Hey all I've been lurking and only sporadically keeping up with the show this season, I'd say I reckon Amy might win out of those three.
One thing I did seem to notice a bit more this year was how contrived some of the pre packages are, couldn't recall if back in the day it was quite this dramatic or it was case by case.
Now it could be me just being cynical, but the second set of the Top 21 week in particular almost every one had a bit of drama, and I could imagine maybe the producers were like 'hmm ok now really play up this aspect in your VT, it'll give the judges something to launch their comments off a bit more' kinda thing. I went back and revisited Wes Carr's Black and White as I'm watching CBBUK5 with Jermaine Jackson atm, and in that particular one his biggest cioncern was if Dicko would think it was daggy or something like that.
Also as I mentioned last year sometimes the Rose Coloured glasses are in effect where we remember the early seasons as being super world class performances and slightly more tecchnically glossy than they actually were, when in reality for every truly showstopping Climb Every Mountain there were also some that came off pretty casual and pedestrian budget and a bit rough vocally like it was a night down the Karaoke bar too.
Yeah it was the same placing Jennifer Hudson came in the same year on American Idol (2004). That year saw a whopping 26 or something singles hit #1 on the ARIA chart and iirc like a third of those were Idol related, even ones like Joel Turner who didnt even make it past auditions and had Mark Holden championing him and getting behind him. A fair few were also cover versions like Shannon Noll and Cosima. It seemed like they could've released basically a nursery rhyme and it'd have a high chance of charting high just based on the insane novelty and hype the show had in the early days.
Compare that to today where even the winners have a hard time (the last American Idol I'd say made some waves over here internationally was maybe Jordin Sparks (2007) or Phillip Phillips (2011). And not saying it can't happen, its subjective on some levels and bit of a grey area but in a general sense that initial hype factor has waned A LOT. But OTOH also part of it comes back to how hard the artist wants to work/promote/chase or what they want out of the exposure.
Not everybody 'needs' to get Taylor Swift 2023 levels of fame and sustain it for a decade plus, look at someone like Carly Rae Jepsen who did Canadian Idol, had a delayed kickoff when Call Me Maybe gave her 'One Hit Wonder' status to some, but to her cult fanbase she's collected shes setlled into a pretty comfortable inbetween zone where she's continued chugging along.
Even some that tried out but popped up again randomly later - like iirc Tori Kelly when she started getting some success had been on American Idol Auditions a few years earlier, and was I reading that Benson Boone guy thats blowing up atm also tried out for one of the recent American Idol seasons? Then there are artists that had some success earlier and come back just to try out for a second wind on shows like The Voice to varying results.
It's also funny how superlative they get sometimes I have noticed too. Like Ricki Lee introduced that David Guetta 'Remember' feat artist I cant even rrecall the name right now without looking it up (was it Becky Hill?) song that Ivana sang as 'one of the biggest hits of the decade' and I was like 'in what country Ricki Lee? Ive heard it on the radio but come on its not like its 'Titanium' or 'We Found Love' or something.
They also werent mentioning which chart the group single apparently 'went #1' on. ITunes? Airplay? Because it definitely wasn't the main ARIA singles chart (like it could've 20 years ago with Rise Up's popularity).
Although fair play to Ricki Lee herself when last week it was announced she'd gone #1 -on the Australian Artists album chart - I was like ok well done, but also a tad skeptical like what did it actually come on the main ARIA Albums chart that dosent filter out any non Aus artists? and It's come #3, behind Ariana's New album and ahead of the swath of Taylor Swift spam over the past several weeks. And iirc she released it on an Independent label or something so I'd call that a very solid result that's not overly fluffed up or skewed to give it more weight IYKWIM.
