Kris Allen Still Thinks Adam Lambert Deserved “American Idol” Crown
He’s still reeling from his Wednesday victory, when he was named the latest American Idol, but the always-humble Kris Allen says he still thinks runner-up Adam Lambert deserved to win.
“I feel like Adam deserved it just as much as I did,” Allen told reporters during a conference call. “He was the most consistent person all year, and seriously, one of the most gifted performers I’ve ever met. We became great friends, and we told each other that day, ‘You deserve it’… And so, I think it could have gone either way. America couldn’t have gotten it wrong.”
As Allen starts thinking about what kind of record he’d like to craft, he says the Idol experience has taught him to change his procrastinating ways. “On the show, I felt like the times I worked the hardest were the times that I did the best, and the best things happened,” he said. “So the biggest thing I’ve learned is the harder you work for the thing that you love the most, the [more likely] everything that you want is going to come true.”
Looking back on his final performance of what would become his first official single, the Kara DioGuardi-helmed “No Boundaries,” Allen says the song was a tough one to perform. Despite Simon Cowell’s harsh comments about the tune, he says he actually likes what DioGuardi came up with. “The track sounds really good, but, doing the live performances, just doing them acoustically on guitar and piano, it fits me a little bit better,” he says. “To have your first single not be something that you were a part of writing is a little bit weird, but I can’t complain.”
Allen says he’s looking forward to working on his album, and when asked what fans can expect from his debut, the Idol champ says if you watched the show, you already know what to expect.
“For me, I felt like I did exactly what I wanted to do on the show that I would want to do on a record. When I went on the show and did ‘Ain’t No Sunshine,’ I felt like that was the kind of stuff that I wanted to do, stuff that has that feel, that moves people and has that feeling. I know its going to be great.”
For many Idol viewers, Allen was, at the start of the season, an unknown. The program barely focused on him or his story, barely showed any of his audition, barely showed him during Hollywood Week, and by the time he’d made it into the Top 36, and then into the Top 13, many were wondering where he’d come from. He said it was frustrating at first, because he didn’t know why he wasn’t being featured.
“I was shocked,” he said. “I felt like I had done my thing, and a lot of other people were getting shown. But for me, that’s kind of the way I live my life. I’m kind of laid back and low key, and every once in a while, I stick my head out and that’s sort of how I did the competition. And it worked out.”
Check out photos from the grand finale — and all our Idol coverage from the memorable Season Eight.