Now, onto the show. Last night was a great night for both ladies. They both did outstanding and they both had Idol winning moments, we at Idol Be The Judge believes that Candice won the night and should and will win the American Idol crown. That being said it will be a great result either way.
Tonight's recap is split into a Season 12 Review of The Season as well as a recap of the actual Results show. So it's a little bit longer, but it's a great review of the season as a whole. Hope you enjoy and let's get started:
Season 12 Review
Season 12 Awards:
Best Performance
Love Song(Candice Glover)
Worst Performance
Close To You(Lazaro Arbos)
Most Shocking Moment
Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj Fight.
That was crazy, and set the tone for the season. That fight in audition rounds might have contributed to the downfall in ratings and possibly their eventual departures from the show.
Least Shocking Moment
Top 5 Women
The Women Were Strong From The Beginning. It was a foregone conclusion they would be the Top 5
Least Shocking Elimination
Lazaro Arbos
Our Contestant's Recap
10th Place 9th Place
Curtis Finch Jr Paul Jolley
Best Performance=I Believe I Can Fly(Las Vegas) Best Performance=Amazed(Top 10)
Average Grade= C Average Grade=C+
8th Place 7th Place
Devin Velez Burnell Taylor
Best Performance=It's Impossible(Semifinals Wk) Best Performance=Let It Be (Top 9 Wk)
Average Grade=B- Average Grade=B
6th Place 5th Place
Lazaro Arbos Janelle Arthur
Best Performance=For Once In My Life(Top 8 Wk) Best Performance=Keep Me Hanging On(Top 8 Wk)
Average Grade= D+ Average Grade=B
4th Place 3rd Place
Amber Holcomb Angie Miller
Best Performance=Lately(Top 8) Best Performance=You Set Me Free(Hollywood)
Average Grade=B Average Grade=B+
2nd/1st Place
Kree Harrison Candice Glover
Best Performance=Crying (Top 10 Wk) Best Performance=Love Song (Top 5 Wk)
Average Grade=A- Average Grade=A
Our Season Predictions
(Not Including Top 2 Week)
(Not Including Top 2 Week)
Bottom 3/2
13/19
Going Home
6/8
Tonight's Recap
Hope you enjoyed our season review. Now onto the show:
Top 10 Perform
They start the episode with all 10 Idols singing "Glad You Came" by The Wanted. The ladies obviously kicked the crap out of the song, but it's nice that the guys remember the words. They are all dressed in white, and I think Paul Jolley was sporting a cast, or some type of Michael Jackson glove. This is pretty much a way to have people think about the Top 10 concert, or is it Top 11 concert. Eh..I ain't going.
Judge's Introduced
Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj, Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey. No matter what, this will be the last time those 4 judges are gonna be introduced together. Who knows if any of them will be back, but Randy is at least gonna be gone. We'll see what happens in the future.
The Band Perry Perform
I don't know a ton of The Band Perry, I know that they are a band, I know their name is Perry. About mid way through the song Janelle Arthur comes out and sings along with them. They are singing their hit "Done". I didn't know them before but I enjoyed this song immensely. They have choreography even with the guitarists and the fiddlers, and the lead singers. High energy, and a lot of fun. Pretty cool stuff.
5 Years Of Guy American Idol Winners?
They are talking about how it's been 5 seasons in a row that a guy wins, and they are making fun of the fact that all of the Top 10 guys thought they had it in the bag and then they all just got picked off in a row. They think it's so suspicious and they were sabotaged. Haha. Kree tells Curtis to wear some hideous jacket thus sabotaging him. Angie tells Paul to say jokes on the show even though he is terrible at jokes, thus sabotaging him. Amber drugged Devin. Janelle changed the key of Lazaro's song making him sing atrociously. Candice stole Burnell's lunch money and made Burnell lose weight and because he couldn't eat it made it hard to sing. The mastermind of the project was revealed as...the last female winner Jordin Sparks. That was pretty funny. The fact that the guys just got schooled by the females in real life is really the funny part to me.
