American Idol Finals Recap

Time for the weekly follow-along of Idol. My running real-time journal. Get your coffee, turn off the phone and enjoy the read.

The big battle is tonight. Yes, I am flipping to the Sox/Yanks game at the same time, but I'm referring to Jordin Sparks vs Blake Lewis. The battle to be THE IDOL!

Ryan gives up our intro, shows the crowd at the Kodak Theater and lets us know that THIS (pause) IS American Idol!

Denise Richards in the house.

Justin and Kelly, Bo and Carrie, Taylor and Kat and now Blake and Jordin!

Randy is wearing a Sgt Pepper outfit or something, Paula doesn't look any worse for wear from the broken nose and Simon is wearing a jacket. Paula assures us she's "ok".

Recap of Seattle where we found Jordin AND Blake. Blake auditioned kind of as a joke, and Jordin has wanted to do this forever. They just showed Blake rocking out some Guitar Hero backstage. AW YEAH!!

Commercials

Shrek is already out, so we don't see any commercials? Let's see!

Coin toss. Their photos are on the coin. Blake wins the toss and chooses to sing first because he asked Jordin when she would want to go.

Three songs. 1. Their Favorite from this season, 2. Something they haven't sung on the show before and 3. The song writing champ song.

Blake chooses his version of "You Give Love a Bad Name". Brought the drummer out just like last time. Great song.....when he did it the first time. Hard to get excited about it again, but still a great performance. Captain Randy gives him a 10 out of 10 for the beatbox and singing was just aight. Paula thought it was far superior than last time. Simon said he's the best performer in the competition but not the best singer.

Phil in the house in uniform. Kiki, Melinda, Chris Richardson. All screaming.

Jordin picks "Fighter" by Xtina as her first song. Rock out and be tough girl! RealityCheckbyGina has a link to an AOL article of the most annoying AI things, and carrying the mic stand was one of them. Jordin just did it. Wow, she's riffing some serious runs. Great job Jordin! Randy said she wasn't that entertaining but amazing voice. (That's pretty much the night folks). Paula said she knew it would be one of the best finales of the show's history. Simon was happy she picked a younger song and was a bit shrieky. He calls round 1 to Blake.

The kid actors from "Smarter Than a Fifth Grader" are in the house.

Jordin is now doing the number fingers - also from the AOL's list of annoying AI things. That's 2!

Commercials.

This Cingular texting commercial is SFA (so freaking annoying).

Blake asked for a drumset for Xmas every year. He never got it. Then in high school he saw a beatboxer. History was made!

Blake's choice to perform is "She Will Be Loved" by Maroon 5. You think Blake likes that band at all? Walking past/through the crowd giving high fives should be on that AOL list. This song has some big high notes. He is doing a very nice job with this song. But no performance. Just walking around. Not too good from the guy who Randy has been saying needs to rely on his performance and not his voice. Randy thought it was a very nice vocal! Paula thought it sounded great and relaxed. Simon thought it was good but safe and no impact. See! Just what I was saying!

Blake revealed he's never watched an AI final. Wow.

Ricky Schroder is in the house!!

Commercials.

Jordin always knew she wanted to sing. Duh. My guess is she'll sing Never Walk Alone. Nope, she's going with A Broken Wing. Sitting on a stool/follow the camera with your eyes trick. I love that one. We should make a list of things banned from AI next season. Anyone wanna start that list? She should have sang Never Walk Alone, this is boring. Well, all that's left is the song writing winning song, so we haven't seen our "Black Horse & a Cherry Tree" or "Summertime" that made Kat and Fantasia performances stick out. Randy has loved her since the first time they saw her and thought it was better than the original. Paula said she's beautiful. There's a shocker. And Simon said "Now THAT was good!".

Commercials.

Shrek - phew. I was getting worried I wouldn't see him this show.
Just flipped to the Yanks/Sox game. Sox are winning 4-1. Flipped back quickly.
On The Lot is on next. I'm looking forward to it!

The two song writer winners are in the house. Scott and Jeff from Seattle. What is it with Seattle this year? Song is called "This is My Now".

Blake is up first. Sitting on the big screen. The song the finalists sing are always a disappointment. I hope this one isn't. A ballad. COME ON PEOPLE!! SOMEONE WRITE AN UPBEAT FINAL SONG!! SOMEONE!! COME ON!!! This is boring. Where's the choir? Come on, they have to come out. Blake is trying to bounce it up a little, and missed a few notes I think. I will not be purchasing this song. That was tough for me dawg. Randy said he did a 'pretty good job' with it. Paula thought he was in great voice (Jordin will kill him on it.) Simon thought it was odd with the jumping and not a song for him. Ouch. Trying to tell the audience to judge him on the first two performances. A lot of "Best you could with that song" conversations going on. Then why did that song win? Did the producers think Melinda and Jordin would be the ones singing it?

Commercials.

Yanks have the bases loaded, 1 out. Derek Jeter is up. Strike one from Tavarez. 0-1. Tavarez steps off the rubber. Here's the pitch. Grounder to short, fielder's choice getting the runner at 2nd. Cano scores. 4-2 Sox. Two outs. Men on the corners and Hideki Matsui is up. Breaking ball is over for strike one. 0-1. (paused Idol on DVR) Outside, 1-1 count. Matsui grounds it to short for the force at 2nd. End of the inning.

(unpauses Idol)

Jordin's turn with "This is My Now". "This is the Moment" "Are you Proud of Me Now"? Hmm, a theme. Yeah, this was written for a female. Her powerful voice makes it SO much better than poor Blake. I love Jordin, and I will be voting for her, but this was really unfair to Blake. Haley in the crowd, they didn't show her legs though. BIG NOTE! And 1/2 way through it, Jordin just won American Idol. She's crying. AWW!! I love Jordin! I'm very very happy for her. I bet Paula is crying. Randy loves about this show - search for the next superstar, best singing competition ever. He deemed she was the winner. Paula is a little choked up. Simon says last week he didn't think she was good enough for the finals and he admitted he was wrong and says Jordin just wiped the floor with Blake with that song. Simon and I are right on.

Chris Sligh in the house, hasn't cut his hair. Constantine in the house. Kathy Griffin in the house.

1-866-
Idols 01, 03, 05 for Blake.
Idols 02, 04, 06 for Jordin

Tomorrow we will see who America chooses, but I'm about to call 1-866-Idols02

WAIT!! I thought it was over!! DAUGHTRY! Yes! Awesome! I was hoping they would be there!

Photo Credit: Frank Micelotta / FOX