# American Idol "Finale performance show" 5/25/10 *spoilers*



## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

Here we go.

Crystal won a coin toss and deferred to the 2nd half.  

Lee Dewyze - 1-866-IDOLS-01, 03 or 05 - Song #1: Lee's choice: "The boxer" - I thought he did very good. I agree with it being a bit dull for a song choice though. Song #2: Simon Fuller's choice: "Everybody hurts" - I thought it was pretty good, better than the first. I did "hurt" at times when it got pitchy. Song #3: Winner's song: "Beautiful day" - Not blown away with that song either. It was just alright for me.

Crystal Bowersox - 1-866-IDOLS-02, 04 or 06 - Song #1: Crystal's choice: "Me and Bobby McGee" - I think she blew Lee away in the 1st round. Song #2: Simon Fuller's choice: "Black Velvet" - Pretty good, sounded a little rough at times. I think she edged out Lee one more time. What was with that scratchy mic sound? Song #3: "Up to the mountain" - I thought she did very good. Back to the old Bowersox standard.

Overall I think she schooled Lee. But never discount the girl teenie bopper vote for Lee.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Ok, I officially hate Lee. He's DESTROYING one of my favorite U2 songs.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

well, right after he destroyed one of my favorite REM songs.

and THAT's going to be his first single?

man these 2 suck.


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

Funny how they are using already hit songs for the winners song after Kara's disastrous song last season!


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Kamakzie said:


> Funny how they are using already hit songs for the winners song after Kara's disastrous song last season!


There really isn't anything wrong with the song itself... it just wasn't at all a good fit for either of the final two from last year.

I liked the year that they had a songwriter contest... they should go back to that. Have a group of finalist songs, then let the final two contestants each pick one of the finalists to sing and record for the first single.


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

Cainebj said:


> man these 2 suck.


Lee, yes. Crystal, no.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

LoadStar said:


> Lee, yes. Crystal, no.


I do take it back. 
Up to the Mountain didn't suck.


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

Well I've only voted once or twice this season. I'll be throwing 10 or so votes Bowersox's way tonight.


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## jsmeeker (Apr 2, 2001)

LoadStar said:


> Ok, I officially hate Lee. He's DESTROYING one of my favorite U2 songs.


Yeah.. that was bad..


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## Odds Bodkins (Jun 7, 2006)

No, they both suck. Crystal is little more than a gimmick with the ability to do one kind of genre. Lee is just... well, he's from Chicagoland!!!


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## Maui (Apr 22, 2000)

Crystal left Lee in the dust tonight!! She won all three rounds by a large margin.

Go Crystal.


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## ciscokid (Jan 14, 2003)

Ya know! Neither of these two are of the quality of past winners. Looks like this show is running out of steam. I'll give it one more season before it goes away for good!


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## That Don Guy (Mar 13, 2003)

ciscokid said:


> Ya know! Neither of these two are of the quality of past winners. Looks like this show is running out of steam. I'll give it one more season before it goes away for good!


So are a number of people - of course, most of them are writing the show off because it won't be the same without Simon.



Kamakzie said:


> Overall I think she schooled Lee. But never discount the girl teenie bopper vote for Lee.


And then we can listen to them scream about how the producers are trying to ruin his career by releasing both singles on the same day ("But he won - the prize is, you get your single released first!" - er, no; the only prize is the recording contract) and then releasing Crystal's album anywhere near his, the way last year's runner-up's first album was released a week after the winner's ("now you're just trying to kill all of his publicity so your chosen one Crystal gets all the attention")...

-- Don


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

Maui said:


> Crystal left Lee in the dust tonight!! She won all three rounds by a large margin.
> 
> Go Crystal.


This.

Plus those disgusting strands of whatever saliva like substance was in Lee's mouth creeped me out to the max.


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## buckeye1010 (Dec 11, 2002)

Dial Idol has Lee in a huge lead. hmmm


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

buckeye1010 said:


> Dial Idol has Lee in a huge lead. hmmm


Dial Idol hasn't been reliable for a couple of seasons now.


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## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

Lee took three of my favorite songs and destroyed them (as in failed). He seems to be a very nice/cool guy but just doesn't have the power voice required. He got blown away so badly tonight I almost wavered on my long time prediction that he wins. 