Top 5 Guys Perform
The guys sing a medly of Four Seasons songs. Curtis and Burnell sounded great, not even gonna lie. In a surprise that everyone saw coming Frankie Valle joins the guys. His voice is just incredible, sounds like he did 40 years ago, just a pure, cool voice. He starts singing on his own and then the guys join in. They sing all the best songs, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", "Let's Hang On", "Grease", "Walk Like A Man".
Mariah Carey Performs
This performance was done last night. She sings a medley of her songs "Vision of Love", "Make It Happen", "My All", "Hero", "We Belong Together" and her new single "Beautiful". Randy Jackson is playing bass though we only saw him in a bit. That was pretty cool. I can't tell if this medley is all lip synched. I hope it wasn't. I don't think it was. She was pretty great.
Amber Performs
This song was only performed a week ago by Candice but Amber is still singing "Next To Me", but that's because they got the original singer Emile Sande. So I guess it doesn't matter that this song was sung a week ago by someone else.
Ford Fiesta Promo/Mission
They show us the Idol's Favorite Ford Fiesta missions. I feel like that is a sentence that doesn't make sense. Were there any great Ford Fiesta missions? Why would someone enjoy watching a promo about a car that we don't really care about. I am sure it was fun for the contestants doing those missions and promos, but for the audience it's like being shown an awesome looking cake, being told the cake is great, but you know that you ain't eating that cake. Kree and Candice got to surprise their hometown mentors with a trip to the American Idol finale. Candice's is her grandmother, Kree's is her "musical soulmate", her brother that's not really her brother but is like her brother. The cool thing is that they both get brand new Ford Fiestas.
PSY Performs
He is performing his new song "Gangnam Style Part 2"....actually it's called "Gentleman" but for the person not paying attention it's a very similar song to his big hit "Gangnam Style". Catchy as anything though. It's mainly in Korean but it seems to translate well over here. How come none of the Idols wanted to collabarte with PSY? I think Psy and Lazaro would have been epic.
Keith Urban Performs
Also pre-taped Keith sings his single "A Little Bit Of Everything". It's basically the opposite of that last PSY performance. It's very simple, Keith, his guitar and his country band.
Candice Performs
Singing Natalie Cole's "Inseparable", Jennifer Hudson comes out to join Candice on stage. Jennifer looks great and sounds even better. The two of them together is just so cool and a present to the ears for sure. They both just go back and forth and hit some unreal notes. They just went for it and took us for a ride. Last year Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holliday had easily one of the best finale performance duets ever, but this one is damn close.
Angie Performs
She starts the song on the piano singing David Guetta and Sia's "Titanium" and along with her is Adam Lambert. That guy's voice is still one of the most distinctive voices to grace the Idol stage. They do a more subdued version, so when they hit those crazy big notes it really makes an impression. Their voices together blend so well. Love it.
Jessie J. Performs
I haven't seen Jessie J in awhile she shaved/cut all her hair off it's something, until you hear her voice and it just pierces through. Angie kinda joins Jessie J in singing her hit "Domino". They don't blend really great, but they both have great voices separately. The way they ended the song was amazing when they just riffed back and forth a little. We learn that because Jessie J came in specially to sing with Angie it meant Angie couldn't sing her single "You Set Me Free", so as a consolation prize Angie gets to go to one of Jessie J's concert in the U.K and gets to sing with her. Not bad.
Contestants' Take on The Judges
The contestants are asked about the judges. Their opinion on Mariah is that she is classy, she always wants to stand up but her dresses are too tight, she says "Darling" a lot. Their opinion on Keith is that he plays it cool, he always wears t-shirts, he is very expressive. Their opinion on Randy Jackson is that he always talks loud, he always says "In It To Win It", it loses it's specialness when he says it to everyone. Their opinion on Nicki is she doesn't cut anyone slack, she has a unique sense of fashion, they make fun of her crazy hair styles.
Randy, Kree and Keith Perform
Along with drummer Travis Barker the 4 of them perform Keith Urban's "Where The Blacktop Ends". I was wondering why Mariah and Nicki were left alone at the judge's table, it was weird, but now it makes sense. I love that Kree got to perform one of Keith's hits with him. I didn't realize what a fantastic guitarist he was. Very cool performance.
