Season 10 is Over - 5/25/11

:) Yeppers season 10 has come to a close and this is my final re-cap of this season. Hello gang and welcome.

Our show tonight starts off with us seeing all the crowds who came out to audition for this season. The numbers are doing a countdown to show the two who remain and as we know only one will triumph. Scenes of the final two are also shown. Ryan Seacrest asks us "who do you love"?

This is American Idol!

Ryan comes on stage looking quite handsome in his tuxedo. The huge audience is shown and I see many of the past idols which include Adam Lambert, David Cook and Lee DeWyze. Seems 122 million votes came in for our two teens. Ryan lets us know that over this season three quarters of a million votes have been cast. That is truly alot of votes and I would say mostly from the teens.

We get our final intro to our judges also looking quite good in their attire. Now comes our two teens dressed in silver and white. Crowds in their hometowns are shown. The crowd in Tennessee looks a bit smaller for Lauren Alaina than for Scotty McCreery whose huge group fills the stadium in North Carolina. Instead of following my usual pattern of how things happened on idol, let me group it for you.

The Performances:

First up is our group of thirteen doing the Lady GaGa song "Born This Way". All looking fantastic in their white and silver outfits, they actually sounded great in this number. I enjoyed it alot.

Wow, Ron Halford of Judas Priest still sounds quite good as he and James Durbin perform two songs from this great metal band. The songs are "Living After Midnight" and "Breaking The Law". I definitely will be giving metal a chance as I can not wait to get music from James. Awesome dude!

Jacob Lusk takes us to church with his performance of "I Smile". He along with Kirk Franklin and (surprise) Gladys Knight do a wonderful version of this song. We are encouraged to donate to the tornado victims (my heart goes out to these people). One last note is I am hearing all the money collected for this recent tragedy will be going directly to the victims to re-build their city and homes.

A real treat as Casey Abrams and Jack Black do a singing comedy routine to the Queen song "Fat-Bottom Girls". It always amazes me how talented Jack Black is as he can really sing. I loved this and look forward to getting Casey's music.

Now it's the ladies turn to perform which are hits of Beyonce. I notice Lauren is missing from the girls but am truly entertained by the remaining ladies of this season. Now if only some of these girls had performed during the season like they did on these numbers I could honestly see different results. The songs were "Single Ladies", "Irreplaceable", "Get Me Bodied", "If I Were A Boy", "Deja Vu" and finally with Beyonce herself in attendance "Crazy In Love". Bravo ladies, you rocked!

I could honestly see Haley Reinhart going into the jazz genre as she does an excellent job with 85 year old Tony Bennett to the song "Steppin Out With My Baby". Tony still sounds awesome at his age and Haley was a real compliment with her singing of this song. Cute moment as the two danced during this number.

Once again the ladies perform with the group TLC (missed seeing Left Eye Lisa). In spite of the threesome of this group now only being two this was a very entertaining moment as they perform "No Scrubs" and "Waterfalls". Lil John was also part of this number. Good job all!

Now comes one of our finalist in the form of Scotty McCreery who performs with Tim McGraw (the most played country artist in the last 10 years on country radio). They sing "Live Like Your Dying" and of course sound pretty good I think. Hey where is J-Lo?

Now we know as Marc Anthony takes the stage to perform a Latin club song (sorry I do not know the name of it). This was a very colorful number with Marc sounding great, Sheila E doing wonderful on the drums and Jennifer Lopez coming out looking fantastic as she dances. Both Marc and Jennifer do a great job with this number in spite of the fact J-Lo does not sing. Wow, I would certainly like to look like this beautiful woman.

Another treat as our guys take the stage to perform several Tom Jones songs. They are Stefano Langone on "Kiss", Paul McDonald on "She's A Lady" (for once I really liked Paul), James Durbin doing "What's New Pussycat", Scotty McCreery singing "Green Grass of Home", Jacob Lusk doing "Love Me Tonight" and Casey with "Delilah". This of course brings on the artist himself (Tom Jones) sounding great with his song "It's Not Unusual". All of the contestants should hope to sound as great as Tom Jones when they reach his age (70). Loved this!

