American Idol 2022 will crown a season 20 winner Sunday night (May 22). ABC will air the big 3 hour Grand Finale LIVE coast to coast beginning at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. The Top 3 will vie for America’s Votes to become the new American Idol champ.
Noah Thompson, HunterGirl and Leah Marlene will perform a song from the Bruce Springsteen catalog, as well as the original song they recorded with the rest of the Top 7. Leah wrote her original, “Flowers” in which she shares about her mental health struggles. HunterGirl also wrote “Redbird” with a couple of friends. The personal tune is about overcoming fear and connecting with departed family members. Noah didn’t write his song, “One Day Tonight,” but the country song is radio ready!
American Idol 2022: How To Vote For Your Favorite Contestants
In past seasons, host Ryan Seacrest eliminated a contestant midway through the finale. In the second half of the show, the Top 2 picked a favorite song from the season to perform. On the American Idol social media, each of the Top 3 picked a favorite performance and described why they loved it.
The Top 3 reveal their favorite performance of the season
“My favorite performance on the show is when I sang “Heal” by Tom Odell, Leah shared. “It was such a full-circle moment for me personally, and a personal memory and moment that I will never forget. The reception from everybody was amazing. It was just a beautiful moment.” Leah sang “Heal” for the Top 20 round of competition.
HunterGirl revealed, “My favorite performance of the season was probably “Baby Girl.” It was really cool singing that song to my parents. They’ve helped me so much on my journey. It’s good to say thank you.” The song is by Sugarland, and Hunter performed it for the Top 14 round.
“My favorite performance for this season,” Noah revealed, “was my Showstopper performance. It was really cool for me to see the judges’ reactions to me singing a Rihanna song.” Noah flipped the emotional Rihanna hit “Stay” and the judges and crowd went wild!
Fritz and Nicolina receive special phone calls!
It’s a 3 hour finale, which means a ton of other performances outside of the competition songs. Each of the Top 10 will perform a duet with a celebrity singer. Plus, there are Top 10 and Top 20 group performances. Check out a full list of guest performers here:
American Idol 2022 Finale: Celebrity/Contestant Duets REVEALED
A few of the stars called their duet partners to let them know they would be singing together on the finale. American Idol caught the conversations on video and posted them to their social media. Watch James Arthur chat with Fritz Hager HERE. Sara Bareilles calls Nicolina Bozzo to share that they’ll sing “She Used to Be Mine” together HERE.
The judges surprise Noah, HunterGirl and Leah with duet partner news
And after the Top 3 reveal, judge Katy Perry told Leah that they’ll be singing “Firework” together. Luke Bryan shared with HunterGirl that they’ll be singing the Randy Travis hit “I Told You So.” And they informed Noah that Melissa Etheridge requested to sing with him. Watch it Here. Lionel Richie will perform with the Top 10.
Who do YOU think will win American Idol season 20? Check out our Poll Results and Prediction Post:
American Idol 2022: Top 3 Contestant Rankings, Predict the Winner
American Idol 2022 finale airs on ABC Sunday night May 22, coast to coast at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. At the end of the show, after America votes, a winner WILL be crowned. And we will be live blogging it all.
