American Idol- Finale

It is time to wrap up Season twentysomething of American Idol. I watched a recording of the three hour episode on Sunday evening and noted my rankings and predictions then. To this point, I have been pretty busy and was unable to post my thoughts. This has been a theme of this season, and I probably have forgotten a lot of what I wanted to say.

Overall though, I was somewhat surprised by the results for this Finale. I think America got this one right.

1. Abi Carter, Jack Blocker, and Will Moseley- "Livin' On A Prayer"/"Legendary"

The evening started off with the finalists joining Jon Bon Jovi for a medley of some of his band's songs. First off was the most iconic of them all and since each got small parts to sing solo, I had no choice but to rank them.

 

Everyone did fine but the song seemed to suit Jack's voice best.

3. Abi Carter

2. Will Moseley

1. Jack Blocker

Now, each of the three would sing their choice of a Bon Jovi song, mentored by the lead singer, who last performed this role back in 2007.

2. Will Moseley- "It's My Life"

We are told this is one of his father's favorite songs. I would have assumed Will was going to do "Wanted Dead Or Alive" since it is about a cowboy and all that. Of course Will sounded very good vocally. It was not exactly full of energy though. This song was a hit but definitely represents the era when Bon Jovi was no longer even remotely considered "Hard Rock."

3. Jack Blocker- "I'll Be There For You"

Oh, I had such high hopes for this. This is absolute one of my favorite Bon Jovi songs, going back to childhood. Honesty compels me to say I was a bit disappointed though with Jack's version. For one thing, it is just hard to do this song justice in the limited time frame the contestants are given. Several years back, I thought the same applied to James Durbin's Idol attempt.

 

The actual song is over five minutes long and has all sorts of intricacies involved as well as a bit containing a vocal trade off between Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. Cutting and chopping it up just took away from it and Jack did not attempt the big scream note either. It just seemed a little weird. Jack sounded decent to be sure, but I think given the time he had, it might have been a better idea to sit down with a guitar and do a slowed down acoustic version. I also think the song "Never Say Goodbye" might have worked better for his voice.

4. Abi Carter- "Bed Of Roses"

Well, this was the right song for Abi to sing and accompany herself at the piano. When she is in her element, she never sings a bad note and I recall this being a very stellar version. Afterwards, Abi was "surprised" by a video endorsement by Billie Eilish. This was pretty much a sign that the Powers That Be want her to win, and maybe they thought this would gain her some new votes.  I do not really remember much from Abi's initial audition, but we were reminded she sang the Eilish song from Barbie and I probably thought she was pretty boring at the time.

Bon Jovi Round Rankings:

3. Jack Blocker

2. Will Moseley

1. Abi Carter

Next up were hometown visits and song dedications. One contestant would be eliminated and finish in third place after this. I thought to myself how relatively "normal" the three finalists were this season.

None of them had a backstory featuring a past illness or injury or mourning the untimely death of a parent. None appear to have grown up in poverty, or were homeless, or became a teenage parent. We did not hear about any of them battling addiction or going through rehab. With all that in mind, this year's winner will have less of a backstory than any winner going back to the end of the last decade and Laine Hardy. He only ran afoul of the law after he won Idol.

5. Will Moseley- "My Town"

This seemed like a good song choice for Will although the part about having to leave town after getting into a fistfight with his father seemed a bit awkward. I do not think that is something he experienced in real life. Nonetheless, this was right up his country alley and I think his fans very much related to the sentimental spirit of the song.

6. Jack Blocker- "All My Exes Live In Texas"

Assuming that Jack actually lives in Dallas, he is one of the rare Idol contestants to go far that actually comes from a large city. We learn he is a big fan of the Dallas sports teams. Those folks should be happy. The Rangers (though currently under .500) recently won the World Series and both the Mavericks and Stars are in the Conference Finals this Spring. Hope springs eternal for the Cowboys apparently too.

This was a weird song choice though. After we learn about how much he loves his wife Georgia, he sings a song about exes he swears does not even exist. Jack has been dressing up like some sort of wannabe old school country star in recent weeks but I think it was a mistake to try to sing this old school country song, complete with trying to do some line dancing on stage. Jack's quirkiness worked to his advantage this season but he was a bit too far left of center for this Finale in my view and could have found better song options for this round. I would have suggested "God Bless Texas" by Little Texas, a one time political theme song for Governor George W. Bush.

7. Abi Carter- "Somewhere"

It seemed like Abi's visit to California had somewhat smaller crowds than the two guys had, (although the Idol studio in the same state looks to be leaning a bit towards her people getting tickets.) She was also the only one of the three to cry during the hometown visit.

For this performance, she sang a ballad from "West Side Story", dressed up very much like the Statue of Liberty. I guess it does not get much more American than that for Idol. The song itself may not be everyone's cup of tea, but vocally, she delivered a masterclass once again.

