Carol
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 |  Subject: How Adam Lambert, the Star of American Idol Season 8 Came in Second and Why it Matters  13.04.10 22:50 | |
| - Quote :
- The majority of American Idol fans favored Adam Lambert on May 19, 2009. Adam should have won by a landslide. Social media, marketing data,
Google Trends and any other means to quantify popularity proves that the winner was more popular in only one state. There are repercussions to Adam Lambert's loss and it is wrong for American Idol to continue with their charade.
Yesterday American Idol Executive Producer Ken Warwick commented to Michael Slezak from Entertainment Weekly:
"The guy is an incredible talent, and he had an incredible following. And it kind of upsets me that at the moment he's not doing quite as well," the executive producer said. "I don't know what possessed him to do what he did at the AMAs, but he's still struggling to live it down."
Then Warwick added:
"Hopefully... we can start putting him back firmly where he belongs, as a major star. Because the guy is an incredible talent. He genuinely is. And it kind of breaks my heart to see someone with that much talent struggle a bit. So hopefully we can do back for him as he can do for us."
What Warwick ignores is the damage American Idol caused Adam Lambert. It is not just the flawed American Idol voting system that allows individuals to vote thousands of times each within the two or four hour time frame and then switch to Go Phones with area codes from the other side of the country for additional voting hours. The flawed system can account for a person to have the minority of fans and the majority of votes. What happened in Arkansas was much worse. If Warwick is so hart broken over Adam Lambert's career he should admit that Arkansas changed the outcome of Season 8. It was not American Idol's fault that a rogue AT&T executive misbehaved but it was wrong of American Idol not to expose the truth when it was discovered.
Matt Jordan an AT&T executive went amuck and gave away phones, lent out phones and taught power texting. Jordan admitted to the Arkansas Democratic Gazette that he sponsored Watch Parties for Kris Allen. Jordan is an alumnus of the University of Central Arkansas the same university Kris Allen attended.
According to UCA, "with AT&T, Jordan managed a $1.3 million corporate sponsorship portfolio for a two state region and worked with athletic departments at Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tulsa, Arkansas State and UCA. He also worked with radio advertising, on-site promotions, special events and signage at events." Jordan was a nine-year AT&T employee and not a lowly guy attending a Watch Party but a senior marketing manager with a staff in charge of sponsorships and communication since 2000.
Evidently Jordan believed that power texting was a sport and he was helping UCA out. The motivation in my opinion was the media attention an American Idol winner could bring to UCA, a university that has not had anything to brag about since Scottie Pippen. Shortly after Allen won Jordan ended his career with AT&T and went to work for UCA as the Director of Athletics Marketing.
There were a lot of other irregularities that occurred in Arkansas in regard to Season 8. Businesses and the local government were using Allen's name and likeness at a time when it was owned by American Idol for their own benefit and the local FOX station became a Kris Allen fan site. It all created an unfair advantage that no other contestant could overcome including the phenomenally popular Lambert.
Why it matters is that two things slowed Adam's success. The first was his Idol loss. People out of the Idol bubble did not realize that Adam was by far the best entertainer ever discovered by American Idol. Adam Lambert is known as the runner up. I do not mean disrespect to any of the other contestants from any year but objectively entertainers like Adam do not come along very often. Vocally he is untouchable. He is an artist that can sing in diverse musical genres and in an astonishing range of styles. When you combine his talent with his charismatic stage presence, creative energy, raw sexuality and stunning beauty he is extraordinarily rare.
The second event that slowed Adam's progress would not have taken place without the first. If Adam had won American Idol I do not believe he would have felt as pressured by both the right and the left in America and his
AMA performance would have been tamer. I am not suggesting that his performance was any more provocative than others that night but that Adam was reacting from the unprecedented pressure placed on him by divers spectrums of our society. My opinion is that even though Adam was a gracious loser subconsciously, at least, he knew that he should have won. Rather than knowing the truth about the AT&T assisted votes in Arkansas, Adam believes he lost because America would not vote for the more talented gay man as the winner of American Idol.
Did Adam give us that performance as a form of protest? At the end Adam gave America the finger. When asked Adam said that it was intended for those who do not get him. Adam said "Literally, as I did it, I went, 'Oh god, what am I doing?' " He explained, "I was out of body. You know, the finger was to the people that have been criticizing me. The finger was to the people who doubt me. The finger was to the people that were about to censor me. The finger was not to fans or people who support me at all, by any means."
Adam Lambert's loss and the misconception that it created caused the small puritanical minds in this country to smell blood and attempt to move in for the kill. There is not a discerning music lover who cannot recognize Adam's unparalleled vocals and the brilliance of his artistry, but the bigots believed homophobia won and it empowered them.
The overreaction to Adam Lambert's AMA performance started a lot of controversy and caused a negative response from many in the US who would have bought Adam Lambert's album. If you look at the worldwide google trends it was not an altogether bad thing. Around the world Adam was noticed. Other countries not influenced by our negative media reaction embrace Adam as the next international star. This week's mentoring and performing by Lambert on American Idol will rekindle what America loved about him and help turn the US media produced AMA stigma around. It will surly increase American Idol ratings as well as Warwick acknowledged.
We as a country should know, and the world should know that the majority of Americans are forward thinking enough to vote based on ideas and talent rather than color or orientation. Adam should also know that he was not an outcast in his own country. The majority of people voted for him and he was favored in 49 states. It is time for American Idol to come clean. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2890062/how_adam_lambert_the_star_of_american_pg3.html?cat=2 | |
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