Taylor Hicks did not deserve to win. Unfortunately, the American public is not necessarily qualified to judge any sort of talent. If they were, we would have been spared from quite a few television shows I can think of.
He had a hard core base of fans who voted him in. 10,000 people voting 500 times a night is 5 million. The total vote was higher but his base carried him through.
He is not a pop artist though....