For Lee's final song, he sang U2's "Beautiful Day." If Lee wins Idol, the song will be released as his first single. I honestly don't like this song. I'm not a huge U2 fan, never have really enjoyed their music, so I was ready to be disappointed. I really didn't think I would like this performance at all. However, there is something about Idol contestants performing songs I can't stand and making them listenable for me (like Brooke White singing Coldplay's "Yellow"). You could tell that Lee was throwing everything he had into this song to pull out a win. He pulled himself together for this performance and sounded a lot better than he had during his two previous songs that evening. I was really happy to see him fight his way to the end and not lay down like Casey James did last week. He performed sans guitar, which made for some awkward walking around the stage, but he had some awesome red Converse kicks on, which to me showed some of Lee's personality in the performance. Ellen told Lee, "I am so proud of you, you did a great job." Kara DioGuardi told him, "You deserve to be here tonight." Simon told him, "This is what this competition was designed for," and then wished him the best of luck.
Crystal's last song for the evening was Patty Griffin's "Up To The Mountain," which will be released as her single if she wins the competition. It was pretty much flawless. She sounded amazing. The Crystal that we met back in Hollywood week singing, "Natural Woman" was back. She needed a big moment to finish out her time on the show and she had it. The judges loved it, I loved it, it was a fantastic last competitive performance on the show.
The final performance of the night came from the original Pop Idol, Will Young, who sang this season's send-off song, "Leave Right Now." It dawned on me last night why they would have a send-off song done by the Pop Idol, and not a former American Idol winner. I believe that since it is Simon's last season, that it would only be fitting to have the original Pop Idol that he helped discover be a part of his last season on American Idol. It makes sense to me. I love Will Young's voice, and I liked seeing him on the Idol stage again.
Article comments
1 - Bill Church
Crystal so much better than Lee last night that it's not even close. How the people will vote? Unknowable! This is the same public that voted against Chris Daughtry, now a millionaire for sure.
2 - Beautelicious
Lee Won!Hurray!
3 - Mary K. Williams
Either way, they both win (even though Lee won officially.) The last few standing usually stand in a good light. Nice write up Kirsten.
4 - handyguy
I voted for Crystal, and was a bit taken aback by the result. But they're both excellent, by far the two best contestants this season. It had been obvious for at least 6 weeks that they were the likely top two.
My guess is that I'm more likely to buy a Bowersox album, but then the only Idol alum album I own is Melinda Doolittle's, so I am possibly not their prime target, haha.
There's a quite hilarious video circulating of someone's mom overreacting a bit as Ryan announces the winner.
5 - Kirsten
Mary - Thank you so much!
handyguy - I definitely need to check out that video!
And keep your eyes peeled for my finale recap!