From the Archives: Season 6 Finale

For my final archive post I've added a special treat, not one, not two, but three videos. I should acknowledge that most of the videos are from the idollogy channel on You Tube. Hopefully You Tube will allow posting of Season 7 performances so that I can further enhance your reading experience.

Season 7 starts Tuesday night, and I still don't know how I will recap the audition shows. I guess I'll just figure it out as I go along. Story of my life in a way...

From May 22, 2007:

So here we are in the Kodak Theater yet again, and just like last year we have a girl who excels at ballads versus a guy with a gimmick, albeit a very good one, for the big bucks. I for one didn't think beat box boy would make it this far, but then as I mentioned last week, what the heck do I know?

Just like last year, each singer sings three songs: one of the singer's favorites, which will likely be a repeat performance from earlier this year, one they haven’t sung on the show before (now there’s a first!), the third a hokey song intended to be their first recorded single. Now, this year, perhaps in response to all the complaints about how bad the original songs have been in previous seasons, the Idol producers decided to stage a contest for songwriters to see which song would be sung tonight as the original song. The song will likely still be hokey, but now the producers will be able to find someone else to blame.

So how will the kids do on the biggest stage of their young and (in Jordin's case anyway) innocent lives? Let’s burn up some Jiffy Pop popcorn and find out.

(This leads me to wonder if either Jordin or Blake even knows what Jiffy Pop is)

The show starts by pointing out that both finalists came out of the Seattle audition, which was by all accounts the worst in the history of the show. That was the one with the guy Simon called "Monkey Baby" that got Rosie O'Donnell all ticked off. I wonder if the producers are now reconsidering returning to the Emerald City.

(With no mentor to bash there may be a lot of trashing the producers tonight, unless Paula says something wacky again)

Round 1
Blake: “You Give Love a Bad Name” by Bon Jovi, from Bon Jovi week
A repeat performance from the one that likely contributed the most to get him this far. It was about as good as the other performance was, but it just didn't seem quite as strong. I think a lot of my disappointment is because the surprise factor wasn't there this time. It also seemed a little rushed. Still, it wasn't bad. Paula of course thought it was the greatest thing ever, just like all the teenage girls in the audience.

Jordin: “Fighter” by Christina Aguilera
Jordin breaks tradition by doing the song she hadn't done before first. She also breaks with her normal routine and picks a song done after she was born. And here we all thought Blake was the adventurous one. I thought it was a really good song choice for her, especially since it wasn't obvious that it would be from the start. There was a little weak part in the middle, but the beginning and the end were really good. She's got the chops to compete with Ms. Aguilera, I'll give her that.

Simon gives Round 1 to Blake, Randy and Paula are non-committal as usual. I thought Jordin was better, but what the heck do I know?

One nice thing about this being the season finale is that I won’t be subjected to the AT&T “BFF Jill” ad as much any more. I will miss the Old Navy bikini ads though…

Round 2
Blake: “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon 5
While it’s the first time he’s done this song it’s the second time he’s done a Maroon 5 ditty. I’m going to use a word to describe this performance that I haven’t used in some time, “pitchy”. No beat boxing, which Randy and I both like, but for me it was just OK. He gets points for actually doing a singing number in the final, despite Simon’s comments to the contrary.

Jordin: “Broken Wing” by Martina McBride, from Country Week



This was the song she did on country night. Jordin's doing the songs in reverse order from Blake, pretty smart for a 17 year old. She oversold it at bit the last time she sang it but this performance was much more controlled while still sounding inspired. One of her best performances, which is saying something. It was really, really good. Only goose bump performance of the night.

Round 2 to me clearly goes to Jordin.

Round 3
Scott LeBay and Jeff Peabody are announced as the winners of the much ballyhooed Idol songwriting contest and get all of 2 seconds of screen time. Congrats boys, good luck getting those remaining 13 seconds of fame. Sure enough, it’s another sappy ballad titled “This is My Now”. So much for that experiment. I find it hard to believe that it took 2 guys to write this song.

Blake: The start of the song requires a lot of low notes that pitchy boy really struggles with. He does a little better, though a bit rushed, with the higher pitched chorus. He does look comfortable up there while performing it. He sounded way out of his element, though he didn't look it. Chris Richardson looks on with adoring eyes. The judges give it a lukewarm evaluation (yes, even Paula), and for once I agree with them. Advantage Jordin even before she sings a single note.

Jordin: She too struggles to get the low notes in pitch, but not as much as Blake did. She of course kicks butt on the rest of the song before breaking down in tears on the last two lines. In the past that may have hurt her but it may have actually helped her here. Melinda looks on, but her glance looks a little more menacing than Chris’ (could it be that she’s actually upset over getting voted off?). Simon gives us a naughty visual by saying that Jordin “wiped the floor with Blake”.

Round 3 goes to Jordin, though it was a little unfair.

Final Score: 3 shots at yours truly, 3 shots at Paula, 2 shots at the producers, 2 references to the “BFF Jill” ad. No Chris Daughtry references, but wait! Guess who's closing the show?! It’s Mr. Daughtry himself dawning some interesting eye shadow while singing “Home”. Somebody call Mom! (1/12/08: I found out later that she did see it)



Idol Looks Back: OK, here we go. For the longest time I thought about leaving this feature blank, but I've calmed down now. Both Randy and Simon claimed again tonight that American Idol is a singing competition, but that's as big a lie as "Mission Accomplished". Repeating that over and over doesn't make it true. If it were, then Sanjaya would have never even made it to the point where Howard Stern could campaign for him, and Melinda would not have been voted off last week. She was the best singer by a country mile this season, maybe even in the history of the show, but instead of performing the hokey song in the finale she has to watch it with Sanjaya and the rest of the losers. Sad, very sad, but what the heck do I know?

The Fearless Prediction: This one may be the closest call since the velvet teddy bear Ruben Stoddard barely beat out the ambiguously gay Clay Aiken in Season 2. Blake is the better performer and has a loyal army of teenage girls supporting him (if all those high pitched screams and “BFF Jill” ads are any indication), but it is clear that Jordin is the much better singer, and without having Melinda sucking votes away from her she’s got a much better chance to make it on top. So, even though it’s not really a singing competition I predict that the better singer, Jordin Sparks, will be the next American Idol. We’ll see if my faith in America can be restored after last week.