Who Will Have Stronger Career Kris Allen, Adam Lambert or Danny Gokey?    
May 26, 2009 – Up until the finale of this year’s American Idol I had a renewed faith that the show was a singing competition again but Adam Lambert, clearly the better singer did not win. Though his Goth looks threw me off at times and that “cat on your back” show-off wail reminded me of why Celine Dion and I do not mix. I was still always waiting to see what treatment he would give a song.

I enjoyed Danny Gokey, for similar reasons, he had an amazing voice and presence. The Milwaukee choir leader lost his wife a month before his Idol audition and he came locked and loaded with a heaping, helping of Al Green’s soul but he didn’t win either.

Kris Allen was the champ on last Wednesday’s season 8 finale. Hell, even he was surprised. It made for the biggest upset in the show’s history.

So why did he win if Lambert and Gokey were clearly better singers? Popularity, plain and simple but more specifically popularity with young girls. Prepubescent teens don’t always make the difference, I doubt Taylor Hicks or Ruben Studdard, both past Idol winners, scored very high with the young chicks but Allen’s unassuming personality and boy next door looks made up for that perfect All-American score. He does come off like a genuine nice guy but he’s not in the league of Lambert and Gokey when it comes to singing.

Some are blaming the whole mess on “The Gokey Swing Vote” theory. It does make sense that once Gokey was eliminated more of his fans would back Allen over Lambert. Gokey did share a little apple-pie image with Allen.

Also, though Lambert has never openly talked about it, it kind of looks like he’s gay. I’m all for full gay rights but not everyone shares my kumbaya enthusiasm on the subject. Interestingly some critics are saying that his sexuality was the defining factor – I hope not.

Another logical explanation is that many Lambert fans probably didn’t vote.  He was the hands down leader, according to everyone.

To be fair, let’s see where Allen goes from here. Being the winner of Idol, he will not have as much creative control as Lambert or Gokey on his own career. It’s a well known fact that the reins of the Idol management are very tight, just ask first winner Kelly Clarkson. Her exhaustive struggle to leave the Idol grip almost derailed her career. Having said that, let’s see how relevant Kris is after a year, once the publicity machine has slowed down and our sights are set on another go-round with Idol season 9.

Also, winning American Idol is never a guarantee of future success, Ruben Studdard (season 2) Fantasia Barrino (season 3) and Taylor Hicks (season 5) have struggling careers. Coming in second, for a while anyway, was good luck for Clay Aiken who easily outsold Studdard the year they competed. Chris Daughtry was fourth the year Hicks won and his debut sold a million copies after only five weeks and Jennifer Hudson was seventh on Season 3 and look how many trophies she has and one of those is an Oscar.

The real reason winners like Kelly Clarkson (season 1) and Carrie Underwood (season 4) have become huge superstars was their true mass appeal, and so far that’s something Allen obviously has. That’s what made him win. The singing part…I’m not so sure.

Because of comeback cases like Hudson and disasters like Hicks it's impossible to tell who, in this year's top 3, will do better. One bad decision, like a crappy tune or maybe as simple as an unpopular quote to the media can change your destiny in a New York minute. Having said that I still put my money on Lambert even though I personally like Gokey the best.

So Lambert and Gokey could actually have an advantage over Allen in the long term. The former has already had offers from Kiss and Queen. That’s huge stuff.

In the end the cross that Kris Allen will have to bear is convincing the people who didn’t vote for him that he’s worthy. The bad news is Allen, by contract, needs to start by singing that God-awful insipid “No Boundaries” co-written by Idol judge Kara DioGuardi.

One thing’s for sure, he’s bound to do better than Taylor Hicks. – by John Beaudin