American Chose the Right 'American Idol' Winner

American Idol is supposedly a singing contest where the best singers are expected to make it week after week and end up on the big finale stage for America to choose its idol. But as past seasons have shown us, even the better singers get dropped while lesser talents move forward. But even then, majority of the grand-prize winners in American Idol won deservedly.

Scotty McCreery was a crowd favorite from the very start. This teenager seems to own a voice that belongs to a 40-year-old man. He has such a deep baritone that it borders on basso profundo. Add to that his southern drawl and you’ve got a disarming country singer. The other finalist, Lauren Alaina, may technically have a better voice but what McCreery lacks in talent and technique he more than makes up for in charm. He is a marketable performer.

Ironically, both finalists are basically country singers but Alaina is more versatile having a voice that can do country as well as pop and with higher range. McCreery had no strayed too far away from his country roots. He had no choice. His voice is not too well matched for pop, jazz, rock or any other genre. So he stayed country and he won being country.

Even though American Idol is marketed as a competition for vocalists, the judges and the voting public don’t base their judgments and criticisms solely on singing. Just like the recording industry, Idol judges and the public look at the contestants as different packages. Voice, looks, and personality come into the fore. In this sense, McCreery is the better package than Alaina.

It might reinforce the theory that majority of the public that bothers to send in their votes to Idol are of the female persuasion of the 12 to 25 demographic. With that in mind, Alaina didn’t have much of a chance against McCreery. But even if this theory is wrong, on cursory observation, the country boy deserved to win over the country girl. American got it right.

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