David Archuleta and 'Imagine' MTV News Poll Winners

MTV NEWSROOM
David Archuleta's 'Imagine' Tops The 'American Idol' Performance Poll


Posted 1 hr ago by Kyle Anderson in Music

Though most fanatics would agree that this season of "American Idol" is a little lackluster, it has also sparked more debates than perhaps any season since the show debuted back in 2002. How important are the judges? Has Kara DioGuardi improved? Who should replace Simon Cowell? Was the last season the best of all time? Should the show value quality of performance over stuff like vocal strength and musical accuracy? All of these questions have been tossed around all season.


This week's debate surrounded Crystal Bowersox, the "American Idol" frontrunner whose presence on the show has been surrounded by personal controversy (first involving her health, then the story that she nearly abandoned the show a few weeks back). This week, she delivered a jaw-dropping, emotional performance of "People Get Ready" that tore the house down and lit the Internet on fire. The conversation started: Did Bowersox just deliver the greatest performance in the history of the show? And if she didn't, who actually has?


In the first poll we presented this week, Bowersox won handily, besting performances by eventual winners Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood and David Cook. But "American Idol" fans cried foul, saying that our series of nominees came up a bit short. So we rolled out a second poll that featured nominations from fans who had sounded off in the comments section of the blog.


Now that the long and winding road is complete, we can declare the winner of the latest poll. David Archuleta took home the top spot with his rendition of "Imagine," which floored the judges, made the fans swoon and turned Archuleta into a favorite a few years back. He scored a whopping 53 percent of the vote, besting even Bowersox's dominant victory in the earlier poll (this time around, Crystal only mustered one percent). This time around, it was a two man race between Archuleta and the man who finished in second place: Adam Lambert, whose "Mad World" brought in 42 percent of the vote. With 95 percent split up between the top two, the drop-off after Lambert was significant, with only Clay Aiken's "Solitaire" nabbing more than one percent (proof that the Claymates still have some fight in them).

So the challenge is on to the current crop of "American Idol" contestants: Are you better than "Imagine" as sung by David Archuleta? If you are, then stardom awaits.


What do you think of David Archuleta's version of "Imagine"? Is it truly the best "American Idol" performance of all time? Let us know in the comments!