AI Finale

This year’s finale was certainly no disappointment!  They pulled out some incredible acts.

Sorry for the delay, but I was actually flying over these fair United States last night, and had to watch the Finale later due to my little brother graduating from High School.  (Good job Ty!)

(See some things still take precendence over Ameircan Idol in my life…)

Let’s get back to the real stuff…

David Cook kicked things off right with his AMAZING new song, dedicated to his brother.  I LOVED this song, and will definitely be getting it.  He showed why he won it all last year, and has really done a great job of molding a start to a career.

Then the Golden Idols begin, and we are all happy to see Normand Gentle back on the stage!  Although the sctick didn’t come together perfectly, it was a fun ending to a great addition to Season 8.

Queen Latifah and Lil Rounds was a beautiful and natural combination.  Why didn’t we see this beautiful, confident, peel-the-paint-off-the-walls version of Lil’ in the actual compeition?!?!

Jason Marantz was cool, with backup grooves by Anoop Dawg and Alexis Grace should have stayed in it MUCH longer than she did… sad.

Kris and Keith Urban was a perfect match.  I see Kris making this style of laid back, rock music.

Fergie and the Girls was nice, but Blackeye Pea with Fergie… well, the best part of this song was the costumes for the dancers.  Those things were trippy!  I’m not much for Blackeye Pea, anyway.  I’m glad they provided American Idol with their own “Janet Jackson” Live TV moment, where they had to cut away because they obviosuly weren’t told that there would be clothes being ripped off on stage.

Holla!

Ok… back to the Golden Idols.  No one doubted that Bikini Girl would be featured yet again on the show, so there was no surprise when she showed up nice and oiled up.  The moment got better when Seacrest said “I’d ask you what’s new… but…”  🙂

As if the moment couldn’t get better than that, Bikini Girl gets up to sing and Kara came from behind to kick her snarky, self-centered butt.  Man, Kara can SING too!!  She’s been waiting a whole season to get that off her chest… and speaking of chest… she wasted no time in ripping her clothes off for charity… and America now discovered she has great abs!  I love how she is desperately trying to cover up afterward…

video

Now we see Iraheta singing with none other than the not-so-legendary Cindy Lauper… and it’s lovely.

Cut to gokey… love this song, and love his rendition of it, but even better is the appearance of Lionel Ritchie – this one is dedicated to Mr Braun!  We finally had a Lionel appearance on American Idol!!!  Perhaps this means next year we’ll have “Lionel” week?  I have oft teased Mr Braun for his love of Lionel, but I will just say that Lionel and Gokey really looked like they were having a great time on stage, much more that the other acts.  Loved it!

Adam Lambert now takes the stage in some kind of weird looking shoulder pads….and now Kiss descends fro the ceiling to play with him.   Why Kiss, you ask?  Obviously, because they are Adam’s tongue Idols…

They do their thing (this explains the weird costume Adam started with) and at the end of the song we realize that Yes, Adam can break a guitar with his bare voice!

Carlos Santana now takes the stage…

Man!  The song/artist choices tonight are off the hook!  Matt Giraud with Santana was an awesome choice!

Commercial break and we come back to… … … Steve Martin and his little hokey country quintet???  What the…?  Who ordered up this stinky, steamy platter of suck right in the middle of my Idol finale?!?!  Come on folks!  Give me a break.  Is this like Michael Jordan pretending to play golf?  Is Steve Martin that bored with comedy that he thinks he’s going to become a musician?  Weird.

And now, in a fit of who knows what, Rod Stewart shows up on a scissor lift, stumbles in a drunken stupor down the stairs, and scratches out the most hideous song I think I’ve ever heard.  A good stiff breeze will knock him over on the stage. This part I really had to skip.  I just couldn’t take any more of the old man’s bellering!

Final Golden Idol… was there any doubt that it would be… Tatiana… there was a perfect tribute to her, though… cutting away before she could really get any time in the limelight.  Will she ever get a clue?  No one wants to hear from her again…

Kris and Adam now sing together…. with Queen.  A little pretentious to be singing “We are the champions” right before someone actually gets crowned the champion… but oh well.  Maybe they just didn’t think through the whole thing once they found out Queen woudl com.

And the winner is…

KRIS ALLEN!

Wow!  Wow!  Wow!  I’m shocked.  Amazed.  Excited.  Thrilled.

Now for the analysis of the result:

This was clearly America choosing between the freak of nature and the likable, humble guy from Arkansas.  Adam was clearly the bigger, more naturally talented singer.  He was clearly more able, and favored by the judges, the media, and all the critics.  But I think Kris’ win shows that America values heart and personality more than just freakyness. Don’t get me wrong, Kris is WICKEDLY talented!  He plays the piano, guitar, and sings like he does.  He has a very current feel and sound, and almost everyone in American (especially outside of Hollywood) prefers normal people to freaky deaky left-coasters.  Adam is amazing, and he will do well, but I’m not going to say America got it wrong.  Kris is our American Idol.  And even though I picked Adam last night, my heart and my vote was with our man Kris Allen!