Thursday, May 16, 2013

American Idol Season 12 - Top 2 Perform

Hello Idol fans and welcome to season finale week!  It's been a rough year ratings-wise (and maybe talent-wise) for Idol.  It's tough to tell how much juice the show has left in its engine.  But, we will get yet another revamp next year with likely an ENTIRE new panel of judges.  But, that's future talk.  For this season, we ended up with the most talented 2 contestants of the top 10 and it led to a fairly entertaining performance night.  I think we all probably know who should win this season of American Idol.  I'm not so sure America will vote that way or not.  But, regardless of who wins the show will  have a good representative for the season 12 crown.  Let's dive into the recap!

RECAP

Kree Harrison
Song 1: Sarah McLachlan's "Angel
Song 2: Kree Harrison's "All Cried Out"
Song 3: Patty Griffin's "Up to the Mountain" (MLK Song)

Kree had a pretty decent night.  A better night than she's had in awhile.  She sounded great on all of her tunes and as the judges said, showed that she had soul.  But, you could also tell her voice was pretty shot from the competition.  Kree did a very pretty rendition of "Angel", practically flawless.  But, I don't think the song packs enough punch to win a competition.  I thought "All Cried Out" was the better of the original songs, but you could tell Kree was straining to hit some of those high notes.  "Up to the Mountain" is a really great song.  And, I've stated before that Kelly Clarkson first performed it on the Idol Stage (during the first Idol Gives Back).  That version has worn out my iTunes account and it's the version I'm most used to hearing.  But, I was able to respect Kree's version and it was probably the best performance she's done on the show.  She has nothing to be ashamed about with her performances tonight and if she wins, there shouldn't really be any complaints.  And if she doesn't win, she'll have a great career in country music. 

Candice Glover
Song 1: Adele's "Chasing Pavements"
Song 2: Candice Glover's "I Am Beautiful"
Song 3: Shirley Bassey's "I (Who Have Nothing)" 


But, come on.  Candice has been the most consistent of the top 10 this year.  She has been on a TEAR!  "Chasing Pavements" was probably a better song choice from Simon Fuller than "Angel" that Kree got.  (Not that Angel is a bad song, I just think Candice could show off more with "Chasing Pavements")  Candice did her thing on her coronation single.  Like I said, Kree's song was better in my opinion.  But Candice did her thing.  For all of those observing things, Miss Minaj couldn't find the strength to get out of her seat after Kree performed her single (while the other judges did).  But for miss Candy Girl, she was up there with the rest of them.  Hmmm, I wonder who Nicki wants to win?   Anyway, with Candice's performance of "I (Who Have Nothing)" she once again showed that she has been in a different league than the rest of the competition.  It was just ridiculously amazing, maybe even more than the first time she performed it.  The last female that won this competition, Jordin Sparks, also made a name for herself with that tune.  But, I would probably rank Candice's performance over Miss Sparks.  It was just flat out amazing.

The Pick

Okay, I can't do a finale post without taking a trip down memory lane and looking at my track record with these things.  My record has been a little shoddy recently, but I made a big comeback with the predictable Phillip Phillips victory last season.

  • Season 1: Kelly Clarkson (winner) vs. Justin Guarini (got it right)
  • Season 2: Ruban Studdard (winner) vs. Clay Aiken (got it wrong)
  • Season 3: Fantasia Barrino (winner) vs. Diana DeGarmo (got it right)
  • Season 4: Carrie Underwood (winner) vs. Bo Bice (got it right)
  • Season 5: Taylor Hicks (winner) vs. Katharine McPhee (got it right)
  • Season 6: Jordin Sparks (Winner) vs. Blake Lewis (got it right)
  • Season 7: David Cook (winner) vs. David "the artichoke" Archuleta (got it right)
  • Season 8: Kris Allen (winner) vs. Adam Lambert (got it wrong)
  • Season 9: Lee DeWyze (winner) vs. Crystal Bowersox (got it wrong)
  • Season 10: Scotty McCreery vs. Lauren Alaina (got it wrong)
  • Season 11: Phillip Phillips (winner) vs. Jessica Sanchez (got it right)
So I'm 7-4 with my finale picks.  Pretty good odds, right?  Well one thing is for sure, the formula that led to the victory of the past several idols is not at play here.  It's just 2 really good singers.  I don't have any process of elimination here to go through.  I'm just going to go with my gut.

