Although I live in the UK, I have been an avid fan of American Idol this year. I became hooked at the audition stage and have followed it through to the bitter end, often staying up until the early hours just to find out what happened on the show. During the first couple of weeks of the competition proper, two of the contestants stood out for me: David Archuleta and David Cook. When they became the last two standing, I was delighted; when David Cook was finally announced the winner on 23 May, I was over the moon. Yet almost immediately, the result was classed as a "shocker", with people claiming that the results must have been staged.
Of the two Davids, I must admit that David Cook has the voice and personality that appeals to me the most. Whereas I enjoy the odd ballad, I much prefer rock music and I like my singers to have a bit of grit in their voice. A little bit of a swagger when they perform does not go amiss either. David Cook ticks all of these boxes for me. When he sang, I sat up and listened. I loved the fact that I never knew what to expect from him. For the first time ever - and bear in mind that I have always enjoyed talent shows like American Idol, I went on-line to see what I could find out about him. I downloaded his American Idol songs to my ipod. I listened to some of his pre-Idol music and loved everything I heard.
Despite this leaning towards David Cook, I do think that David Archuleta is the more vocally talented. At just seventeen years of age, he has a pure voice that is a joy to listen to. When he sang "Imagine", I actually cried - and I am generally a hard-hearted cynic. I have absolutely no doubt that he has a marvelous career in music to look forward to and not winning American Idol will not alter that one bit. However, he does have a lot of growing up to do. While fantastic on stage while singing, he does struggle with interviews and comes across as being gauche and rather timid. He is only seventeen, after all.
By the time it reached the finals, both Davids had their fan bases. David Archuleta seemed to have the "tweens and older ladies on his side, while David Cook had won over those in between. Singing-wise, they both had some sterling performances and had both had very flattering comments from the judges. Then on the performance night of the finals, it seemed that David Archuleta was going to walk away with the prize. The judges praised his performances, while being rather less complimentary to David Cook. Simon Cowell went as far as to say that he thought it would be a "knockover' for Archuleta.
When David Cook's name was announced as the winner, there was wide-spread amazement in some quarters. I must admit that, even as a David Cook fan, I had expected David Archuleta to win. More or less straight away, conspiracy theories appeared on blog discussion threads: Simon Cowell had deliberately criticised Cook in order to galvanise his fans to vote. The producers had rigged the show to make Cook win because he was the more commercial of the two. Cook's fans, being more wealthy than Archuleta's had multi-voted until their fingers bled. Cook shouldn't have won because he already has an album out/is too old/is scruffy.
Whereas I can understand that fans of David Archuleta are upset that their boy didn't win, I find it rather depressing that people can't just accept that, on the day, the best man won. David Cook won by a significant margin, after all, and there is no doubt that he is a talented singer. The fact that he also writes his own music will also stand him in good stead. And ultimately, the fact that he won the competition and Archuleta came second will not be important - that will depend on the hard work that they are prepared to put in. In the mean time, let David Cook enjoy his win. He deserves every little bit of it and I think it was absolutely the right result.
