American Idol 11 – Final 2 – What Do the Critics Say?

The American Idol 11 Top 4 performed 3 songs last night – judges’ pick, personal pick and Jimmy’s pick. . Read my Recap. Now, read what the rest of the blogosphere had to say about the performances.

On the scene at ‘American Idol’ finale: The audience at Nokia Theatre clearly liked Phillip Phillips better than Jessica Sanchez – That fact that Idol is better on TV became abundantly clear last night, as I was sitting in the audience of the Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles, where the show’s performance finale was shot and telecast live to the East Coast and the Midwest in front of 7,000 screaming fans. My seat was in the very back row, all but assuring that I had to watch what was playing out just a few hundred feet in front of me on the jumbo projection screens plastered on either side of the stage. Think of the situation as something like how you might experience a Britney Spears concert in a huge arena today and — even though she’d be on stage right in front of you — you’d still end up watching most everything on the screens provided. Sure, it was something to simply exist in the same space as Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips, as they tried to convince America to vote for them one final time, but just like, say, the Grammys or the Oscars, American Idol is a show that’s made to be watched from the comfort of your own home. – Entertainment Weekly

‘American Idol’ Recap: Jessica Sanchez Battles Phillip Phillips for Season 11’s Crown – Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips duked it out Tuesday night on American Idol’s penultimate performance show: in one corner, the 16-year-old powerhouse from Chula Vista, Calif., gave it all she had, starting off strong with an effortless Whitney Houston cover but losing steam on a boring ballad from the show’s storehouse of original songs. – Hollywood Reporter

‘American Idol’ Finale Recap: Jessica Sanchez And Phillip Phillips Perform Original Songs For The First Time – The end is nigh! After Tuesday’s (blissfully truncated) one-hour performance show, a night of furious vote-casting from people who still think that such things make a difference to a potential “American Idol” winner’s career, and a fluff-stuffed, two-hour results show on Wednesday night, we will finally have our next champion. Will it be Jessica Sanchez, the 16-year-old prodigy from San Diego, or Phillip Phillips, the 21-year-old pawn shop worker from Leesburg? Or have you given up caring, because your favorite was already eliminated? – Huffington Post

‘American Idol,’ Season 11 Finale: The Last Performances – Did the one save of the season pave the way for a title for Jessica Sanchez or did Jimmy Iovine hand Phillip Phillips the best song pick of the season last week, opening the door for him to capture the coveted Idol? And could the judges have been any less opinionated and fair-slash-even about handing out the compliments for the first two rounds? All of the work from an entire season landed on the stage tonight. Now, in the coming hours, America decides the fate of the two remaining contestants on “American Idol.” – Wall Street Journal

‘American Idol’: Phil Phillips steals final performance night – On the one hand, Jessica Sanchez, who’s made it this far based on the strength of her gorgeous voice and the surprise factor that it comes out of a tiny 16-year-old. On the other hand, Phillip Phillips, 21, who’s made it this far because he’s this year’s copy of an “Idol” perennial winner, the safe, scruffy white guy with the gravelly voice and guitar—though to be fair, Phil is a pleasant, winsome version of the type. And let us say right off, he has our undying admiration for declining to appear in Ford Music Video car promos all season. – Washington Post

‘American Idol’ recap: Jessica Sanchez, Phillip Phillips vie for the win – Well, America, who will it be? Jessica Sanchez, the powerhouse singer with the gorgeous tone, total control and just enough grit to make it seem perfectly imperfect, or Phillip Phillips, the soulful crooner with a sound all his own? The 16-year-old with a sweet smile, a perhaps precocious taste for high heels and a passionate performance style, or the sly guy with a sneaky glint in his eye, a handsomely scruffy look, twitchy tendencies onstage and a steady insistence on doing things his own way? The girl, who’d be the first female winner in years and the only contestant ever to have made it to the finals after having been saved by the judges, or the boy, who resembles the show’s recent winners and has never been in real danger of elimination? – LA Times

‘American Idol’ Recap: Change Nothing – I know it’s felt like a lifetime, but that’s just because one of the most talented groups of singers this show has ever had the good luck to amass on one stage (like an actually talented flash mob) was forced to slog through weeks of vague theme shows, judges who seemed mostly incapable of putting together a coherent (let alone helpful) sentence, and a distracting amount of product integration. – Rolling Stone

‘American Idol’ Top 2 Recap: Battle Of The Opposites – Three seasons ago on “American Idol,” it was “the guy-next-door versus the guyliner.” This year, apparently there were a few layoffs in the Fox copywriting department, since the best slogan anyone could come up with for this week’s Season 11 showdown was the somewhat insulting-to-both-contestants “the musical artist versus the big ol’ voice.” Whatever. But I suppose it was an appropriate summation of the massive contrast between this year’s two “Idol” finalists, humble singer-songwriter Phillip Phillips and girl-wonder powerhouse Jessica Sanchez. – Yahoo.com

Final Two Performance Show – Well, a girl can dream. As recently as last week, many Idol commentators, including your regular recapper Claire Zulkey, were calling the season for Jessica Sanchez, which is a nice thought that would be nicer if the proposed outcome wasn’t so damn boring. It’s funny, at the start of the live shows having a female winner for the first time in five years seemed like an electrifying, revolutionary possibility; now I find myself strangely excited for Phillip Phillips’ being crowned the winner if only for how blatantly it would signify that this particular starmaking mechanism is broken. Call it the Vote For The Worst appeal, if you will (who, incidentally, are pulling for P2 this year). And while it’s easy to sit back and say that the teenyboppers are just picking the closest thing to boyfriend material that this season has to offer, I’d posit that there’s a lot more going on behind this fifth consecutive occurrence of the White Guy With Guitar phenomenon. – AV Club

About mj santilli 34837 Articles
Founder and editor of mjsbigblog.com, home of the awesomest fan community on the net. I love cheesy singing shows of all kinds, whether reality or scripted. I adore American Idol, but also love The Voice, Glee, X Factor and more!