American Idol Finale

Last night, at the end of a three hour episode, American Idol crowned its 23rd winner. The result was one that pleasantly surprised me. While I long ago believed Jamal Roberts would go very far this season, I did not think he would actually win the entire show. That is indeed what happened though and Jamal is now only the second ever African-American male winner. The last time that happened was way back in 2003 when Ruben Studdard won Season Two. In face, only one other black male has ever even gotten as far since as the runner-up. That was the late Willie Spence in 2021. We were told that the vote total for this finale was "twice as many" as the votes last year, when I was also somewhat surprised when a female singer defeated a white male country singer I considered the front-runner. That was a valid result and so was what happened last night. If so many more people voted this season, that was truly a remarkable sign of a game-changing participation level.

 

Did I miss Donald Trump putting out a statement endorsing John Foster? That could have done the trick against him. My mother was disappointed that her favorite John did not win. She said she tried to vote but was unable to figure out the process and hopes that those missing votes would not have been the deciding factor. She is satisfied that John will be able to make records and have a career in country music.

 

It is once again late Monday night and I will do my best to recap the Sunday night spectacular. There is probably much more that could be said that I will forget. I always enjoy Idol season, but keeping up with it felt more like a project this year. I will be glad to not have to do any more of these write-ups. 

1. John Foster, Breanna Nix, and Jamal Roberts- "We Are The Champions"

 

The night begins with what we are told is not technically a round, but I might as well judge how these three sounded on their opening group number. The all did just fine on the Queen arena power ballad. The song and the Freddie Mercury vocals were best suited for Breanna though and least so for John.

 

1. Breanna Nix

2. Jamal Roberts

3. John Roberts

 

For the first official round, the contestants had songs picked from them (apparently from a list they submitted) by Jelly Roll. The three final contestants are all southerners. They consist of a male and female white country singer joined by an African-American R&B singer. They truly resemble this year's judging panel completely. All will be lucky to have similar careers to Luke Bryan, Carrie Underwood, and Lionel Richie.

 1. John Foster- "Courtesy of the Red, White, And Blue (The Angry American)"

 

I am pretty sure this song by the late Toby Keith has never been done on Idol. It came out after the 2001 terrorist attacks and was considered controversial even back then. Picking it for John tonight felt very manipulative to keep red state voters, particularly country music fans, on his side.

 

This is the point where I could easily go on a side tangent about how the Republican voters from a generation ago when this song came out (which of course I was one of) might not recognize the Republican voters of today if they really thought about it. They are largely the same people, although unlike the Presidency of the great George W. Bush, (a man who could really rock a cowboy hat), the current leader of the Republican Party approaches foreign policy and American strength in a very different light.

While this song talks about enacting revenge on jihadists who had harmed us with airplanes and were intent on doing so again, Donald Trump believes in making nice with supporters of terrorism for money making purposes and begging enablers of Hamas to give him a big airplane.

 

This could be a long essay but I will hold off because this song is from before John was born and I doubt he would ever say anything too political on television. So, he sang this country song in his usual country way including the line at the end that I thought he might skip. I do not buy that John is ready to put his boot in someone's ass. He seems to be too nice of a guy. There are better patriotic songs than this, but people were waving the red, white, and blue in the audience and I am sure a lot of Trump voters at home loved this (for the record my mother is not a Trump voter.) The entertainment diversion of American Idol aside, those people ought to really examine what this song is supposed to mean and what "the American way" should really be. It is not Donald J. Trump and what he represents.

 

2.  Jamal Roberts- "First Time" 

I do not know this song, but it definitely veered in the smooth R&B direction and Jamal did what he has done all season and sang it very well. I cannot really think of what else I can say.The families of the three contestants are all seated (or asleep) at the side of the stage on couches. For Jamal, they never really specify whom is who. Who is the older dude with the blond beard? An Uncle? If it was his father they might have pointed it out. Who was the woman in the tight jeans? Could she have possibly been the mother of Jamal's two oldest daughters? The answers may be out there somewhere on the internet, but I will let the mystery exist.

