"No Boundaries" is the 2009 winner's single of season 8 of the reality television show American Idol. It was co-written by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi, along with Cathy Dennis, and Mitch Allan. It is the first single for winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert. It was first performed on the May 19th American Idol final performance show by the season's winner Kris Allen, as well as the show's runner-up, Adam Lambert. A demo performed by Kara DioGuardi herself has leaked onto the Internet as well, but remains officially unreleased. Both Lambert's and Allen's versions of the song, however, were released to digital music retailers on May 20, 2009. It is the second American Idol winner single that was released by both winner and runner-up. The first single was "Inside Your Heaven" of season 4, released by winner Carrie Underwood and runner-up Bo Bice. It is also the second American Idol winner single that is not on the debut album of the winner, after Taylor Hicks' "Do I Make You Proud" in 2006, although the song is included in the deluxe edition of Kris Allen's debut album. It was performed on Britain's Got Talent by young boy band Connected. Reception The song overall has received mixed reviews. Between Kris Allen's version and Adam Lambert's version, Allen's has sold more digital downloads to date. Former American Idol producer Nigel Lythgoe described hearing the song as the "only downside" of American Idol's Grand Finale. Misha Berson of The Seattle Times called the song "perhaps the most tuneless, hackneyed earful of 'inspirational' junk that any American Idol has been saddled with in their last chance at victory". The lyrics of the song have attracted particular criticism, with Gil Kaufman of MTV describing them as "a titanic mound of turgid clichés", citing the chorus "every step you climb another mountain / every breath is harder to believe / you’ll make it through the pain / weather the hurricane / to get to that one thing / when you think the road is going nowhere / just when you’ve almost gave up on your dreams / then take it by the hand and show you that you can". Billboard reviewed each version separately. On Allen's version, they gave a mixed review, by saying "Even though Allen sings lines like 'there are no boundaries,' his modest presentation implicitly recognizes there actually are. And though he