Finale, Season 7 - 5/21/08

Hello to all! Before I begin my re-cap let me applaud Jodi who has added some truly wonderful new emotioncons. They are adorable and bravo Jodi for a job well done. You rock girl!


:thumbs: I have to say that tonight's finale was very entertaining and exciting. Maybe not as exciting as Taylor's year but a very close second in my opinion. Ryan welcomes us to the show wearing a black suit again with a vest and looking oh so good. It seems the voting public went nuts voting as 97 and a half million votes came in. 56% came in for the winner with the runner-up getting 44% of the vote. This is a first I think in announcing the percentages. An intro follows for our judges who look great all dressed up.

What a crowd turnout for our top 2 as we see Mikalah Gordon (Season 4) in David Cook's neck of the woods (Kansas City, Missouri) and also Matt Rodgers (Season 3) in Salt Lake City, Utah with the David Archuleta fans. I am thrilled that so many turned out for these two very worthy contestants. It was also good to see both of our former idols in these clips.

Ryan then tells us we need to get the party started and introduces our top 12 who sing the song "Get Ready" originally sung by two groups Rare Earth and The Temptations. Many of the So You Think You Can Dance group perform with them. I thought this was a very good performance by our group and they all sounded quite good in their small solo parts. Just a reminder that the show So You Think You Can Dance premieres tomorrow night for those that also like that show. I know I will be tuned in.


Next our two Davids perform a duet together singing "Hero" by Chad Kroeger of Nickelback fame. For these two guys who have different styles of voice and tastes in music I thought they both sounded great together.


:) Ryan is back on stage with our top 2 who have a visit with the spiritual advisor "Guru Pitka" who is actually Mike Meyers promoting his new movie called "The Love Guru". Our Davids got a special moment of seeing the un-yet release of this film and also a visit to the guru himself. Mike advises David Cook to shave and tells David Archuleta he will soon have hair in weird and wonderful places. Mostly he tells both to relax and have fun. This bit ends with David A. saying it was interesting in spite of not knowing what he was talking about and our guru tries to shave David C. as he starts to talk. The movie itself comes out June 20th. My favorite part of this whole bit was when Ryan gets on the guru's pillow and it starts taking off across the stage.


Our next spot belongs to Seal and Syesha Mercado who sing "Waiting For You" off Seal's 2003 album Seal IV. I might add here I saw Seal live in Lake Tahoe in 2004 and wow, what a great show this man puts on. As for this performance I thought Seal sounded good however Syesha kind of sounded off-key in parts. Maybe it was nerves but all in all not bad.


Jason Castro is up next and gives a very nice performance of the song "Hallelulah". He sounds pretty good and I do remember he made quite a hit with the fans on this number. He is such a cutie and this was indeed a heartfelt performance.


Our next spot belongs to see all the Ford commercials that all of our idols did this season to the song "Let The Good Times Roll". A shining moment for our top two as they receive new Ford Escape Hybrids. Both look very excited and happy about this.


Our top 6 girls are performing the songs of Donna Summer. They looked great in their outfits in different shades of red and pink. Nice job girls singing "She Works Hard For The Money" and "Hot Stuff". Then the diva herself comes on stage and sings a new single I think called "Stamp Your Feet On The Ground". I did like the song however in spite of Donna looking quite pretty in the face she seems to have gained a lot of weight. Loved that jeweled mic and Syesha gets to hold it as she sings a small duet with Donna on the song "Last Dance". Did you catch that moment when Ryan was trying to dance with the professionals. Boy was he tuckered out quickly.


Our very own Carrie Underwood is in a commercial for Nintendo. I have to say this girl is so pretty. It was also great to see so many stars and former idols in the audience throughout the night. Bo looked especially good in his suit. (Just a personal opinion).


Doing a duet of the song "The Letter" released in 1967 by The Box Tops. Both Michael Johns and Carly Smithson are dressed in black and look great and sound great in my opinion. I am wondering if these two will have duets together when they release their solo albums. I saw them sing together on Ellen and they were awesome.


