Kris Allen - "Live Like We're Dying"

Pop music in the 2000's owes so much to American Idol.  The reality show juggernaut introduced the world to so many different artists (remember Clay Aiken?) turning the radio into a non-stop promotional machine for the show and its many artists.  One such artist is Kris Allen.  Allen will forever be known as the guy who beat presumed winner Adam Lambert in the 2009 finale.  Allen's version of The Script's "Live Like We're Dying" turned out to be Allen's biggest post-Idol hit.

The Script - "Breakeven"

Sometimes the song itself is good, but it's a memory attached that really strikes a chord.  America cried along with the story of a Chicagoan named Chris Medina.  Medina performed The Script's "Breakeven" during his American Idol audition in 2011 and managed to put tears in the eyes of judges Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez.  Two years prior, Medina proposed to his girlfriend, Juliana Ramos, who happily said "yes".  Ramos was later seriously injured in a car accident just two months before their wedding date.  Medina put the wedding on hold to tend to his fiancee who was now wheelchair bound.  "What kind of guy would I be if I walked out when she needed me most," Medina said at the time.  (Every story has the "other" side to it, but I won't spoil this story with some not-so-flattering details of what else happened to the couple.)