Lady GaGa looking weird in her costume does a remarkable job singing the song "Edge of Glory". I loved the song in spite of the actual performance which has her on what looks like a mountain. She does do a bit of risque with So You Think You Can Dance past contestant Mark Kanemura. The song ends with both GaGa and Mark falling into what looks like a volcano. Certainly have to check out Lady GaGa's new release as I said I really liked this song. She can sing for sure in spite of her strange attire and make-up.

Lauren Alaina is a bit out-sung by Carrie Underwood as they perform "Before He Cheats". I am thinking watching this number that our Carrie looks too thin but overall both do quite well with this number which is actually one of my favorites by Carrie.

Beyonce comes out again looking beautiful as she sings her latest release "One Plus One". Sorry I really do not care for this song in spite of the fact Beyonce is a good singer.

Bono and The Edge team up with Broadway star Reeve Carney to perform a song from the show Spiderman which is currently on Broadway. Loved the intro of Spiderman swinging over the audience. The song itself "Rise Above" was just okay in my book but it was great seeing Bono on stage. Reeve is also a good singer I think.

Last but not least our very own Steven Tyler shows he can still master those high notes as he sings "Dream On". It was sort of strange seeing him solo without Aerosmith but very entertaining none-the-less.

Filler Moments

A salute to our judges:

Randy is shown during the auditions asking "What or Where". Alot is shown of his line "In it to win it" as we see scenes of many of our "Veteran" saying these lines which brings Ryan to ending this with the fact that Randy needs a new writer.

Our "loose cannon" is next with scenes showing Steven making his cussing as well as weird comments during the auditions and the actual show.

Seems our "most beautiful woman in the world" Jennifer is a big hit with many of the contestants who auditioned as well as our final thirteen guys who show their appreciation of her.


One of the prior contestants of the auditions named Big Joe Ripika shows us some footage of the auditions with a girl who should go to Siberia as mentioned by Steven. One girl is shown falling down some stairs, the guy who had an accident with another guy doing cartwheels, the girl who had some strange notes walking into the auditions plus lastly many who were mad and showed it as they left their auditions.

Our contestants give some comments about the fact that two teens beat them out of the competition plus others who talk about our final two who have yet to experience some of the adult world like being able to vote. I found these comments cute and endearing overall.

The Ford music video shows Scotty and Lauren singing the song "Whatever You Remember" as we see scenes of the past Ford videos. This ends with two of the teachers who inspired Scotty and Lauren receiving new Fords for their efforts. Seems both Scotty and Lauren will also receive the cars of their choice from Ford. This is a first I think regarding giving cars out to other people besides the top two.

A cute debate is shown between Casey, James and Pia on who had the most shocking elimination of the season. Stefano is also shown. I would say that each of these who were eliminated was a shock but Casey has top billing since he was eliminated twice.


Results

As probably everyone assumed our top winner of the title is none other than Scotty McCreery. I have no doubt he will be successful in the country genre of music and I wish him the best in his career. When the win is announced I noticed Lauren gives Scotty a big kiss which certainly does not indicate they are a brother/sister duo. Are they involved I wonder? Scotty is overcome with emotion as he sings his first song release "I Love You This Big". He hugs his family as he tearfully tries to sing. Naturally the confetti is falling wildly as Scotty also gives the remaining top 13 big hugs as well.

Well another season has ended of American Idol and regardless of my disappointment of who actually won I would say I thoroughly enjoyed tonight's show. I so look forward to getting the music of my favorites once the tour ends. I must now say adieu and wish you a wonderful summer. Remember So You Think You Can Dance premieres on Thursday (love this show). Take care all!

I posted comments on the other thread so I won't repeat myself. But I will say some things about the performances I forgot. First, Marc Anthony and J-Lo...OMG...this couple is so beautiful. And your right Crystal. What I wouldn't give to look like her. Amazing woman. Scotty and Tim McGraw's duet was amazing too. This song is one of my favorites from Tim. Loved it!

Overall, I thought is was a fantastic finale. Enjoyed every performance with the exception of Lady GaGa. As good as she is, I can't get past those weird outfits she insist on wearing.