Kris Allen beat the Google odds
I, like many other Americans, have been enjoying my weekly fix of American Idol. I live in Israel, so I usually don’t get to see it until Saturday night. I usually try not to know what’s going on until Saturday night, but this time I couldn’t help myself. Besides, being on both Facebook and Twitter, I knew that I was bound to find out anyway, so I threw caution to the wind.
Kris Allen won. Everyone was surprised. Well, almost everyone. After Danny Gokey lost last week, I told my husband that Kris was going to get most of Danny’s votes, and I guess I was right. Danny and Kris have similar singing styles and they appeal to the same crowd. Warning: This is only speculation – I have no evidence.
On the other hand, looking at Google search results from the past few years and trying to figure out a winner doesn’t seem to be the way to go either. Mashable published an article yesterday called American Idol Winner: Can Google Predict the Results? No one said Google knows. If you were to follow years of search results, the pattern would predict that Adam Lambert was a shoe-in.
Adam is a lot more colorful than Kris. I have to admit that I did look Adam up on Google, but not Kris. I didn’t vote, but if I would have, it would have been for Kris. I just like the way that he sings better – less screechy.
Another thing that I find pretty amazing is the amount of anger that people have that Kris beat Adam. Maybe it’s because Twitter has just gotten a lot more mainstream and everyone can let their feelings out in 140 characters or less, but I really felt the anger and shock from the tweets right after the broadcast. Tweeple seem to be big Adam fans. Either that, or the Adam fans are just more vocal.
This has been the most successful American Idol ever. Even with the ecconomy going down the drain, American Idol is more than holding its own. It’s a sensation that is growing. Perhaps it’s because of all the financial uncertainty that people want to believe that they can come in off the street and belt out some tunes and become loved by millions. It’s a belief in a dream that anyone can make it.