Blake Lewis will win American Idol
Blake Lewis is the person most people expect to win. The fact of it is, Blake brings a quirky selfness to the contest that Jordin Sparks has no weapon against. Yes, we will argue ad nauseam about who is the ‘better singer’ of the two, but the fact of the matter is that vocal ability is only part of what makes for an American Idol champion.
Taylor Hicks is easily the best example of the ‘odd man out’ overcoming pure vocal abilities. Arguably, Ruben Studdard is another fine example of gimmick overcoming superior vocal chops.
There are many theories about who should win and what abilities should the winner have but when it comes down to Singer vs Singer, the best singer wins; when it is Gimmick Vs Singer, the gimmick always wins.
None of this is to say that Blake does not posses star appeal. If anything, it is a study on just what the nebulous X-Factor is. In case you didn’t hear enough criticism of the American Idol audition process this year, it has pretty much been proven that pure vocal talent alone is not it.
Blake has not only vocal abilities but he acts like a star and that makes him a little bit better than Jordin but nobody could say with certainty that the final winner will be before the end of the contest.
At the end of the day, all the finite components of aesthetic give way to what ever mysterious quantity it is that guides us to punch in our votes and cross our fingers. What “interests” us cannot be surmised through pitch ranges and song selections. However, given the choice between a good looking dude with some decent chops and a mean beat boxing ability, a seventeen-year-old all American with the voice of a forty-year-old might not stand a chance. If there is one thing for certain at this point in the game, its that any notion of American Idol being a ‘singing competition’ went out the door when Melinda Dolittle was voted off.