 

Round Two Rankings:

 

3. Jack Blocker

2. Will Mosely

1. Abi Carter

 

Based on the evening so far, my rankings were:

3. Jack Blocker

2. Will Moseley

1. Abi Carter

It was only close with my points because of the Bon Jovi group number I probably should not even rank. I thought Jack Blocker deserved to be eliminated first this evening and while I was far from certain, I feared it would be Abi Carter who could not overcome the historical anti-female Idol bias.

Who finished in third place: Jack Blocker

How about that? The most just result occurred. Surely though, this would mean that Will was now a heavy favorite to finish in first, as I have been predicting since the Hawai'i episodes.

The next portion of the evening would feature most of the celebrity performances with all of the Finalists, eliminated and otherwise. Fantasia Barrino, who won Idol twenty years ago, did not sing, but was on the couches with the families and 2024 contenders, and on camera a lot, adding some racial diversity to be certain.

Now, since Abi and Will were left and America was still voting, I had to "score" them anytime they sang a solo note for the rest of the evening, in the order in which they performed, and that makes things a bit complicated, but it had to be done.

8.Abi Carter- "River"

Bishop Briggs, who not long ago won "The Masked Singer" over David Archuleta, started off singing one song, and then had Abi join her for "River" which is the only Bishop Briggs song I know. Abi sang it very well, at least from what I recall.

9. Will Moseley- "America" and "Sweet Caroline"

All of the male finalists joined together for a Neil Diamond medley with 2015 winner Nick Fradiani, whom apparently is playing the role of Neil Diamond on Broadway. The producers of that show decided to go Italian over Jewish. Nick really does sound like Neil Diamond, but I was a bit surprised by his appearance. I hope he is healthy.

Will fulfilled his duty at this portion of the program just fine, but if I have to score this as a round:

Abi Carter over Will Moseley

10. Will Moseley- "Hold My Hand"/"Let Her Cry"/"Only Wanna Be With You"

For his celebrity duet, Will was paired with Hootie (aka Darius Rucker) plus the Blowfish. I did not like these songs in the 90s and I do not like them now. I thought Rucker had gone country but I guess now still does stuff with the Blowfish. Will once again sounded just fine. I do not think he had solos on all of these songs, but he was on stage along with Hootie for all of them.

11. Abi Carter- "Teenage Dream"/"Dark Horse"/California Gurls"

This was Katy Perry's last show as an Idol judge, so of course they had to pay her tribute. She did not join Abi and the other female Finalists for this medley but watched from her seat.

Again, the other girls were also singing parts on this medley along with Abi. From what I recall, she started off sounding good on her part and then later on had another part where she seemed vocally off somehow. I am noticing that all three song titles somehow can relate to Abi's life and Idol journey.

For this "round", I had it:

Will Moseley over Abi Carter

 

Based on my complicated rules of ranking every possible performance, it was a close race here going into the last round, although I suppose Will needed a true knockout to take the win with "Winner's Single."

12. Will Moseley- "Good Book Bad"

What do I even remember about this? Obviously, I had never heard these songs before. I recall Will doing a very decent job on a slow country ballad that non-country fans will probably find boring.

13. Abi Carter- "This Isn't Over"

Nonetheless, the show and the season were just about over at this point. Abi definitely got the song the person the producers wanted to win would get. She made the most out of what I recall being more of a traditional inspirational ballad in the style of past Idol victory song.

Will has a great voice and I think could have quite a decent career in country music. Abi was just stellar vocally all season, especially in the final weeks, and definitely had more of an intensity and competitive spirit as compared to Will.

This final round-

Abi Carter over Will Moseley

Who should have won American Idol: Abi Carter

Who I predicted would win American Idol: Will Moseley

At this point, I was a bit less sure, considering how the deck was seemingly stacked a bit on the evening for Abi. I did stick with my Will prediction considering a likable country singer from the South had a lot going for him demographically. However, could the young female fans of Jack Blocker decide that they identified more with Abi and throw votes her way?

Who won American Idol: Abi Carter

Good news her. Both were worthy (unlike out current Presidential election) but America got this right. Abi was the best overall singer and I would say that there were maybe three or four ladies this season who were better singers than all the guys.

I wrote in some greater detail after the last Idol episode about what an accomplishment a win for Abi would be. We have had a couple of female Idol winners during the ABC run of the show, but those were sort of weird seasons without a truly strong male competitor.

Going back to the Fox years, the dude always won, once texting became a thing for voting, whether they deserved to or not. Idol had to basically rig one season where the Final Four were all female, just to make sure one took the title. So, Abi beating Will (and Jack) is the biggest victory for the Idol feminist movement since Jordin beat Blake back when GWB was in the White House. She definitely deserved it though.