This is American Idol. The show is one of those rare events that draws us together as a country, albeit, a worldwide phenomenon, and captures the intrigue of many of us. We gape at the shameless, cheer the underdog, sneer the cheesy, and secretly channel our inner diva each week as we arm chair quarterback ( if you'll allow me to mix metaphors ) along the way of this epic struggle.
And this year, we listened to the whispers of the electronic media about a certain contestant's sexuality. Beyond the early season parlor games of supposition, the whispers escalated into finale week shouts in the mainstream mass media. NPR, really?
From a personal and professional point of view, I have watched befuddled, bemused and intent and my Idol frenzy reached a peak when on the Friday before the final results show, I received an e-mail from On Camera Audiences: "Congratulations, because of your place on the waiting list you have been invited to attend American Idol finale show." Confident that Adam ( Pictured Adam Lambert on the cover of the May 15, 2009 cover of Entertainment Weekly.
) had this in the bag, I could not wait to see the crowning—anointing—of the new American Idol.
I invited my research fellow and the son of an academic colleague. This out young man shamed me earlier this year with his encyclopedic knowledge of American Idol. I lost the argument that Jennifer Hudson was the third runner-up her season. ( Don't have this argument; you will lose. She was seventh, but it does make for a great bet with the uninitiated. )
We were smug in our early arrival time of 11:15 a.m. to only realize that there were already hundreds of people ahead of us in the line at the Nokia Theatre, many in "Ravinia" style picnics.
Our moment came and were issued tickets for the show: 832, 833, 834, 835—good enough to secure us main-floor seating. As the hour approached we stumbled upon the red carpet arrivals and stood and watched in the hot afternoon sun. We could see the TV Guide platform where all the arriving celebrities would start the stroll around the red carpet. Blake Lewis was directly in front of us stumping for some outlet and Diana DeGarmo was up a bit, nearly unrecognizable with her black-and-blue dyed hair. We saw Bo Bice, Kimberley Locke, Mandisa, Paris Bennett, Jason Castro and others pass us by. The crowd surged as the doors to the Nokia opened and it was our cue to take our seats.
We found our seats, and the stage was alive with crew making all the final set ups. We could easily see the judges table, and lost count trying to figure out just how many AI logos were in the massive theater. The place is huge. The stage was cloaked with down lighting, but we could spy Ryan on his final walk-through of the night.
With palpable excitement and anticipation, at exactly 4:48 p.m., Ryan, Kris and Adam took the stage and faced a camera upstage for the initial shot. The show was off and running.
The next two hours are a blur of headliners, commercial breaks, and discussions with those around you about who was next in the show's line up. There had been a rumor floating in the house that David Bowie would take the stage for a duet with Adam. Carlos Santana jazzed us, Cyndi Lauper was beautifully subdued in her dulcimer performance, Black Eyed Peas were kinetic, Lionel Richie made us party—"fiesta forever"—and KISS rocked like never before. The only real clunker of the night was Rod Stewart who physically and vocally tripped many times during the short performance. Perhaps he was a little bit too well steeled for the evening.
What I know for sure is that any time Adam took the stage the crowd was nearly uncontrollable with their devotion and adulation. The signs for him outnumbered Kris 4-1 … unless it came to the small but disturbingly "knoticeable" Kougars for Kris signs created by those who had stretched the limits of their Orange County bedazzler machines and cricket crafters to make their presence to be known.
It was time. Dim the lights. After a "certified vote" of a record-breaking numbers, the next American Idol is Kris Allen.
What?
The audience was stunned. Even the large screens in the theater seemed to not believe it—it seemed to take a long time to get Kris' name posted as the winner. His prize—to sing that syrupy hurricanes and windstorms drivel that was the song for the winner. The crowd noise, mostly of disbelief, drowned out whatever he was singing through his painful-to-watch- contortions. We left the theater to Kris Allen saying, "I'm going to Disney World" into one of the seemingly hundreds of cameras that had rushed the stage.