Then I heard Bowersox give perhaps the performance of the year in her final -"Up to the Mountain" - and saw the glazed over look of the young girls in the crowd as they clapped along out of time and realized there is no way she is getting the young girl power texter vote.

Lee wins the popular vote easily.

One thing I am sure of, Bowersox can have success as the number two, but Lee needs the title to have any lasting post idol success.


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## TampaThunder (Apr 8, 2003)

When Kara said Lee got "swallowed up" by Beautiful Day she hit the nail on the head. That was way too big a song for him.

This was only the 2nd season I've watched, the other being season 2 with Clay/Reuben, so I'm not much of a judge when it comes to the quality of the singers this year compared to other seasons, but IMHO Crystal was head and shoulders above everybody else this season. If she doesn't win it'll be a repeat of the Clay/Reuben fiasco.


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## lambertman (Dec 21, 2002)

I remember Kurt Nilsen's version of "Beautiful Day" on "World Idol" to be about leventy times better than Lee's.


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## MLR930 (Dec 26, 2002)

LoadStar said:


> Ok, I officially hate Lee. He's DESTROYING one of my favorite U2 songs.


I'm not even a U2 fan and I was disgusted, why give him a song he can't even sing live or at all? He better not win!


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## uncdrew (Aug 6, 2002)

Johnny Dancing said:


> Lee took three of my favorite songs and destroyed them (as in failed). He seems to be a very nice/cool guy but just doesn't have the power voice required. He got blown away so badly tonight I almost wavered on my long time prediction that he wins.
> 
> Then I heard Bowersox give perhaps the performance of the year in her final -"Up to the Mountain" - and saw the glazed over look of the young girls in the crowd as they clapped along out of time and realized there is no way she is getting the young girl power texter vote.
> 
> ...


yup.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

LoadStar said:


> Ok, I officially hate Lee. He's DESTROYING one of my favorite U2 songs.


I skipped most of the show, only watched the songs... and I had a REALLY hard time figuring out what song he was singing until he got to the chorus (and really, it was thanks to the words - the melody had nothing to do with the original, as far as I could tell). Holy crap that was awful.

Lee had good song choices, but he butchered every single one. The guy simply Can. Not. Sing. And performance-wise in general, he just completely average. They could literally have picked any of the Top 24 contestants and they would have done equally well performing these songs, IMO.

Crystal was so far ahead of him performance wise that it wasn't even funny. I have no idea what people see in him, but based on everything I've read and seen on the show, Lee is the front runner. Simply amazing.


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

buckeye1010 said:


> Dial Idol has Lee in a huge lead. hmmm


The raw numbers seem to be more accurate on there and that shows Crystal blowing him away.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

Johnny Dancing said:


> Then I heard Bowersox give perhaps the performance of the year in her final -"Up to the Mountain" - and saw the glazed over look of the young girls in the crowd as they clapped along out of time and realized there is no way she is getting the young girl power texter vote.


I was thinking the same.

One question though, that might sound a bit rude or whatever, but it's something I've seriously been wondering about... is Lee fat or is his neck/cheek just not very defined? He doesn't really look fat anywhere except around his neck and face. Sorry, I don't mean it to be rude or criticizing his looks, I'm just curious.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

LoadStar said:


> Dial Idol hasn't been reliable for a couple of seasons now.


I think once the texting really kicked in, DialIdol is just irrelevant.


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## danielhart (Apr 27, 2004)

I threw 20 votes for Crystal. She blew him away - not even close.

Bottom line, the world has far more of a need for Crystal Bowersox than it does for a hack like Lee. YMMV


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

LoadStar said:


> Ok, I officially hate Lee. He's DESTROYING one of my favorite U2 songs.


I loved U2, but that song marks the moment I started hating them. They gave up Edge's shimmering guitar sound and bright instrumentals for early 2000s mush.

So for me dawg, he didn't make the song any worse.


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## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

I haven't watched the last 3 weeks but they were both pretty poor in my opinion. I don't like Crystal so I voted for Lee to counter act some of the votes above


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## Ment (Mar 27, 2008)

Lee needs to win this. Crystal is better off not winning. As the winner she'll get alot of pressure to pop-trend her album which wouldn't match her indie style.

Looking at the contestants in the crowd, I'd love to have seen what Lilly would have done at this stage of the show, neither Lee or Crystal are particularly unique.


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## smickola (Nov 17, 2004)

Crystal totally mopped the floor with Lee, it wasn't even close. 