Goodbye Randy Jackson
At Dawg Pound Headquarters is a ton of dogs commiserating on Randy leaving the show. Cute. But then "they" pop in a video of a Randy retrospective. He has been here since Day 1 of American Idol. No matter how many times I have disagreed with him along the way it's still the end of an era of sorts. Randy is a character, that's for sure.
Aretha Franklin & The Top 5 Girls
Aretha Franklin is singing via a video feed from New York, but the 5 girls are singing on the Idol stage, it's an interesting thing to watch. I love that they were able to get it done, even though Aretha Franklin couldn't be there in person. The girls were basically her backup singers, but I don't care, and I am sure they don't care, because they got to say they sang with Aretha Franklin. They sing "Natural Women", "I Never Loved A Man", "R.E.S.P.E.C.T", and "Think(Freedom)". Aretha sounded just fantastic, I loved this so much. It was so special.
Top 2 Get A Car
They both get a Ford Escape. It was chosen by the fans. I don't think they cared which car they got, because they just got a brand new car. Did I mention they got a CAR? C'mon. They would have been fine with an Escape or Fiesta or even a Focus, a car is a car.
Season 12 Review
We see a ton of clips of the entire season. We see notable contestants, the Top 10, the Top 24, random odd encounters. Funny moments, emotional moments, great singing. It's crazy how much we've seen since January.
Jennifer Lopez Returns
Along with Pitbull is former(possible future) Idol judge Jennifer Lopez. They are singing her new single "Live It Up". I don't know if I love this song, but it was a fun enough performance. The fact that Lopez is about 3 feet away from Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, two people she might replace next season if Lopez does return is kinda funny to me. I wish instead of this song we saw a Kree and Candice duet, that would have been great. But we got this song, that is pretty similar to the songs she has put out recently, but whatever.
Candice and Kree Perform Together
Thankfully the two of them sing together and perform "One Less Bell To Answer" and "A House Is Not A Home". They look, sound and are just perfect togehter.
Final Thoughts
*Candice Glover deserved it, she earned it, the audience got her, she is the Season 12 American Idol winner. WOW. I love that she won. It took her over 3 years to get to this point, if this is not a story of perseverance and determination then I don't know what is.
*Kree Harrison is one of the best runner-ups ever. Just a brilliant job by her. One of the best runner-ups in American Idol history.
*I am sad to not be able to hear Candice or Kree sing each week anymore. I loved this season because I got to hear them week after week, and sing songs that I love or that I never heard of but I love now.That is the reason I am most sad to see this season go.
*This Season was one of my favorites, not because of the judges but the talent, the fact that anyone of the Top 5 women could have won is unbelievable. So as much bad is said about the judges they chose these women to get to at least get to a point where the audience can see their talent. So I thank the judges, the crazy crazy judges.
*Finally, I Thank You again for making this blog possible, I wouldn't do it if people didn't read it. So thanks for sticking with us for this very long season.
That's it. Congratulations to Season 12 American Idol Winner Candice Glover. It was a brilliant, hard fought win. Thanks again for reading I'dol Be The Judge, we will be back here for our recaps in January, but keep checking back in with us for Idol news between now and the new season. Please check out Candice's performance of her new single I Am Beautiful located below. So for the last time...until next time, see ya!
Hope you enjoyed our season review. Now onto the show:
Top 10 Perform
They start the episode with all 10 Idols singing "Glad You Came" by The Wanted. The ladies obviously kicked the crap out of the song, but it's nice that the guys remember the words. They are all dressed in white, and I think Paul Jolley was sporting a cast, or some type of Michael Jackson glove. This is pretty much a way to have people think about the Top 10 concert, or is it Top 11 concert. Eh..I ain't going.
Judge's Introduced
Keith Urban, Nicki Minaj, Randy Jackson and Mariah Carey. No matter what, this will be the last time those 4 judges are gonna be introduced together. Who knows if any of them will be back, but Randy is at least gonna be gone. We'll see what happens in the future.
The Band Perry Perform
I don't know a ton of The Band Perry, I know that they are a band, I know their name is Perry. About mid way through the song Janelle Arthur comes out and sings along with them. They are singing their hit "Done". I didn't know them before but I enjoyed this song immensely. They have choreography even with the guitarists and the fiddlers, and the lead singers. High energy, and a lot of fun. Pretty cool stuff.
