Early on in the fourth season of American Idol the powers that be dubbed the season the battle of the rockers, because for the first time ever, AmIdol had not one but two rock vocalists as prime contenders. First, there was
Constantine Maroulis, a music-theater veteran singing overheated, outdated grunge who dominated the audition rounds, becoming an early favorite. His rival didn't appear until the tail end of the auditions. His name was
Bo Bice, a bearded, long-hair who seemed as if he stepped out of central casting for a Southern rocker.
Bo catapulted to front-runner status as soon as he belted out a gritty, soulful version of "Whipping Post" in one of the first shows of the season. It was easily the hardest-rocking thing ever heard on American Idol and as the weeks went by,
Bo proved that he was versatile, singing ballads as effectively as the rockers -- a feat that proved to be a bit of a stumbling block for
Constantine, who truly shined only when he acknowledged his bent for theatricality, as on a startlingly good version of "Bohemian Rhapsody" (much, much better than
Paul Rodgers, who fronted
Queen later in 2005). Soon, that lack of versatility became
Maroulis' Achilles' heel and the battle of the rockers petered out into a competition between
Bo and
Carrie Underwood, a sweet girl-next-door country singer who eventually won the tightest AmIdol contest since
Ruben Studdard squeaked out a victory over
Clay Aiken on the second season.