On the local Fox news this morning they had a segment with a guy from Forbes magazine commenting about the sales potential for both of them. He said that while Crystal will be successful, she's more of a niche performer...he compared her to Jewel, and then said it also looked llike Crystal and Jewel both had the same dentist! I could not believe he said that on the air!


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## LlamaLarry (Apr 30, 2003)

lambertman said:


> I remember Kurt Nilsen's version of "Beautiful Day" on "World Idol" to be about leventy times better than Lee's.


+1


MickeS said:


> I had a REALLY hard time figuring out what song he was singing until he got to the chorus (and really, it was thanks to the words - the melody had nothing to do with the original, as far as I could tell). Holy crap that was awful.


heh heh, I said the same thing to the famiiy while we were watching. Right as the song started up I thought, "Umm, WTH, this is U2, where the lame ass original song bit they both sing?" I admit to listening over my laptop more than watching in case Ryan said something that would have clued me that their first singles were going to be more covers.


Ment said:


> Looking at the contestants in the crowd, I'd love to have seen what Lilly would have done at this stage of the show, neither Lee or Crystal are particularly unique.


I still think Crystal is a good singer with a pleasant voice, but that (to me) she is on par with thousands of coffee shop singers around the country.

I'd never buy a song by either of the finalists. I wouldn't even "acquire" one based on what we've heard this season.


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## Roadblock (Apr 5, 2006)

MickeS said:


> I think once the texting really kicked in, DialIdol is just irrelevant.


Well, they claim to have picked the winner of every season correctly, and they show


Spoiler



Lee


 as the definite winner, so we'll see.


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## jlb (Dec 13, 2001)

Odds Bodkins said:


> ...... Crystal is little more than a gimmick with the ability to do one kind of genre.....


....And I like that genre. She's the only Idol for whom I DLed from iTunes this season (well, and the duet she did with Lee).

I just fear that not enough of the young teeny-bopper crowd likes her genre.

While she really should win, Lee probably willk. I hope I am wrong though.


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## Ekims (Oct 18, 2002)

I get all the love for Crystal, I think she normally blows everyone away, but her version of Me and Bobby McGee last night was horrid IMO!


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## toddvj (Apr 22, 2004)

Cearbhaill said:


> Plus those disgusting strands of whatever saliva like substance was in Lee's mouth creeped me out to the max.


I was trying to eat during his first song. That was gross.


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## Mr. Soze (Nov 2, 2002)

Ekims said:


> I get all the love for Crystal, I think she normally blows everyone away, but her version of Me and Bobby McGee last night was horrid IMO!


I agree. And I think she screamed her way through Black Velvet. Her last song was good, though. She should win, but I will not be buying anything from either of them.

I think I am done with Idol now Simon's gone. Unless it's Neil Patrick Harris or Harry Connick Jr. replacing him, then I will give it a shot.


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## tonestert (Nov 15, 2007)

LoadStar said:


> There really isn't anything wrong with the song itself... it just wasn't at all a good fit for either of the final two from last year.
> 
> I liked the year that they had a songwriter contest... they should go back to that. Have a group of finalist songs, then let the final two contestants each pick one of the finalists to sing and record for the first single.


I'd like to see them play their own songs. Both Lee and Crystal are song writers. Why not let them sing one of their own songs ?


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## LoadStar (Jul 24, 2001)

tonestert said:


> I'd like to see them play their own songs. Both Lee and Crystal are song writers. Why not let them sing one of their own songs ?


Unless they had something ready that they were comfortable enough with to record, the obligations of the show would make it extremely difficult to write something on the fly that quickly.


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

LoadStar said:


> Unless they had something ready that they were comfortable enough with to record, the obligations of the show would make it extremely difficult to write something on the fly that quickly.


They both have plenty of original material to choose from- Lees already got two albums under his belt So Im Told, and the recently released Slumberland. Both records were produced by Chicago indie label, Wuli records.

And Crystal reportedly has a _huge_ songbook  as I understand it, only a relatively small number have been recorded. Many of her originals can be found on Youtube.


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## Einselen (Apr 25, 2006)

As others said Crystal beat out Lee last night but I believe Lee will win tonight. Lee has a better overall appeal and a huge overall appeal to the Tweens. Like someone else said Crystal is more of a niche performer and probably will be better in the 2nd place position then winning it. Regardless though this was the worst season of Idol with I think S2 coming in behind this one.


