Lee Like Never Before

I haven't said much about American Idol, besides the mention that I've been beyond ready for Casey to get sent home. This is only the second season that I've watched the show. The first season was two years ago, when Bekah was blogging about it and my curiosity got me to watch, and then I was hooked. I didn't watch last year because I had cancelled my cable in a budget-reduction effort.

This year, though, I'm back. My roommate has watched it since the early seasons, and so our mid-week bonding time is American Idol on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, DVR'd and watched after our respective Bible studies.

With this year's crop, I found myself liking quite a few of the contestants but not any particular standout. Most of them had great voices, but a few failed to deliver. Andrew was one of my least favorites, and he didn't get voted off quickly enough to suit me.

Casey's got a good voice, and he's good-looking but in the way that says he knows you know he's hot. The longer the season went, the more annoyed I was with both his smile and his lack of growth as a singer.

Meanwhile, my roommate took a liking to Crystal almost right away. Her voice is strong and distinctive, and she seemed to be by far the most confident of the top singers and able to deliver a great performance week after week. I loved what she did with Summer Wind, even though the judges didn't, and her rendition of People Get Ready made me cry. I was leaning toward wanting her to win. Until this week.

Until Lee.

Lee DeWyze came to the auditions from his job squirting colors into paint cans at a paint store. He started out the season singing well enough but with a terrible lack of confidence. It gave him a vulnerability that made me want to encourage him, while I hoped each week that he wouldn't get voted off before he could gain the strength he needed. His crooked smile, mixed with a touch of embarrassment, was endearing. But he needed to pick up his game if he had any hope of getting into the final weeks of the show.

He did. He made it to the top 3, and this was the week when they would have to sing twice: once with a song of their own choosing, and a second song selected for them by one or two of the judges.

Casey was OK. Crystal was really good. But Lee found his own this week. For his first song he sang Simple Man. Great. Way better than the other two. Even my roommate started thinking she liked him better than she liked Crystal.

Lee sealed the deal when he sang the song Simon chose for him. The singing starts at about a minute into the video.



Unless Crystal pulls a miracle out of her pocket and Lee crashes and burns next week, Lee is going to win. My roommate thinks so too.