 

3. Breanna Nix- "In Jesus Name"

 

For John, they went the patriotic route and for Breanna, back to the heavily religious theme. This season has been very big on country hats and crosses. If Breanna wants to have a career in Christian Contemporary Music, she might be very successful and this would indeed have been the right kind of song for her. She sang it pretty well, but I cannot really remember much else about it.

During the performance, her young son Emerson, with noise blocking headphones on, was laying down, sound asleep across one of thc couches. He is an adorable kid but he always seems to be sleeping. Are they drugging him for the episodes? I doubt that but conspiracy theories can be fun. It was like 5:20 pm in California at this point. Could they not have arranged nap times better?

Rankings:

3. John Foster

2. Breanna Nix

1. Jamal Roberts

 

One more round until we get a "snapshot" of the vote and eliminate the first person. This is the traditional "hometown visit" aspect of the Top Three, complete with emotional video packages with not so subtle narratives galore about each contestant.

 

1. John Foster- "Take Me Home, Country Roads"

 

I feel like we learned a lot. At least I did. John's actual last name is apparently Benoit and Foster is his middle name/stage name.. Unlike his two competitors, John Foster Benoit III seems to come from a fairly well-off background. His family owns a cajun meat store and unlike the other two, he is definitely Catholic. Is country music really that big though in the Baton Rogue area of Louisiana? It seems like he would fit in more in the more Protestant Shreveport area. They did feel the name to remove the French 

sounding last name from his performance identity. When he went home, the logo of his name was splattered everywhere, which I assume was drawn up by his family or management team. What I noticed was that the T in FOSTER was stylized as a cross.  I also wonder the details of how the 19 year old John has a 29 year old sister and a four year old sister. Considering that age gap between them all, it is likely a blended family.

 

The video package had John visiting the graveside of a young girl we were told was his best friend who had died in an auto accident a couple years back. That truly sounds like a horrible thing for anyone to go through. John was very emotional on the Idol stage  when he sang the song he had written in her honor a few weeks back and even more so when he sang it to large crowds at his hometown visit.

 

For this "hometown dedication". he picked a song I really like, but which seemed sort of odd. I will note that last week I compared him to John Denver singing to Moppets back in the 1970s and this was a John Denver song. It would have been perfect if he was from West Virginia. Obviously, this song has nothing to do with his home state of Louisiana. I think it might have been ok, at least on the last verse, to have changed the lyrics to "Louisiana... Cajun Mama... take me hooooooome...." He did not do so however. Was anyone in the Pelican State pissed?

 

Regardless, this is the kind of song that best suits John's voice. It was a very good vocal.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)"

 

For one thing, although it was not formally said, Jamal going home allowed him to meet his brand new daughter Gianna for the first time. She seemed to have a remarkable head of hair for being less than two weeks old. There was also some good footage of Jamal (who has a pastor as a grandfather) with his family at a cookout. The town of Meridian, Mississippi is heavily black, but they also showed some white folks at some of the public gatherings for Jamal. Idol had to do its own DEI perhaps.

 

For these hometown visits, contestants often visit the schools where they were once students, or perhaps still technically were. This may have been the first actual instance where someone visited a school where they were a teacher. That is a pretty cool aspect. Jamal is apparently known as "Coach" at his school and teaches P.E. to elementary age kids. Perhaps ABC can get him a spot on "Abbott Elementary."  Some of the kids were quite emotional upon reuniting with him and paying tribute to him as the cameras rolled.

I do know what this song really has to do with his a hometown visit but once again, he sang an old-school classic, this one by The Temptations extremely well. Older Idol voters likely appreciated it.

 

3. Breanna Nix- "The Climb"

 

For her visit, Breanna went home to Denton, Texas, which I have always associated as the home base of the cursed Von Erich wrestling dynasty. Her visit pushed the theme of her being a mother and how she was an inspiration to other young mothers to follow their dreams. Breanna often makes some kind of mention as to how when she was young, she might not have always been a good kid and that she made mistakes. Jamal has eluded to having been through a lot in his life as well. That differentiates both of them in terms of life experience to what recent High School valedictorian and LSU biology major John has been through.

