American Idol

[Josh]

Damn the VCR!! Damn you!!

Who sang what???

[DaysFanJean]

Well, don't rule Kat out. Neither were good tonight. The whole show was not on the level of last year's in my opinion. Taylor lowered the standards and in my judgement. Katharine was not her most powerful and I thought she wasn't as confident. Taylor railroaded his usual Soul Patrol status. Hated it with a vivid purple passion. Hated Simon for handing the title to him and Paula for touted him everywhere she appeared the last couple of days. Randy was curiously standoffish tonight and I think he was GREATLY disappointed. My strongest wish is that Kat fans come through for her.

AOL has a page that lists the songs each contestant sang during every show. If I can post a link to it...someone tell me...otherwise you can do a search and probably come up with it.

Wrong quote appeared here...so strange...this is to King Reilly's post.

He doesn't have the range or the versatility of Katharine. She will be phenominal someday. Taylor will be mediocre, maybe making small time Vegas lounges. He is just not big time material.

[King]

KAT ANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNND THENNNNN TAYLOR

#1 Black Horse With a Cherry Tree - #1 Living for the City

#2 Somewhere Over the Rainbow - #2 Levon

And then their singles.

[King]

Wow. You guys think I was mean towards Kat. You should ssee what the people on the AOL boards say about her and her "Crybaby Dad." OUCH!

Also, someone said over there she lost her voice a lot this week and had allergic reactions to the flowers in her dressing room. I dunno. Could be made up. I don't think her sound was off, as showcased by OTR. I just think her last song was not good, lyrically.

[PhoenixRising05]

I have to disagree with you KR on this. Taylor IMO won't appeal to the masses. For every Taylor fan there is 3-4 who don't like him or are annoyed. He is just lucky he has a big fanbase, especially in the south, because they have pulled him through. He did not outperform Kat on most nights. There were many that outperformed Kat but he isn't one of them. He did outperform her tonight although even that is a stretch because he had a better song to work with and did more with it. If Kat, who did ok on hers, had a song that was more uplifting then his or on par with his we may be talking differently about tonight because her first two songs were good while Taylor botched his second.

I just think tonight was the first Idol finale where no one made a clear claim on the title. Taylor did sound real good on his last song but Kat had two good songs before her last performance whereas taylor only had one good performance prior to his last song. This in no way comes close to last year between Bo and Carrie. That was a very dramatic finale with emotion all over the place. That was missing tonight as neither got large scale ovations on their last song.

KR you said in your last post that Carrie only appeals to one genre. Not so. She has crossed over to pop and Christian and of course we know she does well in country. She is quickly catching up to Kelly and I just can't see either Taylor or Kat being up there with the likes of Carrie and Kelly. Taylor will sell but he will be big in soul and I am not sure if that will help him make a huge impact which is why I think he will be as successful as Ruben is and that is it. I can see Kat being near Fantasia's success minus the grammy nods because she is very marketable and has a good and rangey voice. Of course all this depends if they make good albums. Chris will outsell all of them and I also think Paris and Mandisa will do well, if not better, then Taylor and Kat.

I too am also aware of the Kat hatred all over KR. This is very similar to what happened with Carrie last year. I know your reasoning is different but many dislike Kat because, like Carrie, she gives off the appearance that she is overconfident and perfect along with being beautiful. Many are jealous of that and I think many just want a guy to win it. I know many hated Carrie last year and now many have grown to like her but some of the Kat hatred is so mean and horrifying given that it crosses boundaries that should not be crossed like looks, family, etc. Thankfully that isn't the case here.

This finale reminded me of season two in that the race was close and the vote we know going in is close. The favorite in that case was Ruben and this time its Taylor. Both sang well on their first songs and were decent on their second while Clay was ok on his first and great on his second. That same thing goes for Kat who was great on her second but so so on her first. Ruben was alright on his last just like Kat and many I know complained about his Idol single while Clay was unbeleivable on his last song and even had Simon saying he was the winner and look what happened? He lost and tonight we had Simon tell Taylor he won it and I could totally see the same thing happening to Taylor that happened to Clay even though I doubt it. The similarities are striking between that finale and this one although I thought Clay won that night unlike this finale where I feel its a tossup since no one was amazing.

