Like I said yesterday in my American Idol recap on Popblerd!, this season is a bit anticlimactic. It’s reminiscent of the Jordin Sparks/Blake Lewis clash. Neither contestant was super interesting or had a great story and they were simply nice kids. That’s how I feel about this year’s finale.
Based on last night, Lauren clearly out-performed Scotty, but really, it’s not about what happened last night. What’s more important is how much of a fanbase each was able to create throughout the season. I’ve pegged Lauren as this season’s winner from day one based on how I think they can market her. She’s much more in the Kelly Clarkson/Carrie Underwood zone than anyone else they’ve had in the past several years. But Scotty has those girly girls voting for him in droves. And that could prove to be the difference.
I received this tweet from elliehempleman which made me excited for the show.
@roheblius you finally got to see @JLo shake her money maker. Worth the wait?
(She’s on the East Coast so she was able to see the show before I was.)
Wait, I just saw Aunt Becky (lesser known as Dixon’s and Annie’s mom) in the audience! That woman never ages.
We’re going to do this a little differently tonight. Here come the bullet points!
– The top 13 is singing Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. Are they trying to tell us something?
– If Pia dressed like this during the season, she would’ve never lost.
– Haley is wearing some of the hottest hot pants I’ve ever seen.
– Hey, Karen Rodriguez, thanks for reminding me what you look like.
– James Durbin is performing with Judas Priest. He’s wearing a captain’s hat and a sleeveless vest, looking like he wants to bring back The Village People.
– Jacob Lusk and Kurt Franklin are performing together. Gladys Knight just came on stage to sing with them, but without the Pimps. Oprah Winfrey is shaking her head for not thinking of this trio for her final week of shows.
– Casey and Jack Black are on stage together and they both have new movies coming out this weekend. For Black’s it’s Kung Fu Panda 2 and for Casey, The Hangover 2.
– The girls of American Idol performed a flurry of Beyonce’s hits and it really made you appreciate Beyonce as both a singer and a performer. Haley has a little funk in her though. Pia, not so much.
– Beyonce came out and just killed everything. They’ve had some fantastic performers on this show before, but she leaves most in the dust. And who doesn’t enjoy that Beyonce shake? I’ll take two.
– They rolled out the corpse of Tony Bennett to sing with Haley. Who am I kidding? This dude has more life than I do.
– In the “5 Years Late” department, Lil’ Jon came out on the stage. And in the “15 Years Late” department, TLC came out. But damn, Chili is still fine. The moral of the story is and always will be, “Don’t go chasin’ waterfalls, y’all.”
– Tim McGraw came out to sing with Scotty, but really, he just should’ve started bench pressing him. Scotty’s a little light in the ass to be on stage with McGraw.
– So this is what happens when your wife is the star of the show. Marc Anthony is out singing and I’ll be fine with this if J. Lo comes out and dances for him. If not, it’s a waste of my five minutes.
– If Marc wasn’t a Grammy winning singer and was just some dude from the hood, wouldn’t he look like someone who kidnaps children?
– J. Lo is out with him and she is shaking what her momma gave her. I think Beyonce threw down the gauntlet and J. Lo answered the challenge.
– Sheila E. was banging on some drums too. It’s always great to see Sheila.
– While the Idol dudes were out performing, my son says, “How does Scotty do it? Did he hypnotize the judges. I just don’t think he’s very good.”
– Tom Jones came out to sing It’s Not Unusual. If Carlton comes out dancing, I will declare this show the greatest of all time.
– It didn’t happen, though Jacob tried his hardest to channel his inner Carlton.
– Hey, it’s Lady Gaga. At least this time, she’s actually on stage, rather than from her own concert like a couple of weeks ago.
– Lauren started to sing some Carrie (you know, that song about Tony Romo) and you just knew Carrie was coming out to sing with her. Someone needs to feed Carrie a couple sammiches. She still has that terrible case of noassatall.
– Beyonce is out again singing her new single 1 Plus 1. Let’s just say that this is a smidgen better than Beyonce’s current single about the girls who are running the world. Ok, maybe 100 times better.
– Finally, we get some Steven Tyler live. Sing it Stevie!
It’s now time. Who wins season 10 of American Idol?
And the winner is … Scotty McCreery!
Well, 10 years of American Idol are in the books. And I’m tired. See you next year.
Photo of Carrie Underwood is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license
There was a lot to take in last night. All three contestants sang three times, giving us three different looks as we near the end of this season of American Idol. Lauren is singing well, but doesn’t have that stage presence down. Haley is peaking at the right time. And Scotty probably had his worst week in a while, but it might’ve been because the other two overshadowed him. Let’s get to the elimination show. 
The judges gave Haley another earful for her terrible song choice of Michael Jackson’s Earth Song last night. But they were overwhemingly positive for all of the other seven performances even though I didn’t think they were all good. Some of them were most definitely good like Haley’s I (Who Have Nothing) and Scotty’s Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning) might have been one of the greatest song choices based on time and theme in the history of American Idol. 
