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American Idol – Taylor Hicks’ Fans Upset By Clive Davis Comments On Finale

http://www.realitytvmagazine.com/blog/2007/05/american_idol_t_2.html

Taylor Hicks’ fans are usually pretty sensitive when it comes to how he is portrayed on American Idol, and they have good reason to be. During the American Idol 5 competition, Simon Cowell was very vocal in his criticism of Taylor Hicks, saying almost everything possible to try to derail a Taylor Hicks’ win .

During the American Idol 6 auditions, Simon Cowell repeatedly took swipes at Taylor Hicks. Cowell suggested that one contestant stick their gum on Taylor Hicks’ face on the set’s backdrop and claimed that a contestant singing a blues song blew Taylor Hicks out of the park.

On the American Idol 6 finale, it wasn’t Simon Cowell, but Chairman & CEO of BMG Label Group Clive Davis, who raised the ire of Taylor Hicks’ fans. Before presenting an award to Carrie Underwood recognizing her success in selling six million copies of her debut album, Clive Davis made a statement that seemed to almost be rubbing Chris Daughty’s success in the faces of Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee.

Davis said “So here’s this year’s report card for the American Idol album franchise. The big news has been the huge explosion of Chris Daughtry. Yes, Taylor Hicks’ new single of ‘Heaven Knows’ can still take him and his platinum album much further. And the new single ‘Love Story’ can still do it for Katharine McPhee. But it’s been Daughtry who’s broken through as the entire music industry’s biggest selling artist of the year.”

Even though Clive Davis’ comments were likely well intentioned, they have not been well received by fans of either Hicks or McPhee on the American Idol message boards. While Davis was likely just trying to acknowledge Hicks and McPhee while he praised Daughtry’s success, it’s also easy to see how the remarks could be interpreted as a dig at last year’s winner and runner-up. Considering all the previous comments made by Simon Cowell about Taylor Hicks, it’s also easy to see how Taylor Hicks’ fans in particular would be perturbed by these comments.