The search for the 2014 American Idol is over! Tonight the winner of a very close race was announced and we were treated to a pretty great finale. We had tons of guest performers, some definite reminiscing with eliminated contestants, and a judges' showcase that I did not anticipate. Here are the highlights in no particular order:
Jena and Caleb opened the show with a medley of Queen's "We Will Rock You" and No Doubt's "I'm Just a Girl." There were no holla back girls, but the duo did have some back up dancers. They finished the opening number with the Bryan Adams/Tina Turner duet, "It's Only Love." This was a fantastic way to kick off the two hour extravaganza.
Some of the eliminated constants were lucky enough to perform with special guests tonight. Alex and his BFF Jason Mraz performed "Love Someone," and it was really pretty. That's all I've got. And for whatever reason, Sam Woolf was allowed to sing the first verse of Phillip Phillips' coronation song "Home" before P Squared himself took the stage with "Raging Fire." Sam was still there, but the camera stayed mostly on Phillip, which is totally the right call. His stage presence is phenomenal...and Sam is Sam.
I heart Jennifer Nettles. I mean...I seriously love that woman and I miss Duets like you wouldn't believe. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Jennifer joined us tonight to sing "That Girl" on her own and then "Wrecking Ball" with Jessica Meuse. YES. Jessica sounded awesome and Jennifer completely owned this song. So much sass. I'm going to need her to release her own version immediately. Oh, and take that, Christina Grimmie. Two can play at this game.
Malaya was lucky enough to sing a
duet with John Legend this evening. And by "lucky" I mean I am 100% jealous of how
close she was standing to him and his magical, mystical smile. They teamed up for "All of Me" and Malaya was singing wayyyy too high. She just about
ruined the whole thing for me. Hell, let MK out there. She was at least on key when she sang this as her "save me" song. On the same token,
Darius Rucker's trio of
"Alright" with Dexter and C.J. was just alright. The "meh" portion of the show continued...
Aloe Blacc is the man and he was nice enough to let Sam, Dexter, Ben and C.J. butcher his song with him. Thank goodness Alex and Caleb showed up near the end to save this performance. Demi Lovato was equally gracious as she threw caution to the wind and allowed the Idol girls to share "Don't Really Care" and "Neon Lights." I've become a big Demi fan, so I did cringe when her high energy performed was knocked down 10 notches when Majesty began to sing...followed by Malaya, Erin, Kristen and Jessica. If you only remember half of those names, you're not alone. Jena jumped in with Demi at the end of this performance though and the ladies finished strong.
Our Final 2 had the performances of the night though with two ridiculously amazing bands. Jena started to perform "Decode" at the piano before Paramore joined her with "Ain't It Fun." Oh how I love that song. Hayley Williams is the perfect kind of crazy Jena and her leather pants kept up with the band just fine. The arena was taken over by balloons at the end of the performance and I could not believe how quickly those disappeared when the show came back from the commercial break. Caleb and KISS joined forces for "Love Gun/Shout It Out Loud" and the performance was totally insane. There was soooo much going on...the lights, the fire, the tongue attacking Gene Simmons' face! Caleb did not dress the part but he certainly sounded the part. This was unbelievable.
Our coaches took the stage tonight as well but first JLo performed solo. She did not make me suffer through another rendition of "I Luh Ya Papi" which I greatly appreciated. Her performance of "First Love" certainly had a ton of...skin and hair. At one point she danced her ass off (okay we know that's not possible) on the judges' table and then did some hands and knees dance moves that could have made Madonna blush.
The last performance before the big announcement was well worth the wait, as it included all three judges and Randy "The Dawg" Jackson. As you probably recall, he used to play with Journey. While I watched these guys I had a moment of terror thinking about what a judges group performance would have resembled last year... Anyway, this bunch absolutely delivered on "True Colors" and "Go Your Own Way." Harry was going nuts with two pianos, Randy and Keith did their thing on the guitar and bass, and JLo even looked like a tambourine pro. It was really fun to watch and it reminded me how great it was to have judges without drama this year.
Results! With no screen of safely needed, the winner was revealed quickly as Jena and Caleb took center stage. After a nationwide vote....CALEB WINS! He closed the show with "As Long As You Love Me" and the whole place went nuts. Congrats to both of them though. This ended up being a really good season and I can't wait to see what these two do in the future. We have to wait until 2015 before Idol returns and the rumors are already flying. Will the show only air one night a week? Will all three judges return? Will there be a "you must give standing ovations" clause in Harry's contract? We'll have to wait until January to find out. Til then!
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