get-go. Otherwise, the season was typical up until the competition narrowed down to the top 36. This is when the stars began to emerge. The talent was so extraordinary that the judges couldn’t even pick a top 12 and instead broke the rules by picking a top 13.

The top 13 included 17-year-old punk girl Allison Iraheta, soft rocker Danny Gokey, future R&B artist Lil Rounds (yes, that is her REAL name!), underdog Kris Allen, and, my personal favorite, theatrical rocker Adam Lambert. Week after week the contestants brought their A-game. But the competition truly heated up when the field was dwindled down to the final four. At this point, we were left with Kris, Allison, Danny, and Adam. Simon Cowell claimed “I’m 100% sure a guy will win this year.” And when Allison was eliminated his prediction proved to be right.

Now there were only three guys left standing. While Kris and Danny shared similar singing styles, Adam was more of an outcast, but in a good way. Even though during his performance of “The Ring of Fire” he frightened Kara, Adam took the risks that the judges looked for and that’s why he was the front-runner.

Shocking some, Danny was the next to be voted off. According to 4th judge Kara DioGuardi, all the Danny Gokey fans favored Kris Allen over Adam Lambert and had scurried over to vote for him. If that proved to be the case, the season finale wasn’t going to be as clear-cut as one, including myself, might have thought.

Kris vs. Adam. What a duel! The season finale was filled with excitement, from a performance by Jason Mraz to Steve Martin on a banjo (yes you heard me right!). By far the best act of the night was Adam Lambert singing with KISS.

So having caught you up with the season and its finale, here are the results. “And the winner of American Idol 2009 is…Kris Allen!!!” I have never been so mad at a T.V. in my life! This was a major upset, and in my opinion the winner will probably be forgotten. But one newscaster made a good point; he said that if Adam had won Kris would certainly have been forgotten, but since Kris won, both he and Adam have an opportunity at fame and success. So maybe this ludicrous result isn’t so bad after all…maybe. But regardless of the final result, it will be amazing if American Idol is ever able to top this season.