American Idol Research Paper

This week on American Idol, the top seven contestants will perform. I'm not in the same flow as the rest of America, so here is my picks in ranking these seven contestants, although my favorites may not win. Just like a Presidential election, that is why we vote! 1. Kristy Lee Cook- Kristy is my personal favorite, even though she may not win. I love her vocal range, but her choice of songs has been kind of weird. One week, she sang "Eight days a week," by the Beatles obviously, but she tried to make it into a country song, and it so did not work. She was listening to the judges, but frankly, she stunk up that song. But she survived the cut, and later gave a rousing rendition of "God bless the U.S.A," which happens to be one of my all time
Possibly because of her Barbie-doll good looks...but definitely not because of her talent. And we all know the former can only go so far, and American Idol voters proved they'd finally had enough and eliminated Kristy Lee Cook after the Mariah Carey song week. I will admit that the ups and downs of Kristy Lee Cook definitely had me hooked for a brief moment. A record-breaking number of times in the 'bottom three,' yet still escaping elimination; her candid and embarrassing comments to Simon (i.e. "I can blow you out of your socks..."); and little hand-written notes predicting her seat during elimination night... Perhaps that had added to the number of votes Kristy Lee Cook had scraped in to keep her in the competition, helping her escape elimination by the skin of her teeth. But all drama aside, we have to remember that this is a singing competition, and true American Idol fans and loyal voters will eventually prevail when it comes to weeding out the hype vs. the talent. Kristy Lee Cook's performance of "Forever" during the Mariah Carey song night was actually one of her stronger performances. She was able to show off her vocal range while avoiding off-key notes on the softer parts (even though Randy had a different opinion on that), and really seemed to connect with the audience by showing some emotion during the performance. Simon's critique was that Kristy Lee was "smart" but also that it "wasn't great." Regardless, her elimination was not a direct result from the previous night's performance, as many other contestants' eliminations are. Kristy Lee Cook's elimination was a result of an over-time loss of likeability and lack of true talent, and the fact that the remaining American Idol contestants are simply superior entertainers. I will, however, commend Kristy Lee Cook's last performance. She started out her "goodbye song" sitting atop the judges' table, gazing deep into