ClayManiacs

Idol Review, Kelly Clarkson
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On September 4, 2002, Clarkson won the competition, earning 58% of the audience vote over Justin Guarini, who had previously been leading. As the newly crowned “American Idol”, Clarkson performed the ballad “A Moment Like This”. Clarkson, Clay Aiken of season two and Carrie Underwood of season four were the only contestants in American Idol history who succeeded in staying out of the bottom three places in weekly voting results. Clarkson and Underwood both went on to win the competition, while Aiken became runner-up. Clarkson later told the Ft. Worth Star Telegram: “Look at me. I’m from Texas and I’m white. So what does everybody think I’m gonna sing? Country. I love country to death, but I’m too bluesy…Soulful and bluesy, that’s what I’m all about”. She also cited Jimi Hendrix, Billie Holiday, Aretha Franklin and Reba McEntire as her influences.

In seasons 2 and 3, the 32 semifinalists were split into 4 groups of 8, who would compete for 2 slots in the finals. After 8 were chosen, a wild-card round featuring singers who were previously eliminated but whom the judges felt deserved a second chance gave the audience the chance to select one additional contestant through viewer voting, while each judge selected an additional singer to advance to the finals, filling the field of 12. It is worth noting that the season 2 runner up, Clay Aiken, was the viewers’ wild card choice (reportedly Aiken garnered over 8 million of the 11 million votes cast that night), having originally fallen short to eventual winner Ruben Studdard and third-place finisher Kimberley Locke in the second round of 8.

`Idol' wannabes get help from voice coaches
By Philip Chaffee
Columbia News Service
Published February 20, 2006

NEW YORK -- The first time Heather Elmer of Salt Lake City tried out for "American Idol," about three years ago, she didn't make it past the initial audition. So this season she went all out. Elmer hired a local voice teacher who had had success in getting students selected for the show.

"Thirty percent of how well you do is your voice," the coach told her, "the rest is the presentation."(snip)

Influential force

"American Idol" has had a huge impact on network television (it's the No. 1 show in the country) and the record business (superstars such as Clay Aiken and Grammy winner Kelly Clarkson have come from the show), and it also has had an impact on voice coaches.

(superstars such as Clay Aiken

We come to the largest category of our semi-finalists, the pop singers. This is a category not always well served in the competition at least on the guy side of things. RJ was the best of season 1 as Justin was thought of as more R&B. Clay was more Manilow or Groban than mainstream pop singer. He was more of a niche pop singer which is not a bad thing given all his success. Season 3 really lacked anyone as JPL was more eccentric performer than singer. There was Matt Rogers... never mind... whatever. Anthony Federov fell into the same category as Clay for me which, as mentioned above, is not a bad place to be. For season 5, Patrick Hall, Ace Young, and Elliott Yamin fill the male pop role. And all of them will do it justice I believe. From what we've seen, these 3 guys should finally bring mainstream male pop into the contest in a big way. I could see them all in the finals, but I think Ace is the only lock as of right now. Hopefully, that will change to include Patrick and Elliott.