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## Jesda (Feb 12, 2005)

Young people abandoned this show long ago.


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## David Platt (Dec 13, 2001)

I wonder when they started letting the contestants use teleprompters. There was one very clearly visible during Lee's second song.


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## uncdrew (Aug 6, 2002)

Jesda said:


> I loved U2, but that song marks the moment I started hating them. They gave up Edge's shimmering guitar sound and bright instrumentals for early 2000s mush.
> 
> So for me dawg, he didn't make the song any worse.


I agree. That song just does nothing for me. Music, lyrics... all kind of sub-par to me. Hence it didn't sound bad to me. But when someone changes some of my favorites, I usually don't like it. So I get where people are coming from.


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## Kablemodem (May 26, 2001)

The guy who sang at the end was pretty good.


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

Crystal was so much better in every way. Stronger singer, more polished performer, and a more accomplished artist in every way.

But something tells me that Lee will still win. The judges were way too easy on him. It seems so obvious that the producers are pushing the judges to favor him. I like him more than most of the people on this thread, but he was not very good last night. You wouldn't know it from the lame comments from the judges though. They were really soft on him. 

I think the producers also believe that Crystal has more limited appeal as a "pop singer" and Lee's more "commercial" voice will sell better. He sounds like any front man for any top 40 rock band.


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

Einselen said:


> Regardless though this was the worst season of Idol with I think S2 coming in behind this one.


Agreed!


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

Kablemodem said:


> The guy who sang at the end was pretty good.


He's the original- first ever Pop Idol winner Will Young, who has sold something like 8 million albums worldwide.
Why he (and similarly Robbie Williams even) never caught on here is one of those fruit loopy things. We get Singing Fetuses.


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## Cainebj (Nov 11, 2006)

I don't know if any of this is true, but it sure is interesting.

Apparently the dress rehearsal was a disaster. 
Lee got hit accidentally by one of the violin players bows and walked off the stage in a huff.
Then Crystal forgot the lyrics to Up to the Mountain and stopped and started over.

That would have been much more fun to watch  
...and maybe why they had teleprompters.


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## Einselen (Apr 25, 2006)

David Platt said:


> I wonder when they started letting the contestants use teleprompters. There was one very clearly visible during Lee's second song.


Teleprompters have always been used for Seacrest but I thought they were either off during the performances or just queued up for Seacrest's next intro. Did last night actually have the lyrics on them?


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## Magnolia88 (Jul 1, 2005)

Einselen said:


> Teleprompters have always been used for Seacrest but I thought they were either off during the performances or just queued up for Seacrest's next intro. Did last night actually have the lyrics on them?


Yes. Both Lee and Crystal had teleprompters during the two final songs, according to EW.



> with umpteen songs to learn between last night and tonights finale and only a few days to learn them, the lyrics for both Lee and Crystals final two songs were up on the main prompter (you could briefly catch it, in fact, during the telecast), making the finale officially the most watched karaoke performance ever.


Another interesting tidbit:



> Now, if youre wondering how Lee came to be singing a U2 ballad that was seemingly way out of his range: Backstage after the show, Crystal told the assembled press that the contestants chose their final songs themselves. They just told us we were allowed to choose any song, she said, and _ just thought of a song thats right for the moment tomorrow [for the finale], no matter what happens. Lee never addressed the question himself. Make of that what you will  I will try to root out more info tonight at the finale._


_

I am confused by that. I thought Ryan introduced the songs as the one that would be their first single, or something. Which was why I was confused by Lee's choice -- his first single is going to be a cover of a U2 song that is not that old? Huh?_


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## Cearbhaill (Aug 1, 2004)

I don't think they use teleprompters during most of the season, but once they hit the Nokia Theater they always do. It is such a vast difference that lots of the contestants get weirded out by the numbers of people out there, and I guess bumbling at this stage of the game is best avoided.


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## Johnny Dancing (Sep 3, 2000)

Magnolia88 said:


> But something tells me that Lee will still win. The judges were way too easy on him. It seems so obvious that the producers are pushing the judges to favor him. I like him more than most of the people on this thread, but he was not very good last night. You wouldn't know it from the lame comments from the judges though. They were really soft on him.
> .


I think they reamed him about as much as they can in the finals. It would not make good business sense to blast the future AI for still not being able to sing at this point.



