MSNBC Craig Berman Nailed AI 5

Berman's insightful view into AI 5 begins with:

"It seems like only yesterday that Carrie Underwood was the reigning “American Idol” and Taylor Hicks was just some gray-haired geezer Simon Cowell didn’t think was worth sending to the Hollywood round. Now Hicks is the newest “Idol,” and Simon is giving himself credit for predicting it all along, much like he credits himself for the success of the Beatles, U2, and the “Da Vinci Code. ”"

Berman then points out the difference between Bo Bice and Taylor Hicks, why Hicks was able to win over the more "Idolesque" McPhee and Bice could not conquer Underwood:

"This season seemed to offer a similar contrast, with Hicks up against the more conventional Katharine McPhee in the final. But while McPhee was a lot younger and had the face of a stereotypical “Idol,” Hicks managed to personalize his performances in a way that Bice could not during the previous season."

This is well said in that it points out how Hicks waged an intelligent and well-thought out plan to win this show, whereas Bo Bice, let the pieces fall where they lay without advance strategy. Bo Bice had a delivery that was set and wrote in the style of the songs he performed. No one ever said, "he made it his own treatment", or he put the Bo Bice stamp on that song; that he "Biced it" like with Taylor, and the many references to his Taylorizing a song. "In the Ghetto" a prime example. Not that I am knocking The Biceman, I am a fan of his as well, but this season's AI with what Hicks brought to the show created a whole new phase to this program and could be the defining point where we see whether A.I. can do this again next season or if Hicks' influence may have created the beginning of the end. Taylor Hicks will be a tough if maybe not impossible act to follow. It may be what the producers had feared from the beginning. I was just glad that 19E and American Idol got the message this season.

Groove on Soulman!