American Idol Results - Finale
DeWyze Choice?
Ryan Seacrest started last night’s season finale of American Idol with the announcement that coming into the final vote, there was less than two percent separating the total votes of Crystal and Lee. Which is of course a meaningless statistic since the voting habits change every week with one less contestant.
That’s typical of a show that tries to infuse drama in any way that it can. Because if the final vote between Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox was indeed close, you know American Idol would’ve exploited it. Sadly, my sources tell me it was not.
So for all the setup of the big showdown, the fears of Bowesox fans were confirmed: Lee DeWyze is your new American Idol winner. I won’t lie and say I’m not disappointed—it should have been Crystal given her consistently strong performances and the way she mopped the floor of the Nokia with Lee the other night. But the fact is Lee is probably the more marketable singer, he’s got the cute boy charm that drives the core audience to the phones (again and again), and let’s face it, he’s a nice humble kid who went from paint salesman to superstar. I just wish he wasn’t the third cute guy with a guitar to win Idol in three years’ time.
But I am happy for Lee. Couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy, and it was wonderful to see his emotions take over when the announcement was made: the tears, the shaky voice, the thank you’s, and the simple declaration that he was so overwhelmingly happy. Plus, it was sweet to see how gracious Crystal was in the shadow of her friend’s success. Very cool all around.
And despite Ryan’s early microphone woes in the broadcast, it was a pretty enjoyable extravaganza overall. Great to see some real performances from true legends. They may not all have been great, but I thought it was great to watch.
Let’s do a quick breakdown of the evening, starting with a summary of the continuous tributes to Simon Cowell. The video montages captured all his snarky comments, charm, rudeness, and humor. A lot of fun was had at his expense, and most of the comments from the fellow judges fell flat. Still, it was a fitting tribute that brought back lots of fun memories over the last 9 years.
B+
Top 12 with Alice Cooper – “School’s Out”
Moving on to the performances, most of which matched this year’s contestants with larger than life singers, the show started out with the Top 12 dressed for boarding school while singing Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” with Aussie guitarist Orianthi. They were soon joined by a weird children’s choir of Harry Potter extras with Cooper’s trademark eye makeup. Then Alice himself showed up, and while he may not have much voice anymore (sounding a lot like Wolfman Jack), he did have presence. The whole spectacle was kinda weird, kinda fun, but overall pretty crazy.
C
Kris Allen – “The Truth”
Finally, last season’s big winner got some recognition outside of the Ford promotions, but without his guitar and funky pop style, Kris loses some of his appeal. The bland pop of “The Truth” was another example of why his debut album has had mixed response, though his vocal quality and developed confidence demonstrated how much more of a performer he is than the majority of this past season. And hey, his drummer looked a lot like Garth from Wayne’s World!
B
Siobhan Magnus and Aaron Kelly with The Bee Gees – “How Deep Is Your Love”
Okay, we’ve been noting all season how the Top 12 seemed to gravitate to old, sleepy music. Here’s further proof of why Siobhan Magnus will struggle with a music career. B-O-R-I-N-G. It was like one of those cheesy pop duets from the ‘80s with Linda Ronstadt and Joe Cocker. And it didn’t help that the brothers Gibb sounded just as lame. The final shot of David Hasselhoof clapping with ecstasy in the audience was the last straw. I think I would’ve suffered a massive coronary from all the cheese on display.
D+
Michael Lynche and Michael McDonald – “Takin’ It to the Streets”
The parade of old-fashioned performances continued with Big Mike, though he fared considerably better with Michael McDonald for a duet of The Doobie Brothers classic. It was well sung for what it was—man, McDonald can still pack a soulful wallop—but as my wife noted, half the audience probably doesn’t even know these songs!
B-
Dane Cook – “Simon Cowell Medley”
The low point of the evening. I’m just not a fan of Mr. Cook’s style. His medley of Simon Cowell critiques just wasn’t funny—Weird Al Yankovic would have pulled off something similar with far more panache and silliness. Yet just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse, out comes a collection of past rejects with delusions of grandeur, and then it completely spiraled out of control before the camera whirled around and cut to commercial. Now let us never speak of it again.
F
W omen of Top 12 and Christina Aguilera – “Christina Aguilera Medley”
As with most of the evening’s Top 12 group sings, the vocals were spotty, depending on who was singing (Crystal and Siobhan=yes, Paige=go home already). It was still kinda moving to hear them all lend vocals to “Beautiful” before Christina herself finally joined in. She’s such a vocal tour de force, her participation immediately uplifted things … for a moment. Then she launched into her new ballad “Keeps Getting’ Better,” a weaker song with weird vocalizing on her part. (As for the weird hair, it’s from her robotic album cover for Bionic next month.) Overall, not as good as one would’ve hoped considering all the hype.
B-
Men of Top 12 with Hall & Oates – “Hall & Oates Medley”
Yet another throwback to the ‘70s, with uneven performances from the men (Lee and Michael=terrific, Tim=surprisingly well matched to Hall & Oates, Andrew=was this guy really a frontrunner?). But this medley fared better than the Aguilera Medley for the women. The best part was hearing Hall & Oates themselves—Hall in particular is in remarkably strong voice after 30 years.
B+
Crystal Bowersox and Alanis Morissette – “Ironic / You Oughta Know”
It’s obvious that Alanis’s Jagged Little Pill album from 15 years ago meant a lot to a then 9-year-old Crystal Bowersox (man, I feel old). So how cool was it to see her deliver a duet with one of her heroes … and then show her up? Alanis was shaky at the start of “You Oughta Know,” but improved as it progressed. Crystal, however, was stunning vocally.
