Thoughts On the Idol Performance Finale

So, I watched the American Idol final performance show last night. I’ve been following this season, but I haven’t really been watching. I was rooting for Adam, Allison, and Kris all season, so you can imagine that I was happy with this final 2, and even happier that America put the Go in Gokey after multiple weeks of me just not understanding the guy.

So what did I think of the finale? Well, they both performed really well. Honestly, I will be perfectly happy with either guy winning. But I think, both in the finale and my overall rooting, Kris wins by just a little bit. To break it down as Simon does, he won two of the three rounds last night, boasted its best performance IMO, and I just think Kris winning would be the better outcome for either guy.

Kris’ “Aint No Sunshine” last night was maybe his best performance of the season, and also marks Kris’ second entry on to the “Songs I Would Actually Listen To” list (His first being his awesome take on “Heartless”). With two, he runs second place on that list, but he’s not behind Adam, he’s behind Allison (“Hot Stuff”, “Slow Ride”, “Someone to Watch Over Me”, and “Cry Baby”). As much as I think Adam is probably the best singer the show has ever had, none of his performances have ever had me remembering them over and over. I mean, don’t get me wrong, his “Mad World” last night was, to correctly use an incorrect Simon critique, a “vocal masterclass.” But you know what, Glambert is set no matter the outcome. I don’t think he’ll necessarily be iconic, as Paula said, but that guy will be recording music for years to come. While I don’t doubt that Kris is golden too, I think he could use the Idol machine much more than Adam could. It’ll constrict Adam, whereas I don’t think it’ll constrain Kris nearly as much.

But a post about the Idol performance finale wouldn’t be complete without talking about that large turd that Kara took on the Idol stage, “No Boundaries.” Seriously, I know all Idol songs suck, but really? THIS was the best you could do? Hell, it didn’t fit either singer, and nearly every judge said it sucked. And that’s also the note you want to end on? Not any one of the great performances that these two guys have delivered? This has fully cemented to me that Kara NEEDS to go. Kris’ version of the two was better, I thought, and it also pissed me off that instead of complimenting him on making that awful awful song into only an awful song, they told him “you should be really proud of your second place finish.” Which is bullshit, they just didn’t want to acknowledge that Kris got really really good this season while they were too busy salivating over Danny Hokey [sic]. So I’m rooting for Kris tonight, but I’ll be fine with either guy getting it. They both put on a pretty damn good show this season.