Since we had to leave our phones, camera and anything else in the car, it wasn't until I fished mine out of the trunk that I was able to post my disappointment and dismay to my face book and twitter accounts. One on my staff in NYC had already sent me an email asking me if I was okay and wondered if I had rushed the stage in disbelief.
My first post was "America got it wrong." I didn't want to be a spoiler to my west coasters; yet a flood of acknowledgement followed. What surprised me was a comment to a friend's comment that said something like, "come on, it's only American Idol"
Blasphemous.
After sitting through the live show, it has to be clear to anyone that Adam Lambert is clearly more talented as a singer and entertainer than Kris Allen. Even Kris acknowledged this after the announcement. After I got to my apartment and watched the show on tape delay in L.A., I wondered why I didn't hear the same crowd reactions on the show as I did in the audience. In the taped version of the show, the live audience seemed to be limited to visual bumps of the commercial breaks; unless you were in the all female, non-glam leaning, pre-teen mosh pit directly in front of the stage.
So what happened?
Did supposition about Adam Lambert's sexuality prevent him from becoming the next American Idol? Was the whole event so contrived that the decision was made based upon who might have a bigger commercial career for the record label?
I hope not, but have a sinking feeling that at some level, it did. The pink ceiling is alive and well today in America.
In the few days since this travesty, I have heard all sorts of rumors. Adam's defeat was engineered by the Christian Right as revenge for Carrie Prejean and Prop 8. Fundamentalists in Arkansas set up robo-dialing systems that guaranteed Kris' success. Of the 100 million votes, 35 million came from Arkansas followed by Wisconsin! The producers affect the outcome, anyway. It is hard to sort out the reality about reality television.
Most of the people I talk to have had one of two reactions. The first is that, "It's okay, I'm gay and I voted for Kris because he is cute with a 'k'!" or the second is that "you're making more out of it."
I know, painfully, that I live in an increasingly isolated homogeneous world of friends. We spend our days talking to each other more and more, which in fact limits our understanding of those who values and attitudes are different than ours and at some level creates a sense of complacency that we must combat.
Where you stand affects what you see. Those of us who enjoy some level of access, power, privileged, and position must not think that our experience is the experience. Just because we are okay with where we are individually or even as a movement doesn't mean that we are for all of us.
As the dust settles, I think the outcome matters—for as much as it doesn't say as it actually does say. Did even the supposition about Adam's sexuality stop people from voting for him? Did his creative arrangements, dyed hair, eyeliner and nail polish make some voters pause about what that those accoutrements might mean? Given the demographics that are known to watch American Idol, I would say that the answer is yes. They are the sight and sound generation.
American Idol does matter, as it serves as a mirror to what is going on in our collective society. For me, does Adam not winning affect my personal life? This isn't about me. I am of a certain age, with certain privileges and certain access. I don't need to be coy about my sexuality, nor worry that my livelihood would be compromised by who I am. And most likely, probably, the outcome is not about you reading this article.
What matters is how this plays out in the broader culture. Our image matters, and the way that we are perceived is the way in which people assign us their reality. That needs to change—and someday soon, having an openly gay American Idol, or "fill in the blank" will be one of those hallmarks. It's about the teenager who sees and Adam Lambert identifies with him and then is bolstered to take the next step in their life journey. This is about the public psyche message that something so mainstream can embrace someone different than the norm. This is why this vote matters.
In the final analysis, maybe it was that the Danny Gokey voters were more likely to vote for Kris Allen than to vote for Adam Lambert, because they embraced more of themselves in him than in Adam. Or at least they were told to. After all, Kris is destined for the career of Taylor Hicks while Adam is headed to the "also-ran" status of Chris Daugherty and Jennifer Hudson.
J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D., serves as the senior vice president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. Durnil, a 25-year resident of the Chicago area, previously served as the Vice President for Governmental Affairs and University Outreach at Roosevelt University. On June 12, Durnil will begin serving as the acting president of GLAAD while a search for a new president is finalized.