 

This was a smart song choice, although Breanna, at age 25, might actually be the oldest woman to ever sing it on television. Miley Cyrus was definitely far younger when she first came out with it. I will say though that Breanna nailed this and brought all kinds of power and emotion to the performance. The way she held the last note was standing ovation worthy.

 

Rankings for this round which also mirror cumulative rankings for all three songs they had sung thus far: 

 

3. John Foster. 

2. Jamal Roberts

1 Breanna Nix

 

I keep always typing John Roberts instead of John Foster, and have probably let it get through on here at least once this season. Neither John Foster nor Jamal Roberts are the Chief Justice of the United States, but since John is Catholic, he would be more likely to be on the current SCOTUS.

 

Who should have finished in third place: John Foster

Who I predicted would finish in third place: Jamal Roberts

Who finished in third place: Breanna Nix

 

Look at that. Jamal made it into the Final Two. This was perhaps a minor surprise, but despite believing that Breanna took the last round by virtue of her vocals, I cannot complain too much about it. Still, I had to think that John was likely to win in a couple of hours.

 

As Emerson Nix continued to sleep and would likely miss out on the chance to one day say he was awake to watch the aging guest performers who would be taking the stage, the other contestants were applauded by their relatives. For John, that included his two grandfathers, whom it had been mentioned on the put a boot in their ass go America song, were both veterans. I assume these grandfathers represented both sides of his family and were not a couple. That would have been a plot twist!

 

Still, I wonder what was going through the minds of those two older gentlemen, after a night heavy on religion and patriotism, when Salt N Pepa came out and started performing "Push It."

 

Also, I am pretty sure Salt N Pepa have done the exact same thing before at least one previous Idol Finale.

 

Breanna seemed ok with her elimination at this point of the evening. She did very well for herself and I hope she is successful in her musical ventures.

 

Throughout the course of the middle portion of the program, there were group numbers, and all the finalists had their "celebrity" duets or trios, although they fit Desmond Roberts in with an entire group of male finalists (minus the ones that were actually competing tonight which seemed to be an Idol Finale departure). I also noticed that Thunderstorm Artis was not on stage for the Good Charlotte group number with the other guys. It was mentioned that Lionel Richie is the father in law of one of the brothers from that group. I could never tell the Maddens apart.

The Jessica Simpson collaboration with a cowboy attired Josh King was interesting. We were told that Ms. Simpson had not performed on television in 15 years and she certainly looked different than how she used to. It was interesting to me that Carrie Underwood was watching her from the judges' table. Do they actually known each other?  Could Carrie and Jessica have had a conversation about their mutual ex Tony Romo? If it were last season, Jessica could have discussed John Mayer with Katy Perry.

 

At this point I had to judge the performances that Jamal and John were in.

 

1. John Foster- "Deeper Than The Holler"

 

This was a country duet with judge Luke Bryan for John. I wonder if the Breanna duet with Brandon Lake (whomever that is) was moved around at the schedule at this point. I really cannot remember much about this performance. John played guitar and sounded like he always does. There is no doubt he is going into country music and not any other genre. Hopefully, his music will not be as cringey as Luke's.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Unpretty/Liar"

For Jamal, it was a medley of the songs of his duet partner Jelly Roll which seem to be of the theme about what a lost soul he once was. I am not the preeminent expert on Jelly's biography, (although I saw he was hanging out with Trump and RFK Jr and that crowd at an MMA event this year) but I believe he was once in jail. Fortunately, he did not escape, as those 10 people did in New Orleans. I believe they have gotten four back thus far.

 

Anyways, Jamal has a great soulful voice. I would not want to listen to any of this on the radio necessarily but I cannot help but think he is a stronger all-around singer amongst the Final Two.

 

Duet Round Verdict: Jamal over John

 

Finally, the contestants would sing their "single." From what Seacrest appeared to say, the Top 7 all recorded them recently and they have been released on I-Tunes. If I was actually following this stuff when the show was not airing, the sales numbers would have been a big indication on who was likely to win. I do not recall Idol ever having 7 singles for sale and also, at least as it relates to Jamal and John, these were not "new" song that were written for them. John actually got to record and would be about the perform the original song he had written and had already done on the Idol stage and Jamal would also be reprising a past performance. Past Idol finales have included both the "winner's single" and a "popular reprise" and this was both of that combined.

