The American Idol Season 14 Winner Is...
Since this is the second to last finale American Idol will ever get to celebrate, they went for the completely awesome "kitchen sink" method. The finale was full of so many weird choices that perfectly reflect the show's constant struggle to appeal to millenials while refusing to get rid of its old fashioned ways. You had the terrible kid Daniel Seavey performing with New Kids on the Block, Pitbull showed up in like three different performances (with Chris Brown and then Prince Royce), three of the Jackson 5 members sang with another child Tyanna Jones, Janelle Monae slayed with her weird new single (which is completely different from anything she's done so far), Jamie Foxx performed with Rayvon, Fall Out Boy was there for some reason, Vance Joy didn't let Quentin sing much, Jax finally got some closure from her terribly quick elimination after her performance proved she was better than the remaining two finalists, Ford cars were given away weirdly while Season 12 winner Candice Glover sadly stood in the background unacknowledged, Clark Beckham sang with Michael McDonald and it worked way better than you'd think, and finally Nick Fradiani sang with a guy I swear was his twin.
Suffice to say, it was a weird, weird show to cap off such an awkward growing season. As Scott Borchetta stated, the winner this season will present at the Country Music Awards and perform at the Country Music Television awards. So I'm sure the winner will have a very solid country album. After hearing all of that, I'm so glad Jax didn't win since she's way too interesting to be forced into a country holding. Okay, that's enough stalling.
The winner of American Idol Season 14 is...
...Nick Fradiani.
I had predicted he'd take the title after he seemed to pick the right three songs to perform during the final round, and as I said in that article, Nick's going to do pretty much what his new label, Big Machine Records, tells him to do. After Clark Beckham fought with the man in charge to keep his musicality, he was sent into a down spiral from which he never quite recovered. All the while Nick was the Little Engine that Could just kept chugging along at the same pace, never changing his style or performances, and never causing a ruckus.
As quite possibly the most boring American Idol winner in its 14 season history, Nick will paradoxically make a ton of money over a long career. America eats that up with a damn spoon. If he can fare better than Season 12 "winner" Candice Glover or Season 13 "winner" Caleb Johnson (who both weren't invited to sing at their successor's finales), Nick could be okay. We'll just have to wait until next year to see what the final season has in store.
[American Idol-izer] Top 2 Perform
After weeks of auditions, pulled sponsorships, label changes, throwing fun contestants under the bus, the final performances are here at last. Thanks to the announcement that American Idol is ending next season, the final two contestants performances are unfortunately under a more rigorous microscope than usual. It's definitely unfair to them, but then again, the show's always been kind of unfair. I'm sure the news will pull in some more viewers than usual this final week, at least. But if last night was indicative of what we could look forward to for the final season, I'm not sure what to do anymore.
At the top of the hour, due to the weird scheduling shenanigans this season (which I hope get fixed next go around), the Top 3 was whittled down to the final two as Jackie "Jax" Cole was eliminated. I considered the fact that Jax might unceremoniously be let go in third place, but I never thought it could actually happen. I was as broken up as she seemed to be, and the thought of yet another interesting contestant going home instead of the plain white dudes hurt so much. Only serving to reinforce how boring this season has been, Jax was sent home without getting to perform her possible coronation song. It's a damn, damn shame and only helps AI's naysayers.
So a very boring final bout between Nick Fradiani and Clark Beckham, we got three songs: Encore of a favorite performance (or "Flashback"), one chosen by series creator Simon Fuller, and the final winner's coronation song. Read on for the recap.
Gonna miss you, Jax.
American Idol Ending After Next Season
It's been a rough few years for American Idol. Thanks to an onslaught of competitors, weird backstage shenanigans leading to a few winners fading into obscurity, and a struggle to catch the right demographic, the show is a shadow of its former superstar making self that helped us find the goddess Kelly Clarkson. If you haven't followed my weekly segment, American Idol-izer, I've been a fan of the show since its inception. I've stuck it out through the good times and bad, and I've noticed quite a few changes over the years. And this season in particular has been through the roughest changes, leading to one of the most boring seasons in series history.
With the writing on the wall, it was a matter of time before the show would come to an end. According to Variety, American Idol is premiering its final season in January 2016 with all of the current judges and showrunners in tow. It kind of makes sense only because I assume the program is hemorrhaging money. Without Coca Cola and the former Interscope records, I'm guessing either the current record studio in charge, Big Machine, nor Fox wanted to pony up the difference. But that's just wild conjecture. I've got some more to say about the show's decline over the next couple of pages.
[via Variety]
[American Idol-izer] Top 3 Perform
American Idol has been particularly rough this season. I'll attribute most of it to growing pains since lots of factors screwed over the programming: Big Machine Records took over for Interscope (and ousted Jimmy Iovine as mentor, replacing him with Scott Borchetta), Coca Cola pulled their sponsorship after a decade of product placement, and Fox forced it to a single night in order to give space to Empire. So I've been sounding like a broken record each week (does that analogy mean anything to the kids?) because I can't help but mention how awkward and terrible this all is for everyone involved. I'll be going over this season in better detail in a separate post, so stay tuned for that.
The reason I bring this up is because it's done quite a number on these poor contestants. They've been put through the ringer this season, and with the finale next week, the fatigue is starting to show more and more. This week, the Top 3 contestants had three songs: Scott Borchetta's choice, Hometown Dedications, and Judges' Choice. All four of the remaining Idols sang regardless of whether or not they were going home at the end of the evening. The four of them also got the big homecoming parade they do every year, so it was a bit weird but not as awkward as I expected.
