American Idol Top 3 Results

Who should have eliminated: Angie Miller
Who I predicted would be eliminated: Kree Harrison
Who was eliminated: Angie Miller

No disrespect to Angie, but I am quite pleased and surprised to be wrong about this one.

I had thought that in this somewhat unorthodox season of American Idol, Angie would stand the best chance of winning. There would be no White Guy With Guitar champion, but the next closest thing might have been a White Girl With Piano.

Instead, I think Kree picked up a lot of voters last night, whether it was due to strong performances, perceived "busing" by the Idol judges and Jimmy, or the emotional impact of her life story, as told through her Homecoming video. Showing those on the actual voting night, which is a relatively new thing, definitely has the potential of changing votes.

As for Angie, she is very talented, and could have a nice future in the music business. Whether that is as a mainstream pop artist or as a Christian Contemporary singer remains to be seen. The path to short-term success and profit might be through the latter for her. My perception is that while both Candice and Kree might have kept being surprised to have gotten as far as they have in this competition, Angie was solely focused on winning from the start, and believed she would. I do not necessarily think that is a bad thing, but this has to be somewhat of a tough pill for her to swallow.

So, I suppose that the old "Red State" voting habits of American Idol die hard, and a young girl (no matter how religious) from outside Boston was not able to get enough votes out of the Heartland.

With just one exception in its entire history (that of my virtual former neighbor Lee DeWyze), every single Idol winner has come from a state that typically votes Republican for President, including in the most recent 2012 election. Furthermore, they almost always come from the South.

Those trends will continue this year as the winner will either be Candice Glover from South Carolina, or Kree, a Texan who now lives in Tennessee.

I am happy that they are the last two standing. I think they have easily been the best and most consistent singers all season, and also come across as likeable and humble people. They have also proven that a woman does not need to be "skinny" to make it to the top.

It's been a weird season of American Idol, and more changes are supposedly in store for next year. The good news though is that this year will feature a final showdown between the two most deserving people of the entire season. That is definitely rare on televised singing competitions.