American Idol Season 12 Winner:  Candice Glover

I won't be disappointed either way.  Kree was my favorite contestant this season, but I just don't think there is a question that Candice is the deserving winner.  I forgot to mention how bizarre it was that Kree elected to go 1st after the coin toss!  That just set up the inevitable amazing show closing performance from Candice.

Anyway, I'm sure I'll have some thoughts on the 2 hour finale (with surprises) that I'll jot down in the comments.  It's been fun getting pulled back into recapping this show as always.  And of course, as always I'm not making any promises for future seasons.  But, you know that I more than likely will get sucked in!  Hope you enjoyed my ramblings and MAYBE...I'll see you next year!

9 comments:

Leslie said...

Once again, I pretty much agree with everything you said. Personally, Kree was my favorite all season, but Candice has done really well. Her last song was incredible. Definitely the best of the night. I think Kree was showing her exhaustion more than Candice. Kree had much stronger performances earlier in the season. Either way, they will both have music careers. I'm interested to see what surprises they pull out for the finale tonight.

Mike V. said...

Yep, sounds like we agree! :)

Yeah...it'll be interesting to see what THEY consider a surprise vs. what WE think is a surprise! lol I do think it would be awesome if they could get all the previous Idol winners on stage. They did it in the past but I think they may have been missing someone when they did it. And of course, there are more now.

But, instead, I'm sure Nikki Minaj is going to duet with Mariah or something dumb like that! lol

Leslie said...

I fast forward through Nikki when she speaks, so I will do it if she performs for sure! She was rude last night not standing for Kree. It would be great to get all the winners. They could do one of those cheesy song and dance numbers they all had to do when they were contestants! lol

Mike V. said...

LOL...no anything but that!!

I would love if they would announce some kind of "Idol Winners" or "Idol Allstars" tournament. Hell, even skip a season and just do that next year. Sure, if they have careers going now, it would be tough to get them to commit to an Idol season. But, I still think it would be cool to have them all compete for some kind of charity, and bragging rights of course. The secret hope would be that Kelly and Carrie would school everyone else! :-)

But yeah...I'm guessing the "surprises" won't be anything to write home about. lol

Mike V. said...

Well, the right thing happened and a ho hum night of Idol ensued! lol I think I was more excited about The Office finale last night, so the Idol Finale was an afterthought. I was able to get through the 2 hour show in an hour. I'd watch enough of each performance to know I didn't want to watch any more!

Mariah and the lip synching was probably the worst. I was pretty impressed with The Band Perry and Janelle. The Band Perry always put on a good show, but I was impressed with how much choreography went into the performance. They must have really put time into rehearsing that with Janelle. Anyway, good stuff.

The Candice vs. Hudson stuff was good. Maybe a little bit of oversinging but with pair like that, it's intentional.

Obviously, they had to have a "goodbye Randy" segment...and they of course went to the Dawg Pound joke factory for that. But it was aiiight. lol

So, it was an okay night. Should be interesting to see what an Idol Overhaul will look like. Hopefully it means trimming the schedule down where appropriate (aka shorter results shows! and not a 2 hour performance night when it isn't needed)

Anyway, that's all I have for now!

Leslie said...

Ho hum is right! Mariah's lip syncing was REALLY awful! At least Nicki didn't perform! I noticed Taylor Hicks in the audience, but no performance from him.

The bit with the guys saying they were tricked by the girls was kinda funny...OK, stupid, but in a funny way. lol

Mike V. said...

Yeah, I couldn't help but laugh at that part too. It was silly...but my favorite part was Jordin Sparks mentioning that none of them play Guitar. lol It is all part of the conspiracy theory to the past winners. Of course...I still think that's why this 5 made the top "10" instead of who they've selected in the past.

Apparently the Mariah performance was pre-taped too. So pre-taped AND lip synched! lol

I saw Taylor out there too. It's hard to miss him with that shiny silver head!! lol

Leslie said...

I suspected it was pre-taped, but that makes it even worse. Didn't someone look at it before it aired??

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.