Well, after four months and a record-setting 132 million votes, it's
official: Phillip Phillips is the 11th American Idol. It's hardly the
most surprising finale result in "Idol" history--since many pundits
(myself included) had him pegged as the winner the moment he entered the audition room--but it's not one without controversy.
After four male champions in a row, many "Idol" fans were no doubt hoping that runner-up Jessica Sanchez, arguably the technically best
vocalist of Season 11, would be the girl to break the female curse on
"Idol." And I suspect that "Idol's" powers-that-be were rooting for
Jessica as well. Surely it would have been a fantastic PR development
for the "Idol" franchise (which over the years has, wrongly or not, been
accused of being a closed door to contestants of color or of the fairer
sex, or basically any contestant that doesn't sing rock or country
music) to blast out a press release declaring, "FIRST GIRL WINS IN FIVE
YEARS!"--rather than have to send out yet another anticlimactic
announcement that yet another cute young boy has prevailed.
And it's true that--considering how some of "Idol's" biggest success
stories (Kelly, Carrie, Fantasia, Jordin) have been the female winners,
and that in the real world, female pop singers dominate the charts--it
might've been better for "the franchise" if Jessica had won. But "Idol" fans don't care about
"the franchise"; they simply vote for whom they like, and they vote
with their hearts as well as with their ears. And understandably, their
hearts told them to vote for one of the most likable people to ever
appear on "Idol," good ol' P-Squared...especially after he closed
Tuesday's performance show with "Home," possibly the best coronation
song in "Idol" history. Outraged conspiracy theorists will surely cry
racism or sexism, or some other "ism," when lamenting Jessica's defeat,
but maybe the reason why Phillip won was just more simple, and more
innocent, than all that.
Maybe viewers just liked Phillip's music more. I don't think Phillip
coasted to the winner's circle on boyish charm alone; the guy is
undeniably talented, and I believe he has it in him to make a great
record. I just hope it is a great-selling record too, since,
let's face it, the show's credibility IS on the line. Season 10 champion
Scotty McCreery's platinum success helped restore the "Idol" franchise
after a couple of years of slumping sales, and now it is up to Phillip
to maintain that momentum. It's a precarious place for him to be in,
since rock music is hardly the top-selling genre right now--and it's
very easy to imagine Jessica (who, like every other runner-up since
Season 1, will surely get her own record deal) outperforming him on the
charts. But stubborn Phillip, the kind of uncompromising maverick who
responds to Tommy Hilfiger's style advice to not wear gray by putting on
two gray shirts, is hardly going to let anyone, not even Jimmy
Iovine, steamroll him into making some prefab pop album. And that's not
what his fans want from him, anyway. Some of Phillip's fans might even
argue that he would have been better off placing second, which
presumably would have allowed him a little more creative freedom in the
studio. (Coming in second would have also probably allowed him more time
off to deal with his serious medical issues.)
However, I think there is a place for both Phillip and Jessica on the charts, as long as they both record strong material that plays to their very different strengths and very different fanbases. If Phillip makes music in the future like the wonderfully Mumford-y "Home," he could do very well (Mumford & Sons have sold 2.5 million albums in the U.S. alone, and plenty more overseas), while Jessica has a really great shot too, as long as she doesn't record dreary material like the boring original song she was sadly stuck with this week, "Change Nothing." (Give this girl some snazzier material, Jimmy!)
If Iovine does right by these two, then we may end up with two "winners," so to speak, of Season 11. And that would be the best thing for "the franchise" of all. Parker out.
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