Oh, okay... while I still disagree with your pessimistic view of Mr. Hicks, I get what you mean.
Very interesting, and I can sort of see what you're getting at. But I think his flat range is probably between p and mp only... he seems to get through the really soft passages okay. But then again, I'm no music teacher, so I wouldn't know.
But then again, ranged against Katherine last night, whose first song was great (again) but who still went off key when she went into Harmony in the middle of the second song, and who suffered from a poor composition in the last... (seriously, who's the idiot who wrote that? He had her singing for minutes at a time in a register too low for her!)... he seemed a good bet.
His first song was pretty snappy, his second one sucked, his pitch was all over... heck, I thought it was kind of mushy the
first time he sang it, too... but his last number was pretty good.
Poor Kat... I thought she did a terrific job on a song that really wasn't suited for her. Last night was one of the few times that I felt that she deserved a win. Haven't felt that since the last time, over a month ago... for three or four shows, I thought "she's the one."
As to whether America will see the likes of Kat and Paris in the future... Kat's already there, with a record contract already signed... despite my gripes with her live performances, I think she'll make a great recording artist.
Paris? She still needs a lot of polishing. She's another one who can't sing in p.

...lots of potential there, they've just got to teach her to stop oversinging everything.