Favourite American Idol Seasons: #6

#6 – Season 2

The low ranking for Season 2 is mostly due to my personal taste. If relativity never mattered, this season would have been a few notches higher. At least six of the finalists are competent. That equals to roughly 50 per cent ratio of quality singing.

Okay, Josh Gracin (a sixth of the aforementioned competent contestants) contributed some below-average misses. Yet the ratio is still higher than Season 3 and Season 8 combined. Oh yes, it is that good!

For one, the final three contestants easily ranked among the all-time best contestants who delivered consecutive solid performances after another, barred a few missteps. Kim Caldwell and Trenyce are very consistent performers as well, although the former went home too early before peaking while the latter had not aged well over the course of eight seasons (given that many contestants would follow her path later, making the false impression that Trenyce is a more ordinary contestant than she really was).

Even when we take a look at the villains here, none of them reach the unbearable level of John Stevens or Ace Young or Sanjaya Malakar or Lil Rounds. For once, such also-rans also did not overstay more than they are welcomed.

So why the low ranking, you ask? The technicality might or might not be at an all-time best. But as good as Ruben Studdard and Kimberley Locke were, I can barely recall how exciting they were. I blame it all on the lack of memorability. This is the season with the least performances that I would put on repeat over and over again.

I can count a grand total of two such performances: Clay Aiken’s Here, There & Everywhere and Kim Caldwell’s Come To My Window. Surprisingly, neither were among the season’s best performances. With this being said, I guess being impressive is not the only point of the show. Or perhaps Season 2 did not manage to grow on me as much as other seasons did.

Whatever, this is still hardly my idea of a perfect season. And in case if you are wondering why the write-up is much shorter than the previous two seasons, let me just say that this season has a serious shortage of memorable moments that I cannot even find much things to talk about. Too bad, because some of the contestants (especially Clay Aiken and Kimberley Locke) actually delivered a truckload of really jaw-dropping vocal performances, as far as technicality is concerned.

Best Night

I got to give this to Final 5 – 1960s / Neil Sedaka.

First of all, the show managed to accomplish the best possible Top 5 after the elimination of Kim Caldwell, which is why there were no more serious trainwrecks on the night. Yes, Josh Gracin gave a couple of uninspiring performances. But it is still better than, say, anything Carmen Rasmusen could have churned out on that multiple-song night.

Ruben Studdard was as consistent as usual, while Trenyce had one of her better nights (she deserved to stay for another week, by the way). The true gems of the night, though, came from the other two contestants.

Kimberley Locke’s rendition of Where The Boys Are is a remarkable throwback of the classic number. Her sweet vocal complimented the song well, boosting it as one of the best performances from the season.

Clay Aiken, on the other hand, delivered two near-perfect performances: Build Me Up Buttercup and Solitaire. The sheer vocal brilliance made it the second best pair of performances ever performed on American Idol (after LaToya London’s showstopping couple of big band numbers).

Ranking of Finalists

01. Clay Aiken (Best performance: Solitaire)
02. Kimberley Locke (Best performance: New York State Of Mind)
03. Kim Caldwell (Best performance: Anymore)
04. Trenyce (Best performance: I Have Nothing)
05. Ruben Studdard (Best performance: A Whole New World)
06. Josh Gracin (Best performance: I’ll Be)
07. Julia Demato (Best performance: Son Of A Preacher Man)
08. Vanessa Olivarez (Best performance: Out Here On My Own)
09. Charles Grigsby (Best performance: Overjoyed)
10. Carmen Rasmusen (Best performance: Hopelessly Devoted To You)
11. Rickey Smith (Best performance: One Last Cry)
12. Corey Clark (Best performance: Drift Away)

Honorable semi-finalists: Jordan Segundo, Chip Days, Aliceyn Cooney

Top 10 Performances

01. Solitaire by Clay Aiken
02. Unchained Melody by Clay Aiken
03. New York State Of Mind by Kimberley Locke
04. Build Me Up Buttercup by Clay Aiken
05. Bridge Over Troubled Water by Clay Aiken
06. Mack The Knife by Clay Aiken
07. Band Of Gold by Kimberley Locke
08. Where The Boys Are by Kimberley Locke
09. I Have Nothing by Trenyce
10. Inseparable by Kimberley Locke