After Lee DeWyze was crowned American Idol instead of Crystal Bowersox, an amazing thing happened. I finally understood why Adam Lambert lost Idol. It just took me a year to figure it out. Okay, so I'm a little slow. But judging from the goobeldygob of irate stories and reviews that followed the competition, a whole bunch of folks are even slower than me.
I'm slow, but I'm not the slowest. That's always a comfort.
Last year, Adam Lambert was amazing on Idol and he lost. Okay, some of his post-Idol antics made me a wee bit glad that he lost. But still, the thought remained kicking around in my head until this season. How did Adam lose? How could he be that good, that far above the others, and still not win the whole thing?
This season turned out to be deja vu all over again. There were all the others and then there was Mama Sox. Just like last year, the judges would periodically slide in a sly comment about her superiority. Once she was accused of being too certain that she'd win - a charge she protested heartily. On Tuesday her final songs outclassed Lee's so easily that she looked like a sure thing. But then again, so did Adam last year after his final competition performance.
But this year, my feelings were different. This year, I was hoping that Lee would pull it off, and I cheered when he did. Last year I just walked away from the finale bummed. You know what, Simon's last interviews made me think that he'd had the same transformation as little ole' me, little Mrs. Nobody from the Redneck Rivera. (Heck, if I was gonna have something in common with Cowell, couldn't it have been my bank balance?)
That's why it took this year to make me understand last year and to possibly predict next season. Now that I get it, I'll be able to watch the process happen and chart it in my twisted little brain. What is it, you ask?
CINDERELLA DIDN'T START THE STORY GARBED FOR THE BALL AND OUR KIDS AREN'T BORN AS TEENAGERS. Adam and Crystal started the competition as world class singers. That's why they lost.
It doesn't happen every year and in the years when it doesn't the world class singer who started the show will wind up with the crown. But in the years when one of the contestants starts off the season as good, but not great and then starts to grow and change and freakin' emerge right before our eyes - that's the contestant to keep your eyeballs on. That's the one apt to steal the crown from the singer who started out destined to win.
Great is only great. All you can do when you hear somebody take that stage the first time and knock it out of the park is to go, "Wow. Great." There's nothing for me, as the viewer, to root for, to anticipate. But "could be great" is an entirely different ballgame. The contestant who's unsure of himself, who's a little shy, and walks out and sings well but doesn't claim the stage and the audience - that guy or gal has some growing to do. And he or she will do it right before the eyes of the audience.
If Cinderella had walked into the story garbed for the ball, readers wouldn't have cared what happened to her. So the prince finds her and the slipper fits, so what? If our kids were born as teenagers, we wouldn't be all that involved with them. They'd just pop out as these annoying people who claimed to be entitled to something from us by virtue of the fact that they existed. There's a reason that God sends the teenagers-to-be here as wee, little helpless ones who can't walk or talk. It's because God knows that the growing, the becoming, will change us from watchers to participants.
Last year I never got drawn into the Kris Allen camp. But this year was different. This year I started out as a firm Bowersox supporter. She was good, consistently good and sometimes great. She looked like a shoe-in. But then, Lee, the quiet, shy dude who never sparkled much started singing better and better each week. The judges noticed and started urging him to believe in himself, to believe it and and he could achieve it. Sure enough, little by little, Lee started to sparkle.
Mama Sox was never bad and I do think she out sang Lee at the finale. But Crystal was, unfortunately, always good and that leaves very little room for growth. But Lee had room to grow, room to shine. So when the judges told Lee to believe in himself and he could be great, America started believing in Lee too. After all, America is a country founded on hope.
Today, in the darkest days many of us have ever known, when so many of us have lost so much, the one thing we haven't lost is hope. We believe we can be great individually and we believe America can be great collectively. We could believe in all that and so we could cheer for the young man who was growing and becoming right in front of our eyes. We need something to believe in and root for and Lee gave us that.
If American Idol were ONLY a talent competition, then the best singer should win. But if it were ONLY a talent show, then viewers wouldn't vote. The winner of American Idol is more than a singer. He or she is also, and perhaps most importantly, a symbol of the country that believes that greatness is a growth process.
That's why Adam didn't win last year and it's why Crystal didn't win this year. Both were the best performers of their seasons, but they didn't - couldn't - give America what we needed before we'd give them the crown. This year Lee showed us growth. He showed us how a dreamer becomes the dream. He showed us what America is and bolstered our sagging faith in our ability to grab our own brass ring.
Lee won because he risked more to change and grow and achieve. And America rewards the risk-takers. Our country was built on and exists because of young men and women donning uniforms and risking it all to keep us free and safe and strong. Lee wasn't wearing a uniform, but he was wearing his heart and his hopes and his dreams right on his sleeve.
DeWyze was the American dreamer who still believed in the dream. He reminded all of us that we still could - we still should - believe in it too.