 1. John Roberts- "Tell That Angel I Love Her"

 

As was the case when he first sang it, I was very impressed by John's songwriting ability for this genre and the emotional connection he brought to the performance. I assume John and the departed angel he is singing about were just good friends but it seems like a very sad story This was a solid vocal that due to the subject matter was without any of the corniness that John had been exhibiting on some songs. Actually, might it have been better for him to have done at least something "fun" tonight. Maybe offering a little kick on the "boot in their ass" lyric was that attempt.

 

2. Jamal Roberts- "Heal"

 

I had noted that Jamal over the past few weeks seemed to sing with somewhat less energy than he was showing in the earlier rounds. I suppose he left it all out on stage for this last performance. It was very good when he sang it the first time a few weeks ago, but this reprise was even better. The song, which to me continues to sound like a worship song, starts off slow and ethereal and Jamal has the kind of voice to pull that off every time. Then, at the end last night, he finished in another gear and really put a preaching/gospel spin on it that I am sure impressed a lot of people. If they were not already voting, they may have been motivated to get out their phones.

 

Final Round Verdict: Jamal over John

 

 As I was watching a recording of the show after it finished airing, I saw Jamal's name trending on Twitter/X below "American Idol" and I asked myself, "maybe he won?" I figured though it was probably more likely people were Tweeting about him to complain that did he not win although he deserved to and Idol is racist, etc.

 

Who should have won American Idol: Jamal Roberts

Who I predicted won American Idol: John Foster

Who won American Idol: Jamal Roberts

 

For the second year in a row, I was both surprised and pleased. I think John seems like a good kid and is very talented at what he does, but for pure singing ability alone, he was middle of the pack as far as the Top 14 was concerned. It will be interesting to see what he does in Nashville. Although he has sort of a modern look, with longer hair, etc, his style of singing is more old school country. Is he going to go the Scotty McCreery post-Idol route and sing songs about beer and babes and parties? Perhaps, he might end up somewhere like Branson, Missouri singing to older fans of country music. He should definitely continue to pursue his passion for music but it would also be a great story if he does go on to actually become a doctor one day.

 

Jamal is the winner. I already talked about the historical significance of this. I also am pretty sure he is the first person to be crowned the American Idol while not technically wearing what would be considered a shirt.  It seems like Jamal is the most reserved personality wise to win Idol, at least in some time. He has always come across as likeable on the show, but I feel like there is a lot about him and his life that the regular Idol viewer does not know. His reaction to advancing every week has been fairly muted and last night was no exception, As is always the case, the confetti moment featured the other finalists coming out and surrounding him. Clearly, many of them looked extremely happy for him. 

 

If as we were told, twice as many votes came in as last season, that is definitely testament to Jamal's ability to get out the vote. I do not think people were necessarily voting to stop John or Breanna last night. I think a lot of black Americans, who might not have voted for or watched Idol in years, heard about Jamal, perhaps through social media, and did their thing to support him. That is how politics works. Jamal expanded the electorate. His portrayal as a loving father to the extremely telegenic Lyrik and Harmoni definitely helped. Voting strictly along racial identity lines is distasteful in some ways but just so happens, he was worthy of the win, and I am sure got many votes from non-black viewers as well. While I am glad Jamal won, in my view, the best overall singers this season might have been two African-American females, Gabby Samone and Kolbi Jordan. I also could make a case for Breanna at times being stronger than Jamal. I think she was in one round last night for sure.

There is no doubt that Jamal is incredibly talented and was consistent the entire season. I do not know what his album is going to sound like. It might be R&B or they could have him go the Gospel route. His very strong take on "Heal" aside, he seems to be more suited to sing oldies, and thus I do not know if he is going to go on to be a star.

 

Still, he is an admirable person who overcame a tough background to become an educator. Now, he will have the opportunity to provide for his family at a level that might have looked impossible just a few months ago. Early in the season, Jamal said he auditioned to bring hope to his community and to let people know that they had options in life beyond picking up a gun.  

 

That is truly a worthy message for an American Idol that all sorts of people in our country need to hear.