Ten years ago, the best Idol group ever appeared on our TVs. I'm talking about Group 2 of American Idol season 8 of course. This group went on to have four of the top five contestants in Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta and Matt Giraud, and adding in Megan Joy Corkery, five of the top ten. As a whole, it had a lot of favorites, and just winning the three spots from this group was a good predictor of the final outcome. It's an episode I'll rewatch pretty frequently. Check it all out after the jump (lots of goodies)!
Back then, Idol had a performance night and a results night. The top three vote getters made the top nine, with three more contestants (expanded to four) making up the Idol finalists after being picked in a Wild Card competition. Performance night was interesting, and the judges really hammered on the contestants for poor song selection. Matt Giraud's mangling of Coldplay's Viva La Vida sent him to the wild card round, and opened the door wide for contestants like Kris who had been completely under the radar to shine.
It was still tough though to make that top three: you had your crazy contestants who could sing (Tatiana)(ed. She's in group one, oops. She's still crazy.), your crazy ones who couldn't (Norman) and some other talented contestants who also wanted to make their stand (Megan, for example). Adam and Allison delivered dynamic performances. Allison in particular was the best of the night in my opinion with a killer cover of Heart's Alone. I voted for her, to be honest. But I did enjoy Kris' performance of Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror and it was the first time I took note of him the first time I watched season 8. (Pay attention, because this is the only time Idol bothered to show anything of the infamous cover of Everything by Michael Buble!)
Updated! @krisjonin sent me this awesome behind the scenes video where Kris and others from group 2 decide on their stage names:
And this interview with Kris:
On to results night! These always started with a fun group number, and I secretly loved this one where Group 2 takes on Closer by NeYo. If you listen to it carefully (they are lip syncing), you'll hear a lot of Kris in the vocals. Idol was stealthy!
Then it was time to deliver the results. Allison is in first. Matt, Jeannine, Megan and Kris are brought up in the second group and tortured thoroughly before announcing Kris won. He's jubilant and it's nice to see the other contestants and his family so happy for him. Not to mention, Simon and Paula are visibly happy. Adam is in the last bunch and they unsuccessfully try to make us think that Norman actually beat him. Simon is hilarious about this.
Did I whet your whistle? You can watch the group 2 performance full episode here and the results episode here. There are also a ton of fun interviews with Adam, Kris and Allison. This one is my favorite.
And here's a few mp3s from all this! Happy to share since Idol took stuff off of iTunes.
- Kris: Man in the Mirror performance
- Group number: Closer
Next time: We'll pass by group 3 and the wildcard rounds (they're on the channels with the full episodes if you want to watch them) and skip to Top 13!
Past Kris Allen on Idol recaps:Audition in Louisville
Hollywood Week, rounds one and two
Making the top 36
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