Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-5598112-20170914010126/@comment-1650307-20170915213632

Ben beck wrote: Curious Poker Chip wrote: For everyone who is saying Darci is a shoe-in to win, every said the exact same thing about Susan Boyle and Jackie Evancho and take a look at what happened. Except look at the circumstances. Susan Boyle was hyped internationally as the Second Coming and that created a massive backlash from people who voted against the hype by voting against her. As well, Susan was not camera freindly and the attempts to make her so were artificial and wrong. I still shudder thinking of her in the leather jacket.

Jackie was and is a brilliant talent but sung a genre that did not attract a lot of support. Classical music is a speciality niche and those who like it are famously elitist and particular. Many classical music supporters claimed Jackie should not be performing due to her age and voted against her in protest.

Darci however is more like Grace Vanderwaal of last year. Grace initially got a tremendous boost by performing an original, that was sung in an engaging voice while accompanying herself on a quirky instrument that she played very well. Add into that a winning personality and a sense of humor and Grace had a lock after Howie hit the golden buzzer. She never stopped being that same girl in subsequent performances and her songs just kept getting better. Grace attracted a degree of protest votes, but not many.

The same is true of Darci now. Darci is a more seasoned performer than Grace, but she too shows the same natural talent, winning personality, consistency and quirky-ness. If Darci just sang, it would be a toss-up. But add in her ventriloquism to her singing talent and personality and everybody else is just fighting for second place. Darci is a lock and I am surprised Howie didn't hit the GB when he had the chance. Keep in mind that Neal E. Boyd won in Season 3 for performing similar songs in an operatic style and he had nowhere near as much hype as Jackie. I still maintain that Jackie's loss was an upset, not really to me because I found her a little overrated.

And since when does appearance matter? It doesn't. This is a talent competition first and foremost. Kechi is still in the competition and was even saved by the Dunkin' Save by people on Twitter and she is far from a looker (I am not trying to be rude because I love Kechi). If you are beloved, your looks mean nothing. Susan was an incredibly strong singer, and that is why she was beloved and even had more votes than eventual winner Diversity during the Semis.

And I bet you that Howie was going to press his GB for Darci but Mel B got to her before him, or Christian auditioned first and his opportunity was wasted. Hard to tell.