[King]

Well, Kat is a little cocky. You must admit. She knows she has a good voice and has a hot body and is hot. There is a thin line between cocky and confident. I am sure Kat fans think it's on the confident side. I am sure Kat haters are on the cocky side. You know what side I am on.

I would not say Carrie crossed over to the pop genre.

[kentville]

Well, in my opinion, Taylor outsang and outshone Katherine. Katherine's song choices were not that great (count me among those who don't care for her version of Over The Rainbow). She was absolutely horrid on her last song, pitchy and off key throughout most of the song. Taylor's worst song was Levon, although I don't think it was as bad as the judges thought it was. His first and third songs were great. I've said this before, but the reason I love Taylor is his personality. He loves what he's doing, and it shows. I just don't see that from Kat. I will admit that his yelling Soul Patrol all the times gets on my nerves. Go Taylor!!

[MzHuggable]

If it were just a singing competition, Katherine would win hands down because she can sing. Taylor is okay, but only when he stops running around like a lunatic~to me, he's more suited to a bar... wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that's what he did pre-AI . However, American Idol stopped being a singing competition years ago and now it's the whole package (which means likability included) that gets them from one week to the next... because Katherine has come off as an arrogant snob, which her McPheever/Kat-pack fans defend as confidence but to those who arent fans is considered snooty, she will lose to Taylor. Because even though I have fastforwarded through 90% of his performances, I think he's more likable and easier to relate to. With Katherine, I enjoy her singing but anytime she starts talking I want to ring her neck and she got worse after Pickler left... like suddenly there was a void of stupidity/naivite (whatever you wanna call it) on stage and it was her job to fill it I am truly disappointed with this year's finale... not nearly as good as last year's imho. Is there a rule or something that says only the even seasons can be worth watching? Not having seen season 1, seasons 2 & 4 were way much better than seasons 3 & 5

[RogerNewcomb]

Kat should have never made the Top 3. She has just as many off performances as good ones. If Elliott had her face and body he would have won this competition hands down. So no one should say it's all about singing. Kat gets told how "beautiful" she is a million times an episode. When she sings bad, she still gets complimented on how amazingly beautiful she is. Her looks carried her through when she deserved to get the boot. There's no doubt Taylor is this year's winner. I'm just sad Chris or Elliott were in the finals last night to make it more interesting.

From the interviews and histories, I think Kat really would rather be an actress. I bet that is the long-term career path she takes. She did this for the fame more than a love for singing.

[Heatherhcb]

IMPO American Idol should have ended years ago!! The only successful one is Kelly!!

[Bree]

Well, considering Carrie Underwood got a standing ovation last night at the CMA's and won two awards for "Jesus Take the Wheel," you can't say Kelly is the only successful one.

But I do think the show has run its course and needs to go. Or, revamp it like "Showtime at the Apollo," where the audience votes who wins, there are no judges, and the public can't call in and vote.

[PhoenixRising05]

Taylor is just as cocky as Kat. He never looks at the judges when they are critiqueing which means he never seems to care what they have to say. Taylor gives off the same snobbiness as Kat. I think both of them don't deserve to be there. I think Chris and Elliot were deserving but here we are.

The situation here is no one nailed down anything and both had crappy singles only Taylor had more then work with and that is the reason he will win it. I was impressed with his last song mostly because he finally showed vocal range. Had he shown that the whole competition I would have liked him more. If he sings songs like that last one minus the dancing I would like him. Not love him but like him. I just don't see either one of these two being as successful as Kelly, Carrie, or even Fantasia (who I also don't like).

The one thing I do know is Idol's editing really made Kat come off as a snob. When Idol started and she first appeared, she was very likeable to everyone but then Kat spoke out about how Idol was making her mom look like a stage mom (It was in SOW) and since then they editing team in the clips before the songs has gone out of their way to make her seem full of herself. The judges treated her like crap except Simon (I mean remember when they all said she sucked and took it back-except Paula who has her head so much up every guy on this show's ass it isn't funny). Randy never gives her constructive criticism-it's always comparing her to a singing great or something. Paula doesn't give her anything worthwhile either. Simon at least tells her things to help her and we know Simon wants her to win. I mean when he asked voters to remember her second song and then pulled the whole "Taylor has won" bit that sealed the deal for me-he feels Kat is the better choice so he wants her to win. Randy and Paula have been pushing for Taylor since day one, especially so when Chris was knocked out.

