American Idol by Richard Rushfield

Author:Richard Rushfield [Rushfield, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hyperion
Published: 2011-02-27T16:56:29.703000+00:00

One by one the divas fell. After Jennifer Hudson, LaToya London went out in fourth place until only Fantasia remained. In the end, it was Fantasia who endured after delivering an intense, out-of-the-park version of “Summertime” that is still referred to as arguably the best performance in the show’s history.

She was joined in the finale by Diana DeGarmo, a perpetually smiling sixteen-year-old from Georgia, whose infectious demeanor was paired with a sophisticated cabaret style of singing.

DeGarmo represented a new category of Idol performer, the stage child. The show aired images of Diana at five and six years old working the pageant circuit, images Cowell said made her look like “the product of a kept farm.” Ultimately, however, he would change his tune, becoming her biggest booster and predicting in the final weeks her ultimate victory.

Along with the new presence of a stage child on the Idol stage, Diana brought with her that ubiquitous accessory, the stage mother. Throughout the season, every decision of Diana’s would be vetted by her mother, every performance critiqued and picked apart. It made for some very hard days for the sweet-natured young singer.

In the end, there was another epic-scaled finale. Ruben and Kelly joined the two finalists onstage to sing a tear-jerking jumbo-sized version of “The Impossible Dream.” After a season of wavering, Cowell gave his vote completely to Fantasia, telling her, “I think you are, without question, the best contestant we’ve had in any competition,” putting her above not only the American contenders but every Idol contestant from around the world. The governors of Georgia and North Carolina showed up to lead the get-out-the-vote efforts for their native daughters, Governor Sonny Perdue of Georgia issuing an official proclamation of “Dial for Diana DeGarmo Day.”

The audience was down just a tad for the Fantasia/Diana showdown, at 31 million from the previous year’s 33 million, indicating at long last, to the competitors’ relief, that Idol’s rise had to stop somewhere—even if that somewhere was fifty thousand feet above sea level. Sixty-five million votes were cast in the decision to make Fantasia Barrino the third winner of the Idol crown and to give the show perhaps the truest incarnation of the Idol mythology it had seen yet. And for once, with a healthy margin between them, the finals did not launch an explosion of conspiracy talk and stolen election allegations. There was reason to think that after three years, they had finally gotten it all just right.

Across the Atlantic, however, a decision was made after which the Idol world would never be the same. After its just okay second season, ITV announced that Pop Idol would be taking a year off. To fill its slot in the interim, they turned to another producer to create a new, rival singing competition. That producer was a man named Simon Cowell.

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