MJ’s Take: The Final 2: It’s Crystal Bowersox in a Knockout
Let’s have a moment of silence for … the big cheesy coronation single. The biggest surprise this very last week of Idol? Instead of being handed a brand new (always awful) song to sing, Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox were given the opportunity to sing a cover in competition, with the eventual winner releasing that song as the winner’s single.
I complain about the dreck-filled cliche-ridden coronation singles every year. Now that they’re gone? Hm. I might be missing them a little! Well, maybe not. Heh.
‘American Idol’ Finale: 10 Things You Didn’t See On TV
The Nokia Theatre in downtown Los Angeles holds 7, 000 people, so there’s no way the cameras can capture everything that goes on during an “American Idol” taping. Luckily, Billboard.com was on the inside and can give you the scoop. Here’s 10 things you didn’t see on TV:
1) Lee DeWyze’s nerves were bothering him even before the show started. With about five minutes to air, Lee and Crystal Bowersox were brought in through a side entrance from the Nokia courtyard. Looking at the full auditorium, Crystal smiled big and started waving when people spotted her in the hallway. Lee was holding himself up using the railing and stared, seemingly stunned, at the crowd.
‘American Idol’ recap: Crystal, Clearly
The breakup occurred around 8:50 p.m. ET, in front of a national television audience. Lee DeWyze stood shellshocked, staring down at the ”Dear John” letter he’d just received from the American Idol judges. ”You’re a super-nice guy, really, and you’ve shown so much growth. But at the end of the day, we needed a little more passion. You’ve got to believe it when we say that it’s not you, it’s us.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the stage, the judges were already trying to reconcile with their old flame, Crystal Bowersox, whispering sweetly into her ear. ”We know we’ve been fickle, baby. But all that flirting with Lee over the last few weeks? It didn’t mean anything. It was always you, MamaSox. It was always you.”
Jim Cantiello’s Idol in 60 Seconds after the JUMP…
‘American Idol’ In 60 Seconds: Crystal Climbs The Mountain
‘American Idol’: Crystal steals the show, alumni pack the Nokia, and Simon sorta rescues a swaybot on the scene for Top 2 performance night
So let’s just call this thing: Crystal killed it, and Lee kinda choked. Having discussed last night’s American Idol finale performance night with EW.com’s preeminent Idoloonie Michael Slezak, I know that was also his assessment of the evening from the vantage point of his living room couch. From my seat inside the IdolDeathStar — a.k.a. the Nokia Theater LA Live — the difference between Crystal’s often effortless excellence and Lee’s unfocused striving was even more stark. I don’t think I’ve experienced an Idol finale, on TV or in person, this lopsidedly obvious since the days of Fantasia Barrino and That One Girl Who Does Broadway Now. Crystal owned that gargantuan room like it was a small bar in Toledo, Ohio and not packed with 7, 000 screaming fans. Lee just barely borrowed it.
Inside ‘American Idol’ Finale, Fans Urge Simon Cowell: ‘Don’t Go!’
LOS ANGELES — The party got started long before the final “American Idol” performance show kicked off. “Idol” contestants from seasons past were right at home and accepted cheers and catcalling from the 7, 000 fans inside the Nokia Theatre.
About an hour before the show started, season-one runner-up Justin Guarini held court. The curly-haired singer was outside near the talent check-in, taking cell phone shots with fans, shaking hands and laughing with friends he called out to.
‘American Idol’ Finale: Crystal Bowersox And Lee DeWyze Face Off
After more than 40 shows, hundreds of contenders, almost as many broken hearts and one of the tamest set of finalists in the show’s history, “American Idol” season nine came down to a pair of 24-year-olds, each vying to be the first Midwesterner to hold the crown.
Two days after the buzzed-about “Lost” finale, the second meanest man on TV this side of John “Smokey” Locke — departing original judge and the heart of the panel, Simon Cowell — went out not with his usual snarling put-downs, but with mostly kind remarks as Crystal Bowersox re-asserted her season-long status as the woman to beat with a pair of powerful performances that might have beaten back the late-season surge from rocker Lee DeWyze.
Ann Powers: Crystal and Lee, stubborn spirits for the win
The last word Simon Cowell offered to a trembling would-be pop star standing before him at the “American Idol” judges’ table was one of his favorites. “Outstanding, ” he said to Crystal Bowersox Tuesday, after her beautifully direct rendition of the Patty Griffin country gospel song “Up to the Mountain.” He might have pulled out another of his frequently deployed adjectives — “incredible” — and then pondered its root, for this climactic contest between earth mama Bowersox and former underdog Lee DeWyze all came down to the issue of credibility, one of American pop’s most treasured, though contested, values.
