Jordin Sparks – Finally Someone Whom I Support Made It

(Erm … I apologize if this blog gets too “geek-ish” towards the end. I love watching reality shows such as America Idol because I love to decipher how voters think.)

I think by now anyone who follows the America Idol on TV should know that the 17 years old Jordin has won the competition. And if you have realized, I usually get excited and vocal about the Idol shows in my own website but after two big disappointment whereby someone whom I supported from day one made it to the finales only to emerge as runner-ups (McPhee of Amercian Idol and Jonathan of Singapore Idol), I kept my opinions pretty private this season. By the way, did you know that last season’s finale was exactly one year ago (+1 day). I still have the blog written for the final 3 performance.

Friends of mine who are into this season of America Idol know that I am a fan of Jordin. I like her voice, her smile, and the way she connects to the audience. Throughout the season, Jordin’s performance has been consistence except for the Bon Jovi night. I don’t think she is born to be a rocker. Even Melinda, the most consistence of all, has one bad night. In that sense, I think the only two contestants who have won judges’ praises episodes after episodes are Jordin and Melinda.

Many wished to see Jordin and Melinda at the finale but hey, there are voters who vote for stage performance and originality and there are voters who vote for great voice so while Jordin and Melinda (and to some extend the vocal powerhouse such as Lakisha) all fought for the same pool of votes, Blake cruised into the finale with another pool all by himself. Of course, let’s not forget there are voters who prefer male contestants and others who prefer female contestants. Katharine made it to the finale as the only girl in the final 4 amongst Taylor, Elliot, and Chris. Blake made it to the finale as the only guy in the final 4 amongst Jordin, Melinda, and Lakisha. It is no hard science of course – just a little swing in probability. And I usually look at the racial distribution, age distribution, and etc. in order to decipher the voting results. I even have one theory that those who have landed on the bottom positions (at times the show announces) has a dampening effect on their chance in reaching the top. Look, there are reasons why someone is not having enough votes at some point in time especially if they have not really screwed up their performance. Fan base grows over time. It is hard to become popular in just one episode. And furthermore, I usually pay attention to what happens to those voters whose contestants they support get voted out of the competition. For instance, those who were used to support Melinda (read: they value vocal performance), how would they cast their votes to the surviving contestants? That’s why I love to watch reality shows such as America Idol. Lots of thinking behind. There is one more thing to decipher: why do Cynthia and I always support a different contestant? And you guessed right, we are still not talking … (hmmm)

Enough of boring geek talks. Check out Jordin’s final performance at the finale that totally out-sang Blake on the same song. Jordin, you have made my day.