The only season that I faithfully watched American Idol, this song was the winner. The singer, Phillip Phillips, in my mind seemed to come out of nowhere and then suddenly emerge as the undisputed winner. I hardly noticed him until he was in the final round. And then I really wanted him to win. And he did.
I’d been watching American Idol with a friend. She was into the show. I wasn’t, but I was curious about what the big deal was, so I suggested we get together and watch the show each week and experience it together. When it was all said and done we marveled over how it was that we’d hardly noticed Phillip until he won.
We looked back on his past performances. It seemed that every time he’d performed he’d sounded good but there hadn’t been anything to draw attention to himself. He got up there. He performed his assigned piece of music. It sounded great. The show moved on. Phillip was just a very solid performer. The other singers each seemed to have something special about them which the judges (and I suppose the audience) oohed and aahed over. I remember the second place contestant, a little girl named Jessica who had an incredibly powerful voice. I remember Jennifer Lopez, one of the judges, wondering aloud just how such a big sound could come out of such a little body. Several times. Other singers had varying distinguishing characteristics like that. But no one ever said anything like that about Phillip. He was just… there.
And then when there were only four contestants left he kind of exploded. Everyone noticed he was good looking, had a great voice, could nail any tune, and he went all out in performing his final song. Marching band drummers and everything. He even left Jessica in the dust. And when he was announced as the winner, he couldn’t even finish his performance because he was crying so hard. That of course made him all the more endearing.
And it’s a great song. It’s sung in a heartfelt way. It’s the kind of song where the lyrics are vague enough that the song could easily apply to just about any situation. Come to think of it, while listening to it this morning I realized it could even make a great therapy song.