Cearbhaill said:


> I don't think they use teleprompters during most of the season, but once they hit the Nokia Theater they always do. It is such a vast difference that lots of the contestants get weirded out by the numbers of people out there, and I guess bumbling at this stage of the game is best avoided.


Yet Lee still manage to bumble through the night. He definitely had the deer in headlights look.


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## marksman (Mar 4, 2002)

I was for Lee before this show, but Crystal excelled on all three of her songs and Lee looked like he was back in week one or two of the finals when I thought he had some raw talent but he wouldn't stop making mistakes.

Crystal should win, but it doesn't mean she will because obviously voters are not going to be objective based on the final performances across the board.

I think winning or losing will make little difference to how either ends up succeeding in the future. Although I might agree it would probably help Lee more and hurt Crystal more...


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## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

The comments that Crystal was so good last night are just lost on me. I FF'd all of her songs due to boredom (I FF Lee's as he was not on his game). I admit she is technically better than Lee but she's just uninteresting and nowhere near as good as any of previous winners (IMHO) Best of a bad bunch does not = great performances.

I am usually the last to say this but it's been a terrible season.


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## Kamakzie (Jan 8, 2004)

JohnB1000 said:


> I am usually the last to say this but it's been a terrible season.


Agreed..


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## dilbert27 (Dec 1, 2006)

My local Fox Station put a poll up last night after Idol and so far with over 30 thousand vote the current tally is Lee 69&#37; an Crystal 31%


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## Maui (Apr 22, 2000)

JohnB1000 said:


> The comments that Crystal was so good last night are just lost on me. I FF'd all of her songs due to boredom (I FF Lee's as he was not on his game). I admit she is technically better than Lee but she's just uninteresting and nowhere near as good as any of previous winners (IMHO) Best of a bad bunch does not = great performances.
> 
> I am usually the last to say this but it's been a terrible season.


And I immediately rewound and watched a couple of her songs twice. Just because you don't like the style doesn't mean she is bad.


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## JohnB1000 (Dec 6, 2004)

To repeat the first line of my post "The comments that Crystal was so good last night are just lost on *me*"


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

If Lee had auditioned with "Beautiful Day" he wouldn't have been sent to Hollywood.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

Well that was a little depressing. Lee just really didn't seem to have his heart in it last night. Big surprise... Crystal was trying a little harder than normal and the last song (the Mountain one) was good. 

I agree with the folks who said Lee needs to win this in order to make any money. Crystal could probably sell a few albums if she took 2nd place. I don't think either of them will have much commercial success. I guess we'll see. I hope next season is a lot better... Didn't get particularly excited about anyone this year.


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## MickeS (Dec 26, 2002)

bareyb said:


> Well that was a little depressing. Lee just really didn't seem to have his heart in it last night. Big surprise... Crystal was trying a little harder than normal and the last song (the Mountain one) was good.
> 
> I agree with the folks who said Lee needs to win this in order to make any money. Crystal could probably sell a few albums if she took 2nd place. I don't think either of them will have much commercial success. I guess we'll see. I hope next season is a lot better... Didn't get particularly excited about anyone this year.


I think it's the other way around. Lee can get some good producers and songwriters behind him and crank out a few hits (in the studio, everyone can sing). He has a commercial tone to his voice, and made good song choices.

Crystal has a very natural-sounding and good voice, and she's a much better performer than Lee, which is why she deserves to win this IMO. But that doesn't make her a more commercial artist. I think Lee is the correct commercial choice.


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

MickeS said:


> I think it's the other way around. *Lee can get some good producers and songwriters behind him and crank out a few hits* (in the studio, everyone can sing). He has a commercial tone to his voice, and made good song choices.
> 
> Crystal has a very natural-sounding and good voice, and she's a much better performer than Lee, which is why she deserves to win this IMO. But that doesn't make her a more commercial artist. I think Lee is the correct commercial choice.


You think? I have a feeling a year from now nobody will even remember who won.


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## gossamer88 (Jul 27, 2005)

I just had to look up who won last year!


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## bareyb (Dec 1, 2000)

gossamer88 said:


> I just had to look up who won last year!


Well there you go.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

I thought her last song was boooorrrrriiiinnnggg... I really don't know why everyone (on the show and here) raved about it.

Though I also didn't hate the rest of the songs as much as you guys did... I didn't love 'em..


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