Idol finale: Night one

I'm counting down the hours now ...

Tonight we'll finally have a new "American Idol." We can finally put this whole mad world of a Season 8 behind us and get on with our summers ...

In that vein, let's cut to the chase. Last night's show ...

I was thrilled Adam picked “Mad World” as his favorite performance of the season; it was mine too. And it was as pure and terrific last night as the first time he performed it … I did agree with Simon on the whole “Phantom” comment, though. The long coat and smoke were too much.

For his second performance, “A Change is Going to Come” … More of Adam screaming and being theatrical. Seen it, getting sick of it.

On the other hand when Kris picked “Ain’t No Sunshine” as his season favorite, I couldn’t say I remembered his original performance, which couldn’t have been a good sign. For that matter, I was racking my brain to come up with any performance of Kris’s that I really liked, and I couldn’t do it. I mean, overall, I've liked his stuff -- but each week it seemed as though there was always someone better than him.

And I loved Kris’s second performance of “What’s Going On” … Which made me 0-for-2 in agreement with Simon for the night. Where I liked Adam in Round One, Simon liked Kris; and it was the opposite for Round Two.

I thought Adam’s third performance was atrocious. It was pitchy, whiny and, once again, too theatrical.

Don’t get me started on how cheesy the song was. I burst out laughing when Simon rolled his eyes and mountains and whatever other naturalistic smack Kara & Co threw in there … But if we've learned anything in watching Idol over the last few years it's that the "winning" songs are always loaded with happy-shiny-you-can-survive-the-pain-and-go-for-it! schmaltz.

Then Kris, I thought, stepped out and did a wonderful performance of the song -- schamltz aside, of course. Kris sang it like a pop song that I’d expect to hear on a top 40 radio station …

Leave it up to the judges to write him off and basically say, Hey, you did a great job, kid. Congratulations on what you did this season, but we want Adam to win tomorrow night.

I’m rooting for Kris.

Good reads ...
a ‘Idol’ Final Raises Extra Question
a Kara DioGuardi warms to the hot seat
a And the winner on 'American Idol' is sure to be...
a Who'll Win 'Idol' Title? Adam Lambert, Kris Allen Present Study In Contrasts
a Kris Allen & Adam Lambert: Ricky Nelson meets Elvis