5 Years Of Guy American Idol Winners?
They are talking about how it's been 5 seasons in a row that a guy wins, and they are making fun of the fact that all of the Top 10 guys thought they had it in the bag and then they all just got picked off in a row. They think it's so suspicious and they were sabotaged. Haha. Kree tells Curtis to wear some hideous jacket thus sabotaging him. Angie tells Paul to say jokes on the show even though he is terrible at jokes, thus sabotaging him. Amber drugged Devin. Janelle changed the key of Lazaro's song making him sing atrociously. Candice stole Burnell's lunch money and made Burnell lose weight and because he couldn't eat it made it hard to sing. The mastermind of the project was revealed as...the last female winner Jordin Sparks. That was pretty funny. The fact that the guys just got schooled by the females in real life is really the funny part to me.
Top 5 Guys Perform
The guys sing a medly of Four Seasons songs. Curtis and Burnell sounded great, not even gonna lie. In a surprise that everyone saw coming Frankie Valle joins the guys. His voice is just incredible, sounds like he did 40 years ago, just a pure, cool voice. He starts singing on his own and then the guys join in. They sing all the best songs, "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You", "Let's Hang On", "Grease", "Walk Like A Man".
Mariah Carey Performs
This performance was done last night. She sings a medley of her songs "Vision of Love", "Make It Happen", "My All", "Hero", "We Belong Together" and her new single "Beautiful". Randy Jackson is playing bass though we only saw him in a bit. That was pretty cool. I can't tell if this medley is all lip synched. I hope it wasn't. I don't think it was. She was pretty great.
Amber Performs
This song was only performed a week ago by Candice but Amber is still singing "Next To Me", but that's because they got the original singer Emile Sande. So I guess it doesn't matter that this song was sung a week ago by someone else.
Ford Fiesta Promo/Mission
They show us the Idol's Favorite Ford Fiesta missions. I feel like that is a sentence that doesn't make sense. Were there any great Ford Fiesta missions? Why would someone enjoy watching a promo about a car that we don't really care about. I am sure it was fun for the contestants doing those missions and promos, but for the audience it's like being shown an awesome looking cake, being told the cake is great, but you know that you ain't eating that cake. Kree and Candice got to surprise their hometown mentors with a trip to the American Idol finale. Candice's is her grandmother, Kree's is her "musical soulmate", her brother that's not really her brother but is like her brother. The cool thing is that they both get brand new Ford Fiestas.
PSY Performs
He is performing his new song "Gangnam Style Part 2"....actually it's called "Gentleman" but for the person not paying attention it's a very similar song to his big hit "Gangnam Style". Catchy as anything though. It's mainly in Korean but it seems to translate well over here. How come none of the Idols wanted to collabarte with PSY? I think Psy and Lazaro would have been epic.
Keith Urban Performs
Also pre-taped Keith sings his single "A Little Bit Of Everything". It's basically the opposite of that last PSY performance. It's very simple, Keith, his guitar and his country band.
Candice Performs
Singing Natalie Cole's "Inseparable", Jennifer Hudson comes out to join Candice on stage. Jennifer looks great and sounds even better. The two of them together is just so cool and a present to the ears for sure. They both just go back and forth and hit some unreal notes. They just went for it and took us for a ride. Last year Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holliday had easily one of the best finale performance duets ever, but this one is damn close.
Angie Performs
She starts the song on the piano singing David Guetta and Sia's "Titanium" and along with her is Adam Lambert. That guy's voice is still one of the most distinctive voices to grace the Idol stage. They do a more subdued version, so when they hit those crazy big notes it really makes an impression. Their voices together blend so well. Love it.
Jessie J. Performs
I haven't seen Jessie J in awhile she shaved/cut all her hair off it's something, until you hear her voice and it just pierces through. Angie kinda joins Jessie J in singing her hit "Domino". They don't blend really great, but they both have great voices separately. The way they ended the song was amazing when they just riffed back and forth a little. We learn that because Jessie J came in specially to sing with Angie it meant Angie couldn't sing her single "You Set Me Free", so as a consolation prize Angie gets to go to one of Jessie J's concert in the U.K and gets to sing with her. Not bad.
