Lee DeWyze Emerges as the Favorite to Win American Idol Season 9

In past weeks, Lee DeWyze has been closing the gap on stand out vocalist Crystal Bowersox to win the coveted American Idol title. From the beginning of season 9, Crystal Bowersox has been the one to beat. With her throw back to Janis Joplin-style, great vocals and down to earth personality, Crystal was crowned the early winner by many critics. Today Lee DeWyze is listed as the odds on favorite to win American Idol. Bodog.com today has Lee at 2 to 1 odds to win with Crystal at 3 to 2 odds. How did Lee DeWyze finally overtake Crystal Bowersox in the polls?

Lee DeWyze has progressed through the American Idol competition to become the favorite.
Lee DeWyze started American Idol with a 50 to 1 odds to win due to his lack of confidence. He had the voice but suffered from lack of stage presence. Lee finally came into his own on March 30th when he performed "Treat Her Like a Lady" by the Cornelius Brothers. Lee's confidence was quite apparent and he finally seemed comfortable on stage. The judges marked this as Lee's "moment." Simon Cowell was even quoted as saying, "I've always believed in you, I want you to go back and watch this back and know that this is the point where your life may have changed forever!"

As Lee DeWyze has made great strides forward, Crystal Bowersox has had a few recent lackluster moments on American Idol.
Crystal Bowersox is a solid vocalist and performer with rarely a bad moment. But there has been a few cracks in her repertoire in recent weeks. At a time when all performances have to top the previous one, Crystal Bowersox had a few back-to-back weeks that seemed uninspired. One such performance was "Can't Always Get What You Want," a Rolling Stones song. I would like to have seen more variety in these latter weeks in Crystal's performances and more risks taken.

The Lee DeWyze fan base seems to be growing as the American Idol competition nears an end.
Lee DeWyze has been gaining more fans as the competition narrows. He has over 41,000 posts in the Lee DeWzye forums on the American Idol website. Crystal Bowersox has over 33,000. Lee also seemed to have the largest hometown crowd when the three contestants (Lee DeWyze, Crystal Bowersox and Casey James) all took hometown visits. This increased fan base helped Lee's standings.

It's pretty apparent that both Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox will have successful careers, regardless if they win the American Idol title.

The American Idol finale airs on Tuesday, May 25th at 8/7c on FOX. The American Idol results show airs on Wednesday.

Sources:
www.americanidol.com
www.bodog.com