AI5: The FINALE!

Each contestant is doing 2 songs they've done before plus their soon-to-be-released, ultra cheesy, rainbow, puppies and butterfly singles. Each will have 3 phone numbers and there will be 4 hours in which to (attempt to) vote. We're in the Kodak Theater with over 3000 people, including lots of celebs (this year's other finalists, of course, and Constantine, Mandy Moore, Christina Applegate, Taye Diggs, and Tori Spelling, who gets shown with a "Katharine's Family and Friends" label later in the show!). Taylor won the coin toss and chose to perform 2nd. Ryan reminds us that in the two other boy-girl finals the girls won. However, all 4 previous winners are Southerners. Which pattern will be broken?

Katharine
1) Black Horse & the Cherry Tree: She (mostly) stood up this time, and had fun with it, but vocally I think the first performance was better. Randy disagrees with me; Paula said fun, but not her best, and Simon said "good with a small g." Ryan mentions the "thousand roses" her fans sent her and she gratefully mentions a few fan group names.

2) Somewhere Over the Rainbow: Perhaps because I wasn't into this last week and had extremely low expectations, I was very impressed! I really loved it, seemed she didn't embellish as much this time. The crowd loved it (Bucky was shown giving her a standing ovation), as did all the judges (Randy unexpectedly, as he thought a repeat so soon would be "anticlimactic"). Simon said this was her best performance of the season. Ryan asked about her earpiece, and she explained that she was supposed to get a cue to help her start the song since it was a cappella and that she didn't, and she was very proud and excited that she still started in the right key! This was part cute and part juvenile; do we really want to see a potential idol giddily jumping up & down saying "Yay, I sang it right!"?

3) "My Destiny": Such an Idol song!! Lyrically reminiscent of Fantasia's I Believe (and Canadial Idol Ryan's "Something More"). The song had a wide range vocally and dynamically; she did a pretty good job but sang a lot of the higher parts too softly instead of in full voice, and pronounced "different" more like "defferint," which threw me off a bit. Oh and of course there was a choir. Randy dissed the song but said she looked amazing and sounded very good; Paula said "brilliant;" and Simon said she didn't fulfill her potential.

Taylor
1) Living for the City: I was distracted by his bright purple jacket, but I think this was similar to his other performance; he started out in the audience, went to the stage, & then out to the platform (finishing back on stage). It was fun and the crowd was very into it; Randy & Paula loved it as well, and Simon like it ok (but of course hated the jacket).

2) Levon (which Ryan says was Taylor's favorite performance from the whole season): he's in a nice suit and starts the song very subdued. Showcases his vocals (though I'm disappointed we don't get any songs w/falsetto this week) and also shows his personality at the end. Randy says it was pitchy; Paula loved it; and Simon said that after Taylor "won" the first round, now it was tied up as Kat surpassed Taylor's Levon with her SotR.

3) "Do I Make You Proud?": I was dreading this, because Taylor usually isn't into songs that aren't of his preferred genre (or that were his 'back-up' songs when his 1st choice didn't get approved) and therefore performs poorly. However, despite the cheese factor, he was very into this and sang the pants off of it, or would have if songs wore pants. He got the choir too. Afterward as he's yelling "Soul Patrol" we get a shot of Elliott in the audience mouthing "Soul Patrol" as well! :-) Randy says this song is better than Kat's but also acknowledges that Taylor knows who he is as an artist and is always successful in infusing that into any song, making it his own. Paula agreed. Simon just said that if the competition was "tied" before, that Taylor "just won American Idol." Sure, Simon, want to just come out and say that the voting doesn't matter?! :-)

Daniel Powter closed the show singing "Bad Day" (what else?) at a grand piano while a montage of clips from this season was shown (the cowboys! Will! Patrick! sigh....). They didn't really leave him enough time and credits rolled over him but he did get to play the last note before the show cut off.

Tomorrow night's show should be an entertainment-palooza and I'm really looking forward to it! Guest artists singing with the finalists, former Idol winners and runners-up (Bo! and Clay!), group numbers, etc. I tried to vote (for Taylor) several times and didn't get through, which wasn't surprising. (I'm sure last week's across-the-board 33% was evidence the phone/voting system was maxed out, and I expect the same this week.) I expect and hope that Taylor wins. One more day!!

And on a related note, there were Country Music awards on another channel, and I only caught part of it, but I did see that Carrie won best new female artist!! Also Kelly got to be on, performing with Rascal Flatts. Fun night for Idols all around!