Adam Lambert: Don’t worry, Elvis would have lost American Idol, too

This year’s American Idol competition was the embodiment of America's culture war. It was never a singing contest.  

Today, I was interviewed on the Sirius radio show “Across the Nation with Bob Dunning,” and I correctly predicted Kris Allen would win the American Idol (AI) title even though Adam Lambert is the true talent and will be a worldwide superstar. Allen will most likely disappear into the woodwork within a year.

Why did I predict this? Because five of the seven past winners have been Christians and all of the past AI winners have come from culturally more conservative states than their opponents. Allen is from a small town in Arkansas, and Lambert is from a big city in  California. Allen is a church leader, and Lambert has never disclosed his religious beliefs.  

The majority of Americans identify as politically right of center. During the 2008 election, polls showed them to be more in line with the values of John McCain than Barack Obama. Barack Obama was able to overcome this hurdle and win the election because he was seen as a moderate. Lambert can in no way be described as moderate on stage. His flashy stage presence and the lingering questions about his sexual orientation put him firmly in the liberal camp.

Last night I reviewed the states that supported Lambert as opposed to Allen on the “Dial Idol” website, and then compared it with the map of red vs. blue states from the 2008 election. There was tremendous similarity. Lambert won many of the same states as Obama. He carried California, Oregon, Washington, New York and all of New England except Vermont. Allen won Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Utah and Arizona.

American Idol is not a singing contest in which the most talented is crowned in the end. It is a show based on a democratic process in which callers—who tend to lean conservative--choose the performer with whom they can identify. The majority seek a winner who is wholesome as apple pie and who share their value system. Additionally, the AI demographic tends to be white, middle-aged females who are slightly more conservative than the average American.

Lambert is an iconoclast and was never the front-runner in this race. He was always the underdog.

Memorable newspaper headlines called the Allen-Lambert showdown: “Good vs. Evil” and “David vs. Goliath.” Did anyone actually believe ordinary Americans would vote for a contestant equated with “evil”?

A Kris Allen win is the expected and a continuation of the same. 

The real story would have been a Lambert win. It would have indicated a cultural shift in America, especially as same-sex marriage initiatives sweep the land.

Elvis Presley’s appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show horrified the masses who thought the singer was upsetting the morals and mores of society.

Elvis was the Adam Lambert of his time.And he would have lost American Idol as well.     

   

Comments

[MarathonH]

Charlotte...i love your piece...really well written...totally agree...spot on!

[MarathonH]

By the way for anyone reading this...Adam now has an offical fansite.

It's www.adamofficial.com

It's got a great video message from Adam thanking us for voting and he explains how we'll be able to contact him via the website.

[annie-darlynx]

OMG
well written .. and it's absolutely right

[Mari]

You´re so right, it´s just sad that it´s still like that. This last week i´ve been reading so many mean comments about Adam and it´s all so pointless...
I always knew he was the most talented, and after last night (cmon: Kiss AND Queen??) i really saw an amazing kind of artist that i forgot existed!!
Love this article, very well written, without diminishing the finalists!
And the Elvis argument´s very precise, i might use it as a catch phase, if you dont mind. lol

[Izrin]

i predicted the same thing too, yet still held out a faint glimmer of hope, but alas... it still hurts, omg!! but how can you be bitter at kris - the fact that adam was so ok about it and the rapport the two of them had made me not feel so bad...

wonder whether the difference was huge or slim. no cultural shift just yet but our dear adam has paved a way. here's to a fabulously fierce career for our dear adam!

[Caren Goodrich]

I am one of those who is "slightly conservative".

I did not vote for Obama.

But I did not vote for Kris Allen, either. Not even once.

My vote was for Adam, I voted for him each week as many times as I've ever voted for an Idol contestant.

So though your analysis is generally in the ballpark, it is not entirely true as I'm sure there are more people than just me who are outside the "liberal camp" yet voted for Adam like crazy.

[Kt]

I keep bringing up the fact that the votes are not a true number. I know of 38 people who voted for Adam for 4 hours as I did and we each received mostly busy signals the first 3 hours and had some connections the last hour. How can a legitimate vote count be tallied this way?

