<<< Lauren and Scotty do their tribute to Abba in these white outfits!
I said something about American Idol on Boom 973 yesterday with KJ that I want to clarify.

I don’t hate country music. I was joking around and saying that the Montgomery Gentry song that Scotty sang Tuesday night (Gone) sounded like heck, we might as well go back to the Civil War. Yeeha. I was kidding. But if country music was squashed during previous seasons because ‘X’ American Idol judge Simon Cowell hated it, it certainly was back with a vengeance this season. American Idol- Country Strong.The first and second finishes of two country singers solidified that statement with a big red, white and blue bow wrapped around it.

Last night’s results show spoke to an American Idol demo that had been previously ignored. Yes, there was Carrie Underwood but think about how crossover Carrie had to be. She had to sing every genre and she did so very skillfully, because she was after all, Carrie Underwood.
I’m convinced now that Carrie would have been star with or without American Idol.
You don’t look at Carrie Underwood anymore and think American Idol.
Let’s face it, it also helped that Underwood was young, blonde and beautiful. Okay, maybe Cowell would allow country through- JUST once.

Scotty McCreery’s American Idol crowning however, spoke to a demo that had previously been ignored-very young female country fans. Think about it. As much as everyone said they were never watching American Idol again, the show grabbed 122 million votes. The most amount of votes ever in American Idol history.  However, the numbers are deceiving. The average voter voted 6 times. So roughly, 20 million people voted 6 times each. Who does that other than young girls? Young boys were not going to pick up the phone and vote for Lauren Alaina six times. Even if she was Megan Fox, they weren’t going to vote.

I think Lauren is the more talented performer of the two American Idol finalists. She has a better voice than Scotty and she has a much more polished stage persona. Scotty looked like his arms were broken when he sang with Tim McGraw.
Scotty had two people to thank for last night’s American Idol trophy. The absence of  Simon Cowell and the presence of super producer packager Jimmy Iovine. I’m still not convinced Iovine has the golden touch ( he didn’t know what to do with Thia or Pia and that wasn’t brain surgery). I think, however, he was given the permission to let American  Idol singers hone their genres early. I think it made more financial sense for American Idol to tell the audience what they were buying. No one really sang the genres of the week. For the most part, Pia always sang a ballad. James always rocked it out. Casey always sang jazz. James always sang R and B. etc. American Idol producers are freaked out as hell that X Factor is going to wipe them off the map and last night Fox was scrambling for every last nickel.

Last night’s show was full on shilling and marketing. From Judas Priest crawling out of their crypt to perform with James (coincidently kicking off their world tour) to Spiderman to  to J.Lo’s creepy husband, Mark Anthony to the Beyonce show to Lady Gaga to Steven Tyler to well placed Fox actors and actresses in the audience to Gladys Knight getting a plug for the Tropicana in Vegas..haha.. It’s ridiculous. It’s over the top. It’s wrong and of course, I’ll watch next season.