Next we have some crazy comments from Jimmie Kimmel regarding Ryan, Paula and Simon. He ignores Randy for some reason. However, nice bit with all of Simon's bad comments sounding like a song.


Our 6 guys perform next and once again they do great singing solo and with the group. They sing "Summer of 69", "Baby Your All That I Want" and "We're In Heaven". Then the original artist Bryan Adams joins them singing two new songs I think called "Til I Saw You" and "I Need Somebody". Bryan sounded pretty good but once again was taken back with how old he looked. Age is not always kind to some people. I did however enjoy this whole performance.


Seems we can live the American dream ourselves as Jordin Sparks lets us know a new attraction called "The American Idol Experience" is coming to Disneyland in Florida.


David Cook performs with ZZ Top and how great they do the song called "Sharp Dressed Man" released in 1983. Great vocals and great guitar playing from these three. I really liked this performance and how good to see ZZ Top once again.


Good to once again see Mikalah with David C.'s music teacher Miss Gentry. Later we see Matt with the grandfathers of David A. You could just feel the excitement from these clips.


:flowerheart: Brooke White looks beautiful and sings great as she performs with Graham Nash to the song "Teach Your Children Well". Graham looks great also. Have to add here how big a fan I am of the group Crosby, Stills and Nash who sing one of my top favorite songs "Suite Judy Blue Eyes". Nicely done you two! The clips of the kids was also a nice touch.


Seems both of our Davids are doing a commercial portraying Tom Cruise in the movie "Risky Business". Dressed in only underwear and a shirt we see each of them at different times in the show acting like they are playing the guitar and singing the song "Good Time Rock And Roll". DC did a little better with this one but in reality what was the point?


Next to perform are the platinum selling Jonas Brothers who sing "S.O.S.", at least I think that was the song name. These boys are cute but in my opinion just average as singers. Judging by the girls screaming they probably are more popular for their looks.


What a build-up our next act gets. We see a few who auditioned which include Alexis (foul mouth) Cohen and James Lewis which lead to the USC Marching Band and cheerleaders performing with Renaldo Lapuz who once again sings a song he wrote called "I Am Your Brother". Once again both Paula and Randy get up and dance with this guy. Thank goodness that filler time ended quickly.


Our next act is One Republic who are doing quite well on the charts. They perform a duet with young David to the song "Apologize". I actually do like this song and this David does quite well with it. I am finally seeing that he could indeed do great on the pop charts.


Speaking of pop, Jordin Sparks performs next wearing a gold dress that would look fine on a two year old I think. It simply was not fashionable on Miss Sparks. With the back-up singers she sings "One Step At A Time" off her album. While she can work the audience well I honestly do not care for the song.


Oh the magic of television. We are shown a very young Gladys Knight singing in 1972 her song "Midnight Train To Georgia" with none other than Ben Stiller, Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. portraying the part of the Pips. This was pretty funny I think. I almost did not recognize Robert as he has indeed lost his youthful appeal.


Wow, how far Carrie Underwood has come. She appears in a very short white dress with a type of cape to sing "Last Name". This sounded more like a rock song than a country one I thought which only goes to prove she has a truly remarkable voice. However I kept wondering if she was wearing underwear in that short short outfit.


Our group once again sing the 1990 song "Freedom" and the 1987 hit "Father Figure" by George Michael. George does join them on stage and performs a new song called "Praying For Time" which brings tears to Paula's eyes. I must admit I loved this song however George looked very sickly to my eyes. Definitely too thin. The judges and the audience give him a well-deserved standing ovation. George will be touring for the first time in 17 years starting in San Diego, California.


Finally the moment we have been waiting for: The Results. Before the winner is announced Ryan asks the judges to comment. Randy thinks this was a great season and he feels both of these guys are winners. Paula is honored and proud of them both. Simon probably for the first time congratulates both guys and says the performances of the night before may not have been as clear cut as they first thought. He also apologizes to David Cook for any ill remarks and adds he does not care who wins as both are great. Shock factor here!