[Bonnielynn]

OH, and another thing. No matter who won the "crown",they are both winners,.....class act men.
I would be proud to be associated with either one.
If it wasn't for Idol, we would not know their musical talents, so that is a good thing

[Thamara]

You hit it right on the head, but in a naive way, I thought when we elected Obama, this Country was in for a major social change. What a dreamer I am. I personally won't be watching Idol again, unless they come up with a new voting System. I had heard about the Go phones and the Gizmo 5 and wondered how this could possibly used fairly. Adam is the maun reasin for the phenominal success Idol enjoyed this Season 8. They will lose a lot of viewers because of this. I hope that Simon listens to public opinion or next Season just might be the last for them all.

[Jeanne]

Excellent article! It would be completely true rather than 'mostly' except for one little fact: the voting on Idol is bogus, since voters 1)can't get through on the phone lines most of the time during the Final, 2)are permitted multiple phone votes, and 3)are permitted endless texting votes! Hence, voting becomes a survival-of-the-fittest-and-richest contest, not to mention it can have a either a 'good' or 'bad' outcome, depending upon a voter's locale and carrier!

Somehow, I think Adam had more voting fans than one might think. It's just that many of those fans didn't vote non-stop for four hours! He may not have had the main teenybopper vote, but he sure had some of it. I'd like to think the 'masses' have moved far beyond the silliness of yesteryear, when an 'Elvis Presley' type was viewed as somehow 'a bit too dangerous'. Adam, dangerous? Too 'out there'? Too 'non-conservative'? Maybe I'm simply too old to understand, but are 'we the people' still really that shallow? I believe most of us are just a little bit smarter than that, regardless of our ages.

[Diana R Windsor]

You wrote what I have been saying all along to people who would not vote for Adam, even though they knew he was the best singer and all-around entertainer on American Idol. Adam is the Elvis of this millennium. He has a lot of fans, but he will eventually win over many of the doubters. I was hoping that since America had voted for a "change" with Obama that "A Change is Gonna Come" would have been Adam's victory song. Apparently, this country is still living in the dark ages. I am a Christian/Catholic and live my life that way, but I recognize talent and the gifts that God has given Adam that he is now sharing with the world.

[LindaJean]

You nailed it. It is what I've been telling people at work over the last couple of months. I said there is no way middle America will let Adam win. After the final two sang their last 3 songs that Tuesday night my local Fox affiliate had their newscasters say "voting is on, I'ts demons vs Angels". Why in the world would they say that. Who is going to vote for the contestant that is being labeled a demon>

[Jlynn]

Thank you so much for this article. I too am a liberal-conservative from the bible belt that voted McCain/Palin. I have to say that Adam Lambert has changed many of my views. Adam was the most talented singer and performer to ever grace the stage of American Idol. I can not believe some of the things that were said about him. It amazes me that these "so-called" angels are the demons that judge people and do not accept people for who they are. Some of these angels need to look into their hearts and see who they really are. They may not be happy.

[Lissa]

The entire voting scandal needs to be addressed - why did AT&T supply Arkansas with phones and free service? It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that 2.8 million people - which includes children and infants - cannot log 38 million votes in 4 hours. We were a party of 8 voting frantically for Adam and in the 1st hour we only managed 2 votes from 8 phones - how is that possible? I'm disgusted with the entire program and will never watch again

[deedee]

I hate hate hate anyone calling Adam Lambert Evil!!! The ONLY Evil that existed in this entire debacle was the right wing christian groups led by that hateful pastor pruitt who voted against Adam because he was gay and jewish. I wish people would stop with the good vs evil crap!

[AussieFan]

Yeah looked what happened to Elvis he became a massive international star and is still king today. Need I say more.

[Pat]

The way votes are collected on AI should be changed. There should be an accumulation over the weeks. One bad night should not eliminate someone. In addition, I am a workflow analyst for a call center. BUSY's can be counted! If anyone dials the number and gets a busy signal, it should be counted as a vote. This is something that call centers rely on to determine the schedule for call-takers. I would like to know all the stats on the votes and they should be made public. Otherwise, I think they are not being honest with the American public. Adam is the most incredible artist they have ever had on their stage. Unless they do something about the way the do the voting, I am also finished with them. I am usually a conservative middle-aged white female, but I love Adam and cannot wait to see him in concert!

[Darcey]

“Dial Idol” is bull, most people text vote now. The reason Adam did not win is the 38 million Arkansas votes.My Arkansas relatives know that this is correct. Follow the tour. The only state that Kris has had more fans then Adam is in Arkansas. Adam has 75 to 90% of the fans every where else and Kris is booed every night. Google Trends, Betting lines, marketing research all point to the fact that Adam is far more popular and should have won.