From Melinda Green, of the Top Idol blog. These are more or less my sentiments, though there are other reasons I have for liking Kris (I prefer his voice and his singing style, it's not all just about believabilty for me. Though of course that's a big factor too), and I am a Kristard).
She was responding to a post on her blog, I think (it's late and I'm not fully awake).
There is a lot of stuff about Lambert I’m not a fan of, but I don’t hate the guy. I’m not into that kind of voice. It’s not my thing. (I hate big-voiced female diva singers, too.) For me, my problem with Adam (and I have talked to many other bloggers about this) is that I did not ever buy his connection to the music. I need to see someone connect emotionally to a song. I always felt like he was acting. People can joke and call me a Kristard, whatever. I’m not. But I like the guy. And he grew on me more with each passing week. I felt he chose songs that resonated with him. I think his Ain’t No Sunshine was one of my all-time favorite Idol “moments” in retrospect.
I’m also going by what I witnessed live when I attended the Top 5 rehearsal. I think it also says something that both of last season’s film industry mentors, Jamie Foxx and Quentin Tarentino, both commented on how Kris Allen connected to the music. That he “got it.” Lambert was praised for his voice, but never about the connection. It’s ironic, really, since he’s basically a trained actor as much as he is a singer. Believability was why I preferred Allen over Lambert. Period. Feel free to take it up with Jim and Slezak, too. People who make a large part of their career covering Idol share similar sentiments.
There is a lot of electronic music I love, but I’m more into dubstep than house. I’ve seen lots of performers like Lambert before, so I don’t consider him an original by any stretch, but yes, he WAS original for American Idol. He was something different from what they had on there and hey, that’s great. I thought he was a great thing for the show. But for me, his best Idol performance will always be his final Hollywood Week performance — Cher’s Believe. (I am a gigantic Cher fan anyway, so…I was so excited to see it performed on the show.)
What I don’t like about him is that he often sticks his foot in his mouth and he’s not established enough to be anything but gracious at this point in his career. I also firmly believe he cares more about fame than music. Perhaps some of this could have been avoided if he had not been/was not overpimped to death. What a lot of people don’t realize is that last season, many of the same people who were turned off by the Gokey pimpage were also turned off by similar behavior/attitudes towards Lambert. It’s the same reason David Archuleta lost the year before.
I never bought Archie’s connection to his songs, either. He was too damn young, perhaps. In fact, the only teenage contestant I’ve actually ever loved is Allison Iraheta. She was something extraordinary when compared to everyone under 18 they’ve ever had on the show.
The problem is that Lambert’s uber-fans can’t handle any criticism of their rock god (oh, and he is so not rock & roll. anyway…) when he’s still a relatively young artist. Making such claims about him being the next Elton John, Elvis, Madonna, et al so soon in a person’s career isn’t going to do them ANY favors. It’s just setting you up for disappointment, and turning others off who think these statements have very little if ANY validity. Selecting Lambert as the first-ever Idol contestant to come back and mentor is just furthering this delusion.