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Does the Winner Take it All?by Sherry Sochacka -- 07/09/2003
View Printable version of this article Clay Aiken is now being hailed as the second Elvis. Within a few short weeks, he has shot from superstar to megastar. And yet, he was only the runner-up on the recent American Idol show. His album, as yet unreleased, has now hit the #1 spot in the Amazon pre-sales list. It rocketed up there within a few hours. The album, which is not being released until late August at the earliest, and more likely September, is not even finished yet. On the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, Ruben Studdard, American Idol 2 winner, entered in second place with “Flying Without Wings,” while Clay's 'This is the Night” shot to #1 out of nowhere - a feat only accomplished by eleven other people in the rock era. Ever. In fact, according to Billboard, Clay had the highest one-week sales total for a single since Elton John's “Candle in the Wind 1997” (the remake with new lyrics dedicated to the late Princess Diana). And according to Idol Chartwatch, July 7th, ‘This is the Night’ has now amazingly sold nearly a million copies. What's going on here? How come the winner is not achieving the same dizzy heights of success as the one who came second? There is no precedent for this on American Idol - Kelly Clarkson won and has remained very popular. But it's happened before in the UK. There have been three shows in the UK similar to American Idol: Pop Idol and two editions of Popstars. Pop Idol was the prototype for American Idol, and before Pop Idol there had been the first Popstars. In two of these shows, the runner-up, like Clay, has since outpaced the winner. Popstars was a search for a group as opposed to an idol. The five people that won, three young women and two young men, formed the group Hear'Say. At first, they achieved great success, going straight in at #1 in the UK charts and being invited to perform on the prestigious Brit Awards show. But in Britain, winning could prove to be a bad idea. Hear'Say lasted about a year - a year in which they were dogged my poor publicity - before further losing popularity when one of their number left, and later disbanding. The runners-up got together after the show and formed the group Liberty X. They were marketed very well - better than Hear'Say - and are now going from success to success. The winner of Pop Idol was Will Young. The runner-up was Gareth Gates. Will has not been seen on the charts recently, whereas Gareth has just had a very popular hit with “Spirit in the Sky,” made in aid of Comic Relief, a British charity event which sends money to disadvantaged people all over the world. I doubt very much that Ruben will sink without a trace; he’s too good for that. But his fans are not “rabid,” as Clay's fans have been accused of being! Clay's relegation to second place on the AI2 show fueled Clay Nation's ardor (if it needed fueling). The provocative Rolling Stone article and photo shoot revved them up to fever pitch. And people fell in love with Clay all over again when they heard about the problems he had endured with his biological father. Clay's CD then shot to #1 on the Billboard charts, accompanied by a long Billboard interview (Ruben was also interviewed) where Clay described the life-events leading up to his being in the finale of AI2. And now he's already #1 in Amazon pre-sales. Clay left America a superstar. After spending a couple of weeks relatively incognito in London recording songs for his album, he returned a megastar. While Clay was in London, Rolling Stone was being snatched off the shelves all over America, and Clay had become an even hotter property than he was before. His songs, already full of emotion, began to hold even more allure than before if possible. A description from a message-board captures this very well: “Clay can be both innocent and devilish; pure, yet sexy. He is a copper-haired, freckle-faced manchild and a hip-twitching heartthrob, with a voice that is both angelic and seductive.” This was then reflected in the subsequent successes of his CD sales. On his return from London, he was already #1 on the Hot 100. And all this before his first album has even been released. Some are pushing an investigation of the voting system used by AI 1 & 2 – more from an ethical standpoint than to re-decide upon a winner. But the fact remains that the outcome of this contest was determined more by the vagaries of the phone system than by actual votes attempted. If all the failed votes cast had been able to be counted, then the outcome may have been different. We will probably never know. But as Tara Weiss of The Hartford Courant says, ‘In today’s pop-culture arena, (...) even losers are winners.’ And, it could be argued, second-place can turn out to be a much better prize than first place. Yes, Clay would have been wildly popular whether he won or not. But as Hear’Say and perhaps Will found out, first place does not always get the empathy vote. As Tara Wiess points out, our heart goes out to someone who didn’t get first place, because we understand them. We’ve been that person, many times over. And it makes us even more determined to support them! Clay had already stolen many hearts around the English-speaking world. He has charisma, charm, wit, good looks, a fabulous voice, a great camera presence, an electric connection with women; he’s chatty, interesting, unassuming, a consummate professional; he’s had experience as a presenter, and it shows; and he’s daring enough to bare his emotions to the whole world (and it takes some courage). And ding dang, didn’t he ‘lose’ well? No-one could have lost better than Clay did. He was supremely generous in defeat, and stole our hearts all over again. How could somebody who lost so well, not win? Not turn out to be a star? Ruben won, and good luck to him. But at the moment, Ruben the American Idol is being eclipsed by Clay the American Icon. It seems the winner does not always take it all. Sherry Sochacka is a freelance writer, therapist, and songwriting- and life-coach from the U.K. She can be contacted by email at sherrysoc@supanet.com. Be sure to sign up for the RealityNewsOnline/FoxesOnIdol e-mail update so you can stay informed about new articles on both sites! For all of our articles, check out our sections on American Idol, American Juniors, Fame, and Canadian Idol. Also make sure to check out RealityNewsOnline for recaps and articles covering other reality TV shows. For even more news about reality TV, be sure to check SirLinksALot! View Printable version of this article
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