A-
Carrie Underwood – “Undo It”
Not my favorite song from Carrie—no wonder, Kara co-wrote it— but she’s always an amazing vocalist. Seriously, go back and watch her early days on Idol and marvel at how much she’s grown as a performer. I thought she was a robotic fembot at the time, but nowadays Carrie always gives a thousand percent when singing.
A
Casey James and Bret Michaels – “Every Rose Has Its Thorn”
Holy smokes, Bret’s alive and well! Between winning Celebrity Apprentice, his hospitalizations, and his forthcoming solo album, the dude’s all over the place. And he sounds great singing Poison’s biggest hit with Casey, who sounded a little prosaic by comparison. Still, this was a fun surprise to see.
B+
Lee DeWyze and Chicago – “Chicago Medley”
Good grief, is there no end to the cheeseball performances? I respect Chicago, but unlike Crystal’s duet with Alanis, Lee was lost in the mush with a bunch of geriatrics (nothing against their age—they just sounded old compared to Michael McDonald and Hall & Oates). And what’s with Lee’s incessant need to sing with a massive band behind him? Not the lowpoint of the evening, but certainly a disappointment given that Lee was named the winner.
C-
General Larry Platt – “Pants on the Ground”
We all knew this was coming, right? But surely no one expected the veteran to come out with a full hip-hop arrangement complete with dancers. Larry probably rehearsed this for months with the show’s producers, and it was pure joyful kitsch to see the old man doing his thing from the initial auditions. Then I absolutely lost it when William Hung joined him—off rhythm, natch—and the dancers dropped trou for the end of their dance. Look, it’s supposed to be stupid, but it was fun nonetheless.
A-
Paula Abdul’s “Tribute”
Clearly I was missing Paula since I was elated to see her grace the stage. And by the end I was glad for her to leave again. I thought maybe she was going to sing a tribute to Simon—“The Wind Beneath My Wings” perhaps? But no, after some drawn out acknowledgments of everyone else, it ended up an unfunny roast of Simon that went on too long—mostly because Paula was obviously waiting for the teleprompter to scroll. Some of it was sweet, but overall it was like that awkward feeling when a friend’s ex shows up at a party.
C-
Past American Idol Winners – “Together We Are One”
Now THAT’s inspired. What a cool way to bid Simon goodbye, gathering together all the previous Idol winners (except for a conspicuously absent David Cook). Then a veritable who’s-who of runner-ups joined in the singing. Too bad the Delta Goodrum song was such treacle, like something from the original Fame TV show or a show choir swan song. But the sheer nostalgia of the performance made up for it.
A-
Simon Cowell’s Farewell Speech
Truly classy. And of course, it’s not goodbye for those of us who plan to give his next show a chance.
A
Top 12 and Janet Jackson – “Janet Jackson Medley”
Ms. Jackson was treated like royalty, sporting a new buzz cut but sounding wayyyy too overly processed with her vocals. She eerily sounded more like Michael than ever. Her new song “Nothing (Trust in Me)” indeed did nothing for me, but she redeemed herself a bit going old-school with “Nasty.” It was obviously lip-synced, but note to Ke$ha and Rihanna: that’s how you “perform” spectacle.
Intro C- “Nothing” C- “Nasty” B+
Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze with Joe Cocker – “With a Little Help from My Friends”
I was hoping the two finalists would reprise (and improve on) their duet of “Falling Slowly” from a couple weeks ago, but this one was probably even better, and more suited to both of their styles. Lee’s gruff voice even evoked Joe Cocker, while Crystal’s Janis Joplin impersonation found new heights. Then Cocker himself joined them, still in “fine” voice (if you can call it that). A fitting finale in every way.
A
Lee DeWyze – “Beautiful Day”
And then the winner was announced. I can’t believe Lee was expected to reprise this with all the emotion he was experiencing, yet somehow he summoned the focus to deliver a slightly better performance of the U2 rocker amid all the fireworks, lasers, and the biggest confetti shower yet. It still wasn’t great, but a vast improvement over the other night’s performance, thanks to all the joy replacing his worries.
B+
So there you have it. The end to probably the weakest season of American Idol in a long time, if not all time. I wish it turned out differently, but to quote Entertainment Weekly’s American Idol reporter Michael Slezak: “In a world where Ke$ha reigns high on the Billboard charts, there’s probably room for both these singers.” Amen to that.
So is this the end of American Idol for you? I suspect it will be for me, but it depends on how much changes on the show for 2011. I like the suggestions for improvement in this article posted on Yahoo, even if some of the ideas are impractical. Who knows, maybe Idol will get a needed shot-in-the-arm overhaul next year. Regardless, see you at X Factor USA or whatever Simon Cowell plans to call it.
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Don't get me started....
Yeah, after last night's results, I'm having serious thoughts about investing any of my time next season on Idol. Crystal winning would have been this dreadful season's only redeeming quality. Even by last year, it was still probably my favorite show, but this season took a nose dive and was the worst to date -- and probably had the worst results in a finale to date. I like Lee too, and, yeah, I'm even happy for him. Cute, nice kid and all -- but would it kill him to stay on key through even one entire song? He's got a cool voice, but if he can't solve his pitch issues, he'll never make it big. Crystal will do just fine. She may have to slightly "pop-up" the raw folky sound of her originals to make her appealing to the masses, but she'll have a decent career from indie fans regardless. Loved that article's suggestions, but the best one -- banning tween girls from voting -- unfortunately is impossible. :) I could go on, and on, and on, but I'll spare you.....