Long-shot Kris Wins American Idol
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100 million votes cast in final showdown.
Arkansas student Kris Allen was unexpectedly crowned the winner of American Idol season eight in a tense show finale on Wednesday night.
The 23-year-old was stunned by the result, “This is crazy,” he said after being told that he had won America’s ultimate talent show accolade. A record-breaking number of people voted in one of the closest finals American Idol has ever witnessed, nearly 100 million votes had flooded in according to Ryan Seacrest, the show’s host.
This season’s favourite, Adam Lambert was a magnanimous loser, particularly having given some mesmerising performances including a duet with Kiss. Adam must have been secretly disheartened not to win a competition that he has stolen the limelight for most of the weeks that he has performed.
In an unusually gushing statement from judge Simon Cowell, the media mogul couldn’t separate the two singers: “I thought you were both brilliant,” he said at the live results, “I think that both of you should be very proud of what you achieved last night, and the future’s all yours.”
Despite Cowell’s coy comments, the momentum was certainly with Adam. Even his victorious opponent seemed certain that Adam was destined to be Idol champion: “It feels good, but Adam deserves this,” Kris said. After the defeat, a cool Mr Lambert said: “For me it’s not really about what happened tonight, it’s about tomorrow”.
Of course, Adam knows the game and so can not be too distraught about coming second in a competition that will propel him to stardom anyway.
Previous Idol “losers” such as Jennifer Hudson have gone on to carve their niche in the entertainment history, whilst in the UK, lovable stutterer Gareth Gates came second in the inaugural season of Pop Idol before going on to sell 3.5 million records.
