Megan Joy is no more, having flown away, cawing relentlessly, back to her Utahan haven, rejoining her progeny and leaving American Idol 8 with only one singer capable of baffling the audience on a weekly basis.  Out of the Top 8, Adam Lambert is the only contestant that is a complete wild card.  Each and every Tuesday, Lambert could go any number of ways and, in all likelihood, the banshee-voiced talent hoarder has another trick or two up his sleeves.  Kris Allen – often great, but consistently, clinically so.  He's not going to show up on stage in raccoon eye-liner and sing a Moroccan arrangement of an Eric Clapton song or anything.  Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai are of the either/or variety – they either will sing to their strengths and succeed (blues for Matt, ballads for Anoop) or they'll sing to their weaknesses and fail (pop/r&b for Matt, high-tempo r&b for Anoop).  Lil Rounds and Allison Iraheta will do what they do and let their voices carry the load, for better or worse.  Scott MacIntyre will keep working on his hotel lounge performing resume.  Danny Gokey will continue to lead his American congregation in the way only a Gokey could.  Only Lambert brings the madness every week.  But is there any value in that?  Is unpredictability a strength, or is it meaningless? 

As we enter April and the final eight of American Idol, it's pretty easy to take stock of the competition.  There are three singers remaining who have a 0% chance at winning it all: Anoop Desai (the other guys are just too good), Lil Rounds (not going to happen) and Scott MacIntyre (see: the last two months).  The other five singers all have a shot, which is why this season should be exciting from here on out.  With those top 5 grouped relatively close together, with uncertainty reigning supreme, we have to look at the intangibles to see which contestants have the odds on their side, which brings us back to Adam Lambert.  Unpredictability.  Lambert has already been ordained as god's gift to televised singing competitions by the judges on a couple of occasions, and part of this comes from Adam's ability to wow the audience in ways that they hadn't expected to be wowed.  When Adam showed up clean-cut without make-up, looking like Young Elvis, and dropped the hammer on the rest of the competition with his rendition of “Tracks of My Tears” it was impressive on a number of levels.  For pure singing, it was the best performance of the season.  Symbolically, however, is where that performance hit its real mark.

After weeks of high energy, over-the-top, theater-inspired songs, the stripped down melancholy of “Tracks of My Tears” was Adam's way of telling us all that he can (and will) beat everyone else at their own game.  He's no one-trick pony.  However, it is exactly this chameleonic nature that has inspired a cynical reaction from viewers looking for a genuine, real artist.  This argument always strikes me as futile and purposeless – to view Lambert's ability to put on a show, to wear different hats on stage, to be able to go genre-hopping with ease, in a negative light is a cop out.  Like him, don't like him, it's all subjective.  But, because other performers give off an aura of down-to-earth homeyness, or because you feel like you might “know” some of the other contestants better due to their salt-of-the-earth demeanors, it doesn't mean they are putting on any less of a facade than someone like Adam Lambert.  For one, you and I will never know any of these people in our day to day lives.  Our relationship with the American Idols (or any musician) begins and ends with their music.  Who cares if Adam Lambert has no easily relatable persona?  How is that a legitimate reason to make a value judgment about his worth in a competition like American Idol? 

My opinion really doesn't matter, or it only matters as much as every other American Idol fan.  Perception is reality, and even if some haters take what I view to be an unjust take on Adam Lambert's relative merits as an Idol contestant, that's their opinion and the voting will reflect that.  Lambert's ability to traverse styles has one more positive outcome – it allows viewers who may not like one style of Lambert's singing to vote for him anyway.  Chances are if you like Danny Gokey, you're going to like everything he does.  Contrarily, if you don't like Danny Gokey, there's nothing he's capable of doing to change it up and bring you in as a fan.  This is not the case for Adam.

Enough about this – Adam Lambert, I'm sure, will remain a active topic of discussion throughout the remainder of the American Idol season.  This week brings us one of the most palatable themes of any Idol season – Songs from the Year You Were Born.  It's easy, fun to speculate over, and pretty much acts as an 80's theme week, which is always fun.  Look out for our Song Choice Predictions, which will be arriving here on BuddyTV by the end of the day.

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-Oscar Dahl, BuddyTV Senior Writer
(Image Courtesy of FOX)