Idol Chatter & Voice Views

In this year’s American Idol video interviews, all the golden winners were asked to name their favorite Idol moment.

Now, this was in no way a scientific survey. I’m not even sure what question the contestants were asked. The answers ranged from their favorite past contestant to their favorite single performance.

Many even talked about their own experience on the show.

Some of the answers fit the contestant’s personality. Remember Holly Hardin, the gal who showed up for her audition dressed as a guitar. Her favorite Idol moment was William Hung’s audition, one of Idol’s all-time worst.

Some of the answers clearly had a backstory. Remember Rose Flack, who was on the dysfunctional Team Diva with bikini girl Katrina Darrell in last year’s group performance? Her favorite moment was last year’s finale, when Kara DioGuardi interrupted Katrina’s song with a bikini flash of her own.

Anyway, just for the fun of it, I decided to tally up how many times past Idols were mentioned as a favorite by the season nine contestants.

Which contestant was named most often?

Are you ready?

It’s a bit of a surprise.

Season three winner Fantasia Barrino was mentioned 23 times. Her emotion-filed performance of “Summertime” was specifically mentioned nine times, including by two of the 24 season nine semifinalists.

Trailing right behind was Kelly Clarkson with 21 mentions. The moment of her triumph, and her subsequent performance of a “Moment Like This” was the favorite Idol memory for many of the contestants.

The other former contestants mentioned most often included Adam Lambert with 17 mentions, Carrie Underwood with nine, Kris Allen with eight, Danny Gokey with six and Katherine McPhee and David Cook with five each.

What did this year’s semifinalists have to say about their favorite Idol moments?

The guys:

Alex Lambert: Jason Castro’s rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” in season seven. Why? Because Jason played the ukulele for that performance. Alex plays the instrument, too.

Andrew Garcia: Danny Gokey’s story of perseverance and his performances.

Jermaine Sellers: Fantasia’s performance of “Summertime” in season three.

John Park: He recalls being in junior high school when he saw Kelly Clarkson win and described it as “pretty amazing.”

Jose Munoz: Watching Carrie Underwood win in season four.

Lee DeWyze: Kris Allen’s piano rendition of “Apologize.” Said Lee: “I play that song on the piano. I thought, watching it, ‘I totally wish that could be me.'”

Michael Lynche: When Kris Allen defeated Adam Lambert. “It shows you never know what people are looking for, and you just have to believe in yourself.”

Todrick Hall: Fantasia’s victory in season three.

The gals:

Ashley Rodriguez: When Jordin Sparks won. “I met her in person. She seems really sweet.”

Didi Benami: Watching Brooke White’s performance of “Let It Be” in season seven.

Haeley Vaughn: Adam Lambert’s performances. “Every performance he did was outstanding and left me in shock and awe.”

Katelyn Epperly: The moment Kelly Clarkson won. “I can’t imagine what it would be like to be the first American Idol.”

Katie Stevens: She says she loves the Idol finales, when the winners are announced. Best of all was when Jordin Sparks won “because she’s young like me.”

Lacey Brown: The video montage of Paula and Simon on a date.

Lilly Scott: The season eight finale, when the Idols got to perform with “huge stars” from the music industry.

Michelle Delamor: Adam Lambert singing “A Chance Is Gonna Come.” She called it “the most amazing performance” she’s ever seen on Idol.

Paige Miles: Kelly Clarkson’s rendition of Celine Dion’s “I Surrender.” “I watched her with my jaw on the floor, amazed by all those notes she was hitting.”

Soibhan Magnus: Fantasia’s performance of “Summertime,” which she called “one of the most incredible performances through the entire series.”

Like I said, whomever was doing the interviews allowed for a pretty wide range of answers.

Contestants weren’t forced to look back more than a few minutes for their favorite Idol moment.

Heck, Crystal Bowersox said her favorite moment was that very day, when Shania Twain signed her guitar.

And Tyler Grady was clearly on cloud nine during his video interview. After all, Simon Cowell had just called the Pennsylvanian’s audition “memorable.”

“Never in a million years would I have thought he would say that,” Tyler said. “That means more than anything I’ve ever heard in my life.”