I understand why people dislike Kat and that is fine but Taylor acts just as bad as she does if you watch these shows back. I am just saying that because I don't care for him but they both act like they are too good for all this. I think its funny because on other boards the same people claiming they like Taylor are the same that wanted Chris two weeks ago. Now they say that they stuck with Taylor from the beginning which is a total lie and hysterical . I think we saw the real Kat last night in those clips. Idol finally present her in a more likable light. She has personality and that shows through her music too. She also overdoes her performances alot and Taylor does the same. They are both pretty equal IMO and were pretty equal last night if you base it on everything else but the fact that Kat was given a terrible song.

All I know is if I had a body like hers and looked like her I would be cocky too .

Really? Must have missed the CMA's and the fact that her album is catching up to Kelly's.

I don't think the show needs to go. I think it needs to have the judges count for like a percentage of the vote to help make sure people like Mandisa, Chris, etc from this season and people like Latoya and Jennifer from season 3 don't go. I think DWTS does this and it does help even though upsets could still happen. I picked Kat to make the finale but bottom line is neither singer belongs there just like two years ago with Fantasia and Diana. I guess Fantasia I could buy but really Jennifer Hudson was better and so was Latoya. Idol always messes up these odd years for some reason.

Hopefully next year it comes back strong with better singers and performers who choose to sing to back up any dancing they my do. I hope we can have season like 2 and 4 which I thought were awesome and very deep in talent.

[Bree]

This season was just plain weird. Most of the standouts were voted off early (with the exception of Ace, Bucky, and Kellie). Also, I don't know why the judges keep choosing people like Kevin Covais, when clearly they're not going to like whatever he does, even if he nails his performances week after week. I think they, especially Simon, wants someone they can mock to get publicity. It's sad.

However, I hope Katharine doesn't win tonight. To be an idol, you have to have the complete package. All she has is a voice and looks. She has no personality, no charisma, no presence.

I'm thinking they're going to go in a new direction for next season, as far as choosing who will make it to the final 12.

[PhoenixRising05]

I agree Bree this season was weird and its the same feeling I had about season 3. The top 12 was nowhere close to last year's and people like Kevin had no business getting into the top 12.

Kat does have personality. That is why she smiles and always pulls her over the top finger pointing and so on when she sings. I mean her first song last night showed personality in spades.

I know Taylor will win tonight anyway because he showed on that last song what Kat didn't-emotion. I felt his emotions on that song and that is whay you want on your last performance on Idol. I would probably buy his Idol single because that was by far his best vocal and the song got to me a bit but other then that I have no interest in him. It wasn't Kat's fault. She probably did that last song in rehersal and knew it was going to suck. She had to know she was a longshot because Taylor had never been in the bottom 3 and just knowing she had that song and knowing there was very little she could do with it had to hurt. I do think instead of acting like it was beauty pageant she could have showed some more emotion on the song and that may have helped sell it better but I don't think it would have made the song any better. It would have made you feel her performance more. That is why everyone liked "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" because there was emotion there and she was connecting with the song. I think Taylor did that on his last song so it meant alot (just like Carrie did last year on her last song) and if Kat had done that I think things may have been different.

Kat was my second fave anyway. It should have been Chris there tonight but oh well hope we have a better year next year. Taylor does deserve it though based on that last song but stranger things have happened so we will see tonight.

[Josh]

Thank you Bree!! Defend my Oklahoma girl!!! I think by far to date Kelly Clarkson has been the one who has shined the most, but Carrie is up and coming. It's only been a year for her out of the gate and she has to get her feet under her, much like Kelly did.

Like Bree said she's had a HUGE country/gospel hit with "Jesus Take the Wheel" and she is able to sort of crossover with "Some Hearts". If you're a country music fan then you're going to love Carrie and I think she does have what it takes to make a career out of this and she's working hard to do it.

So far you know she's already won:

2 ACM awards

2 CMA video awards

Plus, some awards at the DOVE (Gospel) ceremony!!

Carrie is to country as Kelly is to pop.