I like calculating the speeds for these song in a blind manner. Does tempo have an effect on song success? Apparently not! It’s all about *how* you handle a speed. In the slideshow below you’ll see that of the middle speed of all American Idol songs is between 106-107 beats per minute. Exactly 50% – or 6 – of the original have been kicked off after singing song slower than 107, and the other six were booted after sing from the faster 30.

So we see that it is not the speed itself which determines whether the song is successful enough to not get voted off the show – it is all about timing. Ok. What is the difference between timing and tempo? Tempo is the movement of the song, the speed itself. *Timing* is the manner in which the artist makes his or her way through the movement of time. For example, the superstars of timing this week, in my opinion, were David Cook