Talking about Adam Lambert on another thread reminded me about how much eye rolling I did to get through his performances on Idol, which made me think in turn about other contestants and performances who I really did like. These two performances, off the top of my head, I remember as real and soulful and just...cool. The first kid was 18 years old, the second 23. (sorry for all the host blah blah)
I remember them all for the wrong reasons, but on reflection there was a little ginger kid a few years ago (he was only 16) who had a pretty good voice for his age.
Melinda Doolittle from AI a few years ago was a deep and genuine talent as well. Unfortunately her lack of personal charisma doomed her in the AI climate. AI rarely keeps their genuinely interesting and unique people around long. With some exceptions, they usually end up with a pretty homogenized crop of people near the end. Canadian Idol (now cancelled) was much bettter at that, though the eventual winners were ultimately pretty dull.