The winner is.........DAVID COOK! Frankly I was as surprised as Mr. Cook but applaud him for clapping for young David and giving him hugs. Then the reality sets in and he is crying. I always get choked up when I see a man cry. Seems our winner won with 12 million more votes than young David. David C. then performs the winning songwriter song called "Time Of My Life" and does this very well. Really liked how he included young David and the rest of the idols in this performance. Bravo to both Davids for a job well done!


Before I bid you good night I want to thank all of you who posted on my re-caps and also want to add I have enjoyed exchanging our thoughts on this season. I am sure I will feel the letdown of another season gone tomorrow but for tonight I feel great about the results and was so glad to see such a wonderful and entertaining show. I feel many of this year's talent will have great careers and I plan to support many of them.

Once again, thank you!

Great recap CC. I watched the show but late... Last day of school for my 9yr old granddaughter ya know so they had a program had to but it was ok because I got to cut the junk out and watch only the good stuff ha..

I agree that this finale was pretty good, better than I thought it would be but like you I think Season 5 still holds the title for the BEST YET.

I loved the group songs from all the idols, thought they did great and of course love LOVED seeing David H and man did he look good. He was the one reason I was so waiting for this finale, selfish I know but oh well.. ha..

Now for me I didn't care for the "guests" all that much and Of course I knew Carrie would be there but did not like her song at all, I was really surprised by it really, Jordin did well I thought and wow she's turning into a beauty isn't she? Didn't care for the Jonas brotheres, guess I'm to old to know what they are suppose to be about huh? Sorry to their fans but I dont think they are that good.
Loved the " I am your brother guy" thought that was great and I knew he'd be there, not a great voice but wow he sure is flashy ha..
LOVED Jasons solo, he did it again with that song and it was great for me another highlite to the show.
The rest did very well I thought with their solo's. It was an entertaining show but once again I think with all the ex-idols in the attendence they should have had more on the stage JMO.. Idol is a great formate and they should welcome what they've done for all of them not just a select few. Know what I mean. It seems that Ace Young is in the audience a lot, why not bring him on stage once in awhile. I'm sure he'd appreciate it. I know his fans would. Oh well ha..

I was not surprised by the win, I went into this thinking that David A would win but it really made no difference to me. I didn't vote so can't complain right? Both are good and the thing with both of them is that AI liked them and they'll back them like they have done to others in the past and that will help them in ways that poor Taylor never got to see.
Now we can look to next season and see what is in store for us huh?
You've done great with the reviews of this show and I'll miss reading them Thanks so much for everything you've done for us here in keeping us updated. GREAT JOB....

Congrats to Mr. Cook. My only concern now is that he will have to doo things he doesn't want to or risk being shunned.
`tyg

Unfortunately I worked last night so I didn't get to watch the finale. Thank you CC for all the recaps to keep us informed. Great job!!

Congrads to David C for being the winner. I'm pleased as punch. My record now is 5-2.

I'm looking forward to watching as much of So You Think You Can Dance as I can. (hope my work schedual works with me) This will keep me from having AI withdrawals.

Hello again. Just found out that song the Jonas Brothers sang was called S.O.S. I personally do not care for this group of guys music but for those that do I thought I would post the correction.

Also the song George Michael sang was called "Praying For Time" instead of "Pray For Time". I felt this was very heartfelt but his facial expressions and hand movements did distract some from the performance.

All and all a good season and I so look forward to what the future holds for so many of the top 12. Side note to Sandi: Yeppers I also loved seeing our David (Hernandez) on the show and he still sounds just as good as ever. Sure hope he gets to record.

Okay gang, that's it for now. Oops, by the way I went to Angie's site (idol-unofficial) and listened to the studio version of David's song "The Time Of My Life". I really like it.

the highlights of the finale to me were
see Syesha perform again
and George Micheal

and of course seeing Ryan dance

Sure wish I could have seen Ryan dance. :thumbs:

*blinks* tha might have been worth the price of admission, definately.
~tyg

You got that right, tyg. Watching Ryan do anything would be worth the price of admission. (did I just say that?) ~blush~