"Everybody's boyfriend" and the "girl next door." That's the way American Idol executive producer Ken Warwick describes the two teenagers who'll compete for this year's Idol title to USA TODAY's Bill Keveney.
Keveney spoke with Lauren Alaina and Scotty McCreery about coming down to the wire with two country singers and which might take the title.
"Scotty and I have a lot of the same fans, so I think it just depends on our performances," Lauren says. "Scotty has teenage girls rooting for him; I have little girls rooting for me. Scotty is going to be tough to beat."
Scotty adds, "A lot of people thought we'd be splitting votes and one would go home early, but they've kept us around and we're just glad to be here."
Keveney also spoke with producer Tricky Stewart, who has worked with both singers in the studio this season.
Stewart says Lauren has a "very special voice," but "She's still very young. You want her to know, 'You've done something not a lot of people in the world even have the courage to begin to do. (And) when you go out there, just be a little more sure of yourself.' Sometimes, she can get in her own head just a little bit."
As for Scotty, "He has an ability to make you feel you're the only one watching him when he's singing," Stewart says. "He's always had a surety about himself. That's what I call 'country swag.'
In Ken Barnes' latest Idol Meter post, he notes that, with both singers headed to the country market after the season ends, which one wins may not matter as much as it does in some years. However, he says, Scotty seems to have the stronger fan base. So if Lauren wants to beat him, tonight might be a good time to dramatically transform a song or sing it so well that viewers forget about the original.