American Idol Winner: Angie Miller

Votes Versus Views

At the risk of making an entire season of American Idol irrelevant, The Inky Jukebox would like to offer at this early stage (and we waited until week two, because week one would have seemed a tad premature) news of the winner.

She’s Angie Miller, and the reason why she alone has demonstrated that the competition doesn’t really matter anymore is that she understands that “being in it to win it” means having a social media team on hand who can capitalize on your TV appearance(s) to promote your work elsewhere immediately.

Oh, and she’s also ridiculously good.

The Inky Jukebox would like to pretend that Angiemania started when the voting did, but really it began the minute the sudden death rounds aired, featuring Angie at the piano giving a rendition of a self-penned tune called “You Set Me Free.” The second she opened her mouth and sound came out our ears pricked up, and so did the judges, which we know because the cameraman captured their astonished reactions. Footage of this has since attracted over 2,760,000 views on YouTube.

The note she hits at 1:11 is the money note. Whatever note that is. Cha-chinggggg.

Anyone visiting Angie on YouTube will find a whole slew of professionally taped videos of her delivering popular songs (often in more interesting versions than the originals, though not necessarily her own interpretations), which by accident or design appeal directly to her core voting demographic. Covers of Taylor Swift, Demi Lovato, Bon Iver (via Bonnie Raitt), and even last year’s cutsie Philip Philips show that she has the chops to compete with the best of them.

Angie has what publicity peeps call “the total package,” in that she is pretty, confident, talented, and can sing and play with apparent comfort and ease. You cannot tell (gasp!) that she’s partly deaf. She’s already her own brand. She’s a little bit Taylor Swift, a little bit Sarah McLaughlan, a little bit Martina McBride.

It is for this reason that her post-Idol future is secure. The Inky Jukebox already wants to buy her album.

Votes…views. Honey badger don’t care ya’ll. Honey badger laughing all the way to the bank.