To a member of Team Adam

Mr.Matt McAndrew,

I suppose that I didn't pay much attention to you in the beginning. My favorite was Ricky Manning, not least of all because I agree with Adam and he looks like Joaquin Phoenix.

I noticed that you sang Drops of Jupiter for your knockout, one of my all-time favorite songs, but since they didn't show it I didn't even learn your name.

Come top 20 eliminations, Ricky was gone. I needed a knew favorite. I am a fan of the Beach Boys, but I had never heard God Only Knows. I can honestly say that, though I looked it up after the show, I prefer your version and it continues to be my favorite performance of yours.

It wasn't long before I was hoping you would get through to the finals, because not a Monday or Tuesday night went by that I didn't want to hear you perform.

Your versatility was what really drew me in. I was positive that you could do anything: and you did. Through The Beach Boys, Train, Ed Sheeran, U2, and more, I only became more convinced that you would win. During finals week at my school I listened to the Blower's Daughter on replay because it was the only song that would calm me down.

You sang Bono! No one does that - but you did. Your voice is so pure that it is enough to make someone cry, to make them smile, to make them angry or want to jump up and go on an adventure, and there wasn't a soul in my family that wasn't blown away by your talent.

I want you to know that, hundreds of miles away in a little town in Michigan, there was a sixteen year old girl who has watched this show for years, who watched you get second place, and who knows that if there was ever someone on that show who deserved to win a record deal, it was you.

I watched you chart number one on itunes with a song that you yourself wrote, I watched you go up against two teammates with phenomenal voices and a man with the power to command the stage who ended up beating you, and I watched Adam take to you like I've never seen him take to one of his artists.

I wanted to watch you win.

There was no other contestant on that show whose album I would buy. When you open your mouth, you live every note and vicariously through you, so does everyone else. Adam never said a truer word than after your Somewhere Over the Rainbow performance: the whole world stopped spinning, just for a moment, to listen to something so pure and bittersweet. 

So here is what I have to say to you: This morning I woke up and I prayed that you would have a better life than you ever imagined. I prayed that you would never accept America's decision that you were second best, and I prayed that I would get to hear your voice on a CD sometime soon.

A lot of talented people come and go on that show. I've heard Adam give promises that so far I've never seen come to fruition, but from that show there is no voice I'd rather hear than yours.

I prayed that, if Adam really cares, you'll get a check mark in that box.