American Idol/Awesome
- Kris Allen. "Heartless". His performance is so awesome that Randy Jackson declared it "better than the original and better than the Fray's version." It is so awesome that some consider it the only reason he made Top 2 and the main reason he won the entire competition.
- Adam Lambert's performance of Mad World made Simon Cowell do a standing ovation.
- Anybody that has the balls to sing Jigglypuff's Song for their audition deserves a trophy.
- Haley Reinhart's performance of House of the Rising Sun was enough to get Robert Plant and Jimmy Page to give her permission to sing any Led Zeppelin song she wanted. Just wow.
- In season 5, the top 4 was made up of early favorites Taylor Hicks, Chris Daughtry, and Katharine Mc Phee, as well as Elliott Yamin, who had not received much, if any, screentime before making the top 24. Despite being widely regarded as a fantastic singer, he was predicted to be the contestant to leave once the final 4 were announced due to him being less popular than the other three. But not only did Elliott sing well enough to escape elimination, he escaped the bottom 2 entirely while Kat and Daughtry wound up in danger (I think we all remember how that ended...); the fact that a contestant received more votes than two early favorites (possibly three; he could have easily beat out Taylor) due solely to his two fight-back performances that night is a fantastic achievement. Elliott went home the following week, but it's hard to deny him the awesomeness of his acheivement of outlasting the best-selling male AI contestant ever.
- Going on to outsell the two contestants who beat him is pretty awesome too.
- Season 10's James Durbin, who was diagnosed with Tourette's and Asperger's as a kid, brought Heavy Metal into the show for the first time in its history. He managed to bring in Zakk Wylde and got to perform with Judas Priest in the finale.
- The saves of Season 10 and 11:
- In Season 10, the judges saved Casey Abrams by cutting him off almost as soon as he started to sing, which made him think he was getting eliminated, and then telling him he was saved, which almost literally shocked him.
- In Season 11, they saved Jessica Sanchez by climbing up on the stage while she was singing, commandeering the microphone, actively putting her on the seat, and then ranting to America about how they're supposed to vote for the best. Even Ryan Seacrest said that the judges "did the right thing."
- Phillip underwent multiple kidney-stone surgeies during the competition. The fact that he was able to brave the pain (and eventually win the whole thing) is simply unbelieveable.