From The Archives: Season 5 Finale

From May 23, 2006:

OK, this is it for 2006. Two contestants on the stage, one record contract at stake, three judges and thousands in the audience and millions watching at home. This...is the American Idol final.

Katherine McPhee and Taylor Hicks each sang 3 songs. 2 were repeat performances of songs they sang earlier this season, the third and final number would be their first original single. So, in order of their performances as determined by a coin flip:

Katherine, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree: I didn't get a chance to hear her first performance so I can't make a fair comparison, but this version was OK. It didn't knock my socks off, though. It was pretty safe choice, not very challenging for her vocally, though she again oversang parts of it. She showed more emotion this time, interacting with the musicians and such, and was much less robotic than she can sometimes be.

Taylor, Livin' For The City: A good song choice for his vocal style, and it was a really good performance. This performance was better than the first time he sang it, which wasn't bad either. He took a Stevie Wonder song and made it his own, which is not easy to do. I have no idea why he choice to wear a purple felt jacket, but I guess we should expect things like that by now.

Katherine, Somewhere Over the Rainbow: This was the ace in her hole and she played it well. While I don't think it was as good as her performance last week it was still stunning. She definitely has a God-given talent and it showed here again.

Taylor, Levon: Once again he chose a song that he likes rather than a song that is better suited to his voice, and it hurt him here. It wasn't a bad performance (it was better this time than when he first performed it back in February) but he could, and has, done so much better. I will say that he does know how to close a song strong.

Katherine, My Destiny: It sounded kind of uneven to me. Some parts were very good but some parts were not, especially the high notes that were kind of screechy. Overall, I think her performance was wooden in a Celine Dion kind of way, but that may be more because of the song than the way she performed it.

Taylor, Do I Make You Proud: Yes, he did. He saved his best vocal performance for last. Not much else to add besides...

The Fearless Prediction: I predict that Taylor Hicks will be the next American Idol. He was the favorite going in tonight (and has been since Chris Daughtry was voted off) and he represented himself well tonight with 2 strong performances compared to only one for Katherine. He was the most versatile of the 12 finalists (i.e. he was never handicapped by the theme when all the others were at least once), as evident by the fact that he is the only one of the 12 finalists who was never in the bottom 2 or 3 the entire competition. Based not only on his performances tonight but also on his consistency throughout the competition I think Taylor will be named the winner tomorrow night. He represented those of us with grey hairs well.