Though her profile has not exactly exploded since the show’s conclusion, “The X Factor” contestant Melanie Amaro achieved something very impressive when she beat out two contestants who fall into the “white guy with guitar” prototype to win the inaugural season of FOX’s fall music competition series.
On FOX’s spring one, however, it is business as usual. Phillip Phillips won the eleventh season of “American Idol,” becoming the fifth straight “white guy with guitar” to win, continuing in the tradition of David Cook, Kris Allen, Lee DeWyze and Scotty McCreery.
The Phillips victory meant a defeat for Jessica Sanchez, who had emerged as one of the best “total package” contestants ever on “Idol.” That noted, it was always going to be an uphill battle for the teenager–while Phillips had never even been in the bottom three, Sanchez had actually been eliminated at one point in the competition and survived as the recipient of the “judges’ save.”