Reduced to a fan-girl

(Disclaimer: This is an entirely fan-girl post. So please refrain from squirming or rolling your eyes, cos I already warned you.)

For the past few weeks, I’ve been religiously watching American Idol and getting myself charmed by a little fella who really didn’t strike me as a star initially, mostly because he didn’t share the same screen time in the lead up to the Top 12, nor the swagger and charisma as this other guy who has been screeching his way to the top. But week after week, he continues to impress me with his musical artistry (as one of the judges love to put it) and show the world that he’s not just a singer, but a real musician at heart. And that’s exactly what I like about Kris Allen.

At first, I wasn’t too keen on this season’s Idol cos no one really stood out. Matt Giraud came close cos I was blown away by his performance in the Hollywood round but the others who were constantly featured were off my radar as their voices didn’t quite sit well with me. Then the Top 36 came along and when I heard that some dude wanted to sing Man In The Mirror (a song I can put on repeat for hours), I had to sit up and take notice. And whaddya know, it was not bad.

So I started looking forward to Matt & Kris, with the former disappointing me more each week, and the latter rising up the ranks. Then Kris performed 2 songs that completely did it for me. His interpretation of Ain’t No Sunshine was pretty damn spectacular and sealed his position as the dark horse of the competition. And because he still needed to win me over (heheh), two weeks later, he performed a very heartfelt rendition of one of the most beautiful songs ever written – Falling Slowly. I first fell in love with this song when I saw the movie Once, and for weeks, I couldn’t get the song out of my head. I played it every day; I had it on repeat, so when Kris didn’t ruin it for me and somehow made me love the song even more, it said a whole lot.

Now in the Top 3, Kris reinforced his artistry (there’s that word again!) with this bold but amazing take on Kanye West’s Heartless (no kidding) which got everyone talking.

At this stage, I don’t care if he doesn’t win, cos I know he’s gonna get a decent record deal and people are gonna buy his albums. In fact, like last season with David Cook, I’d actually prefer if he didn’t win, cos I think the label of “American Idol winner” doesn’t give any one a whole lotta brownie points in the “street cred” department… But that’s just me.

Tagged as: american idol