Contestants' Take on The Judges
The contestants are asked about the judges. Their opinion on Mariah is that she is classy, she always wants to stand up but her dresses are too tight, she says "Darling" a lot. Their opinion on Keith is that he plays it cool, he always wears t-shirts, he is very expressive. Their opinion on Randy Jackson is that he always talks loud, he always says "In It To Win It", it loses it's specialness when he says it to everyone. Their opinion on Nicki is she doesn't cut anyone slack, she has a unique sense of fashion, they make fun of her crazy hair styles.
Randy, Kree and Keith Perform
Along with drummer Travis Barker the 4 of them perform Keith Urban's "Where The Blacktop Ends". I was wondering why Mariah and Nicki were left alone at the judge's table, it was weird, but now it makes sense. I love that Kree got to perform one of Keith's hits with him. I didn't realize what a fantastic guitarist he was. Very cool performance.
Goodbye Randy Jackson
At Dawg Pound Headquarters is a ton of dogs commiserating on Randy leaving the show. Cute. But then "they" pop in a video of a Randy retrospective. He has been here since Day 1 of American Idol. No matter how many times I have disagreed with him along the way it's still the end of an era of sorts. Randy is a character, that's for sure.
Aretha Franklin & The Top 5 Girls
Aretha Franklin is singing via a video feed from New York, but the 5 girls are singing on the Idol stage, it's an interesting thing to watch. I love that they were able to get it done, even though Aretha Franklin couldn't be there in person. The girls were basically her backup singers, but I don't care, and I am sure they don't care, because they got to say they sang with Aretha Franklin. They sing "Natural Women", "I Never Loved A Man", "R.E.S.P.E.C.T", and "Think(Freedom)". Aretha sounded just fantastic, I loved this so much. It was so special.
Top 2 Get A Car
They both get a Ford Escape. It was chosen by the fans. I don't think they cared which car they got, because they just got a brand new car. Did I mention they got a CAR? C'mon. They would have been fine with an Escape or Fiesta or even a Focus, a car is a car.
Season 12 Review
We see a ton of clips of the entire season. We see notable contestants, the Top 10, the Top 24, random odd encounters. Funny moments, emotional moments, great singing. It's crazy how much we've seen since January.
Jennifer Lopez Returns
Along with Pitbull is former(possible future) Idol judge Jennifer Lopez. They are singing her new single "Live It Up". I don't know if I love this song, but it was a fun enough performance. The fact that Lopez is about 3 feet away from Nicki Minaj and Mariah Carey, two people she might replace next season if Lopez does return is kinda funny to me. I wish instead of this song we saw a Kree and Candice duet, that would have been great. But we got this song, that is pretty similar to the songs she has put out recently, but whatever.
Candice and Kree Perform Together
Thankfully the two of them sing together and perform "One Less Bell To Answer" and "A House Is Not A Home". They look, sound and are just perfect togehter.
WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 12
Candice
Final Thoughts
*Candice Glover deserved it, she earned it, the audience got her, she is the Season 12 American Idol winner. WOW. I love that she won. It took her over 3 years to get to this point, if this is not a story of perseverance and determination then I don't know what is.
*Kree Harrison is one of the best runner-ups ever. Just a brilliant job by her. One of the best runner-ups in American Idol history.
*I am sad to not be able to hear Candice or Kree sing each week anymore. I loved this season because I got to hear them week after week, and sing songs that I love or that I never heard of but I love now.That is the reason I am most sad to see this season go.
*This Season was one of my favorites, not because of the judges but the talent, the fact that anyone of the Top 5 women could have won is unbelievable. So as much bad is said about the judges they chose these women to get to at least get to a point where the audience can see their talent. So I thank the judges, the crazy crazy judges.
*Finally, I Thank You again for making this blog possible, I wouldn't do it if people didn't read it. So thanks for sticking with us for this very long season.
That's it. Congratulations to Season 12 American Idol Winner Candice Glover. It was a brilliant, hard fought win. Thanks again for reading I'dol Be The Judge, we will be back here for our recaps in January, but keep checking back in with us for Idol news between now and the new season. Please check out Candice's performance of her new single I Am Beautiful located below. So for the last time...until next time, see ya!