And after weeks of playing "The Comeback Kid," Rayvon's run has finally ended. Going home in a respectable fourth place and even enjoying all sorts of things like the hometown visit and three swan songs, Rayvon ended his run on a falsetto. He fought for his place, and as much criticism as I've given him over the weeks, I can't fault that effort. On the next few pages, I'll get into American Idol XIV's Top 3 night.
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[American Idol-izer] Top 4 Perform
I'll have to admit that with Quentin gone, a little bit of my drive to stick it out with American Idol this year has waned a bit. The remaining contestants are talented for sure, but after the extreme sourness from last week, it's going to take a bit to get me back into the game. But what pulled me back to the most part is how the show was going to handle the elimination this week. Since the show has been reduced to one, two hour, night a week, it's been padding out the performances and leaving the elimination for last. It's gotten past the majority of the awkwardness the last few weeks with the Twitter save, so that each person actually performed before they found out whether or not they were going home, but I really wondered how they'd proceed now.
It was just an overall awkward night for everyone. With two different themes: one from the Judges' hometowns and one that best captured the contestants' "spirit" (really, those are the words they used), Russell Crowe showing up for promote his movie for two seconds (along with a story of riding his bike), a terribly clumsy (and sad) elimination, and now Clark Beckham is the center of attention with yet another big Idol clash with the head honcho Big Machine's Scott Borchetta.
Read on for my impressions of American Idol's Top 4 night.
[American Idol-izer] Top 5 Perform
We lost my post from last week thanks to some technical hiccups, so I'll do my best to catch you up to why I feel so awful about what went down this week. So Quentin Alexander, one of my favorites from the get go thanks to his interesting style and vocal talents, seemed to be fighting against the AI system when he got into a verbal match with Harry Connick Jr. It wasn't as bad as the producers claimed as Quentin merely said the thought of one of his close friends going home sucked, but they just wouldn't let it go. As history dictates, American Idol voters usually don't vote for contestants that speak back to the judges. They don't like what seem to be confrontational people. But the worst part of it all, is that the producers clearly wanted Quentin to go home and were bending the show this week in the others' favor.
After weeks of captivating performances, Quentin was unceremoniously sent home. That altercation recived more attention than anything else this season, and producers wanted to make sure Quentin got sent home before he got into the Top 5, and was allowed on AI's ever shrinking Summer Tour. From replaying the altercation clip, to repeating Rayvon's performance once it was assured he was in the bottom two, to showering praise on the other contestants despite major, major flubs, Quentin sang first in both #IdolSave performances rather than in alternating order like with Joey Cook last week, and Ryan even claimed Quentin said he "gave up" after Rayvon's final performance.
It was just all around ugly. Let's get to everyone else during an "Arena Anthems" week that only had a few songs that'd qualify.
[American Idol-izer] Top 6 Perform
This was an intense week. At this point in the competition, stuff gets very complicated. Contestants start singing more than once, and now with the extra #IdolSave rule this year, they call it Top 7 night as they include the eliminated contestant's final performance. It was just a weird, weird night. Especially so for the poor eliminated finalist who now knows that they have to perform for the save about 45 minutes into the show. Then they have to drag themselves around for two whole performances in the hope that America likes them enough to vote on Twitter for them. For that reason, I can understand why we might need to use #SaveQuentin next week.
You see, right after Quentin Alexander found out he was the last person safe for the week, he had a sour face after his performance (which I'll get to in a bit). When Ryan asked him about it, Quentin said "This sucks. We have two of the best vocalists [in the bottom (Joey Cook and Rayvon Owen)]. My best friend [Joey Cook] is sitting there. This whole thing is wack. But I’m going to shut up right now." It was awkward, and totally what American Idol is made for. He's just an emotional kid, who's even officiating Cook's wedding, and he was sad more than angry over the show itself. It's obvious he knew someone has to go home every week. But Harry Connick Jr. was not having any of that.
Right before the commercial break, Connick blurted "Quentin, if it’s that wack, then you can always go home, because Idol is paying a lot of money to give you this experience. And for you to say that to this hand that’s feeding you, I think that’s highly disrespectful." Quentin, getting a chance to defend himself, approached the judges' table aggressively but politely noted "When I said that this was wack… it sucks to see two people that I’ve grown to love go home. That’s what I mean by it being wack. So I’m not disrespecting this competition… I’m glad I got to clarify it for you." Holy moley. Quentin's probably going home. AI has a track record of sending contestants that talk back to the judges home the next week.
And that set the tone for rest of the evening. This week's theme was the broad "American Classics" where the first song was supposedly chosen by America and the second all their own. It only got weirder from here.
[American Idol-izer] Top 7 Perform
Man, I'm so sorry I wasn't here to cover last week for you all (I moved cross country). So much went down last week, and with so little space here, I can't cover it all. Daniel Seavey finally went home (he was bad, folks), Idol introduced a feature from its big competitor The Voice with the #IdolSave (sort of as an apology from using the save too early in the season, I guess), and Kelly Clarkson was all sorts of fabulous.
Now it looks like we're moving away from the theme weeks as this week is a general "Billboard Top 100 Hits" featuring Florida Georgia Line and Jason Derulo as guest mentors. The whole night was filled with single shilling performances, and it was the first time in a long while that felt like a current competition. For once, it felt like whoever wins this can actually survive on the radio. Unfortunately, that meant the mentor critiques weren't as strong as they were in past episodes. I know Florida Georgia Line is a big name right now, but after hearing what they had to say to the contestants I question their musicality entirely. Jason Derulo wasn't too bad though.
Also, Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Hudson performed for some reason. It was a totally sour way to bring Hudson back. I know she's not a winner, but she deserved better than this. Then again, at least she fared better than Ruben Studdard and Candice Glover last week. Yikes
Anyway, let's break down the Top 7.