Lee DeWyze Illustrates What American Idol is All About

Lee DeWyze deservedly won this year's American Idol contest. Lee seemed to wake up somewhere in the middle of the finalist weeks of the singing contest. A. I. judges go through the often painful process of deciding who goes on throughout the initial selection process, but once the group narrows down to the top 10 and the voting process begins, they no longer decide who stays and who leaves.

They give their opinions each week on the contestant's performances and try to give advice on what each performer needs to do to improve. There's no doubt that the judges opinions each week influence viewers of the show, but in the end, it is all about the artist finding their audience and that needs to be an audience who will actually pick up their phone and call in their vote.

If people like certain performers, but they don't bother calling in to vote, they often see their favorites leaving the contest early. Such may have been the case for Michael Lynch, who was this year's one-time save by the judges. There is no doubt that Michael displayed the talent to be among the last remaining finalists, but had lower numbers in callers, so he was due to leave early on in the top 10 rounds. The judges knew this could not be allowed to happen, so they gave him their one and only allowed vote to keep him in the contest.

Lee DeWyze always the perfect look and voice for today's audience, but did not show the winning personality in the beginning of the voting phase, but it was enough to keep him the contest. About half way along the process, as he began realizing that he was still there, he appeared to "get it"! He listened to the judges consistently tell him how good he was, but needed to realize and find his confidence.

Once he realized that people did love his performances, he knew it was indeed possible to win this. Each week he displayed that confidence and showed it more than any other contestant. The more confidence he illustrated, the more the judges commented on it, which added to his audience of actual callers.

In the end, most still assumed that the consistently great performances of Crystal Bowersox would keep her in the top position, but Lee just gained enough votes to pass her.

American Idol loves having that "surprise ending"! Nothing spikes more popularity for the show than surprises. I have to admit that I was surprised when they announced Lee was the winner. It wasn't that he should not have won, because he has that very likable personality and the perfect sound for today's music. It just appeared that Bowersox was solidly set in the top spot because she never gave anything but great performances, every week.

In the final week, the only thing that matters is who gets more people to pick up the phone and vote and Lee DeWyze was that person this year. There was only a 2% difference in the votes between Lee and Crystal.