‘American Idol’ Recap: Lee Fights Nerves As Crystal Shines During Finale
This is it! The grand finale, the end of the road, fight night. Have five months of “Idol” bootcamp turned Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox into potential music industry superstars? Has Simon Cowell Svengali’d his way into making America pick his winner of choice? Before the taping of the finale started, they announced there would be no coronation song this year – instead Lee and Crystal would perform covers that will be turned into their first singles released to market. This small change redeems a lot of this season, frankly.
‘American Idol’ Pits Rock Against Rock
And so we reach the final two of ‘American Idol, ’ where Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze face off in order to figure out which one is more beloved by the calling and texting public of this fine nation. Who would correctly manipulate the voting public into the top spot? Who would pick the right coronation song that would correctly showcase their talents for both singing and manipulating audiences?
Blake Lewis: ‘America will vote Lee, ‘ but Crystal ‘really got me’
I was really impressed with both Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox Tuesday. I’m still on Team Bowersox and she got my vote, but Lee was the best I’ve seen him.
The night started off with the two singers running down the aisles of the Nokia Theater after a big montage of them facing off and images from the auditions. It was done really well.
They both had to sing three songs each and finally, for once, didn’t have to sing some cheesy inspirational song written for them. I was so happy about this.
American Idol: The Top 2
In what was perhaps the most underwhelming and anticlimactic “Idol” finale ever, Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox delivered flurries of soft punches, with only Crystal ever leaving a mark. This was her night, by the width of a county or three.
The guy who worked in the paint store got pwned: AI9 Top 2 Recap
Tonight, I’m just a wee bit sad. No, not because I simply adore American Idol. And not because I simply adored this season. I’m just a wee bit sad because I simply adore tearing this show a new asshole on a weekly basis. I simply adore that a few of you actually take the time to read this shit blog. Where will you go? Will I ever see you again if we don’t have American Idol to talk about? I WANT US TO STILL BE FRIENDS!!!
Final 2 Sing: Just One More Show To Go
Funny how everybody and their mother has been predicting these two in the finals since the very first week of voting. Way to make this season unpredictable, Idol Producers. I really should’ve just written “Crystal wins” for my first review and taken the rest of the season off. Just like Simon, only he’s getting paid $50 mill to barely put forth an effort.
The Idols get wrestling entrances as Dewyze comes through the crowd low-fiving fans. Then the crack Idol production team screws up Crystal’s entrance, making her look like a total goof as she’s just standing there waiting to enter, and the director has to place her on her mark. This stuff never happens to Celine Dion, let me tell you.
Two Idolettes sing one last time
“American Idol” producers waste no time pumping up Tuesday’s final performance show as though it’s a WWE match being held at the Nokia Theater in front of 7, 000 fans.
“Tonight the battle is on between Crystal and Lee” show host Ryan Seacrest screeches as we see the two Idolettes in profile, going nose to nose.
The judges have come in fancy dress as befits the occasion – all except Ellen The Generous who, being the new judge, did not get the memo, and is seriously under-dressed. Randy Jackson is sporting a red riding jacket, like Sir Percy Foxwhacker. What the heck? Kara DioGuardi has five figures worth of gems dangling from her ears. Simon Cowell is, as usual on a final performance night, in full Il Divo: button-challenged shirt and black jacket. It is Simon’s very last performance night on the show.
American Idol Recap: Everybody Hurts, But Mostly Lee
On last night’s episode of American Idol, Simon Cowell wore something other than a black or white muscle shirt, which is his way of saying (through the language of pinstripes) that the season-nine finale of American Idol is upon us. With three songs to prove they deserve to join the ranks of Kelly Clarkson, Fantasia Barrino, Carrie Underwood, and, errr, Taylor Hicks, Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze — both 24-year-olds recruited from the Chicago auditions — delivered one of the most entertaining episodes of this otherwise sleepy season.
Both contestants went to greater lengths than before to make their presence and desire to win felt. For Bowersox, that meant delivering three show-stopping performances straight from the heart, and for Lee, that meant hiding his limited vocal range under a cavalcade of backup vocalists, a string section, and lighting show.
