by Jenn |
There was less than 2% of votes that separated the two finalist that came out of the Chicago auditions. Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox had to wait patiently while many performance and commercial breaks led up to the conclusion of Idol when the winner was revealed.
After 9 season’s, tonight was Simon’s official last night as an Idol judge. So, of course, they created a video montage to give tribute to the much loved, yet hated, judge…actually, they created many videos for him. Most of the night, between the rapid performances, was dedicated to Simon. They showed many instances when he was rude and abrupt to the poor people that were horrible at auditions. Also, his fellow judges said some ‘nice’ things about him, including Paula Abdul. They ended the video with Ryan and Randy unknowingly being recorded while celebrating his departure.
Later, Dane Cook performed a song created from all of Simon’s mean comments to people. Dane was joined on stage by some of the insulted contestants from the past. The gig was ended abruptly when one idiot grabbed the mic and stated, “this is my Kanye West moment” and, “I’m gonna replace you, Simon Cowell.” Idol quickly cut to commercial. They continued periodically to poke fun at Simon.
The top 12 started off the performances with School’s Out, all dressed in school uniforms and accompanied by a lot of young kids also dressing in school uniforms and wearing typical black Alice-Cooper-like face paint around their eyes and mouths. Then, onto the stage walks out Alice Cooper, himself! Great performance!
Kris Allen, last season’s winner, then performed his song The Truth. Then Siobhan Magnus and Aaron Kelly began to performed How Deep is Your Love? They were then joined on stage by the Bee Gees. It was a great performance, mixing Siobhan’s vocals in with all three guys.
Next, Michael Lynche was joined on stage by Michael McDonald, and together they sang Take it To the Streets. It was a soulful performance by two talented people!
The top 6 girls performed Beautiful and Fighter. The performance hit a high note when Christine Aguilera came out in the last couple seconds of Fighter. She continued solo and sang You Lost Me. (Her new album comes out June 8th.)
The top boys had their chance to perform next with Dan Hall and John Oates. The boys performed Maneater and joined Hall and Oates for You Make My Dreams Come True, for which the boys only ‘woo hooed’ through the song.
Crystal Bowersox performed Ironic and then was joined by Alanis Morissette for You Outta Know. Their voices are similar, at times you couldn’t tell which was singing if you closed your eyes.
At this point in the show, an hour has passed, and it seems like the producers of Idol smashed as much as they possible could into the time slot.
Next, was former Idol winner, Carrie Underwood who performed he song Undo It.
Casey James performed Every Rose has It’s Thorn and then was joined on stage by Bret Michaels, lead singer for Poison. It was only this past April that Bret Michaels suffered from a huge brain hemorrhage after just having an emergency appendectomy. His brain hemorrhage was also followed with two strokes but, on a lighter note, he just won the most recent Celebrity Apprentice! It was amazing that he is looking so good and strong already!
Lee DeWyze then got on stage with Chicago and performed several short versions of their hit songs.
The highlight on the evening was when General Larry Platt took the stage to perform his viral hit song Pants on the Ground. He was accompanied by some street dancers with their pants on the ground, literally. It became even funnier with William Hung joined the performance. That was awesome!
The night continued with surprises when Paula Abdul took the stage after a video she made for Simon, talking about the good times they had together. She came out dressed in a hot pink, short dress. She looked good and sober. She joked that she had a baby with Simon and that is the reason she left Idol. She was laughing at her jokes, even though the audience was silent most of time. She also said that Idol will go on without Simon.
A special performance of the night was from 7 of the past Idol winners as well as many old contestants. Reuben Stoddard, Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, and Kris Allen performed, to name a few. After the performance, Simon was taken to the stage and allowed to say a few words. He admitted to being emotional and that he was going to miss it all.
Janet Jackson was the second to last performance for the evening. It was almost like Michael was performing and not Janet. She performed Nothing and Nasty. It was a pretty awesome performance.
Finishing the night was Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox singing with Joe Cocker. They performed With A Little Help From My Friends. The song is fitting since it was their friends that helped put them where they are, waiting to find out if they are the next American Idol.
Finally, results time came…and the winner is LEE DeWYZE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And when asked how it feels, all he could say was, “I don’t know,” and “Thank you.”