American Idol: The Finals

Well, here it is, my second-to-last AI recap for the season. And I'm glad. I was looking back through my archives the other day, and I think my blog was much more interesting before American Idol. I hope you've enjoyed the other more recent posts and are looking forward to more of them. I know I am.

Shockingly, we start with a montage of how the two finalists, Taylor and Katharine, made it to tonight. And if you haven't figured me out by now, yes, that was sarcasm. Is it sad that I'm more excited for the House previews than for the Idol finals? It's just such a good show.

Katharine is kicking things off with "Black Horse and Cherry Tree." I'm glad to see she's standing up tonight. This is a fun song that has grown on me since I first heard her sing it. Randy's right, this was better than her first attempt at it, which was also fine.

Next up is Taylor with "Living for the City." That bright purple velvet jacket is disgusting. This was a standard Taylor performance - energetic and fun. And the jacket doesn't fit well, either. This was a little spastic compared to Katharine's fun, laid-back energy.

Katharine is back singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" again. I thought last week was the performance of the season, from anybody, so I'm looking forward to hearing it again. It's just such a gorgeous song, and she does it SO well. I don't care that I just heard it last week, I'm totally loving it again.

Taylor is singing "Levon" now. I'm not sure how I feel about all of these repeats. Again, though, I really liked this song the first time he did it, and he's doing well again. It's a good contrast to the first song, though I would have liked a little more power at the end. These second performances really distinguish the two; Kat kicked butt this round.

Completely unrelated to either of these second performances, why is everyone in the audience waving their arms for these two songs? After the commercial break, we'll be hearing the Idol's debut singles. Take a deep breath and steel yourself, these are always ridiculous.

Katharine is singing "My Destiny." I don't know that it's as fitting as Ryan seems to think, we'll see. This is not the best I've heard from Katharine, but it's ok. The choir, complete with royal blue robes, is a bit much though. This was just fine, nothing that would blow anyone away. Randy's right, the song wasn't great, but she did a good job with it.

Taylor's debut single would be "Do I Make You Proud." Like I said before, these songs are never that good. And here comes the cheesy choir again. Like Katharine, Taylor's singing fine, but this song just isn't his thing. He's trying to make it his own, but it's falling a little short - it sounded like "Levon, redux."

Contrary to Simon's comment that Taylor won, I think it's too close to call. Katharine is a little more in the traditional Idol mold, but Taylor has a huge following. I guess we'll just wait and see tomorrow night.

Daniel Powter is closing out the show with this season's brush-off song live. That's sweet. (Again, sarcasm people!) Now on to House, my real favorite show.