Idol-Talk: Season 9 Top 2 [& Top 3 Results]

American Idol Season 9: Top 3 Results Show
Airdate: Wednesday, May 19, 2010 [9-10pm]

• Over 47 million votes were cast
• Ryan chats with the Top 3
• Ford Music Video: "Wild One (Real Wild Child)"
• Video: Casey James' hometown visit
• Travis Garland (discovered by Perez Hilton) performs (what was up with the three-way split screen?)
• Go to americanidol.com for details on the season 10 auditions
• Crystal Bowersox's hometown visit
• Lee Dewyze's hometown visit
• Justin Bieber performs "You Smile/Baby"
• Lee Dewyze is in the Top 2
• Crystal Bowersox is also in the Top 2!
• Casey James - Eliminated [Prediction: 1/1] (I finally get a correct prediction after weeks of striking out)
• The show ends on time!

American Idol Season 9: Top 2

Airdate: Tuesday, May 25, 2010 [8-9pm]

Themes: Contestants' Choice (Reprise a previous performances) / Executive Producer's Choice / Winners' Song

After last week's results show, the coin toss took place, and Crystal Bowersox won; she chose to perform second.

1. Lee Dewyze [The Boxer]: There is no surprise here that he chose "The Boxer," what with all the praise he received. I actually was just a tad underwhelmed that first time, but I thought he definitely improved upon it this time around. I may not remember this by the end of the show, but I'm glad to hear his improved voice.
2. Crystal Bowersox [Me and Bobby McGee]: They both have picked the right songs to reprise tonight. "Me and Bobby McGee" was one of her best of the season, and by reprising it, she showed why she deserves to win. The last half when the song picks up is the best part, and she infused it with the energy and passion that was missing from Lee's performance just now. Round 1 goes to Crystal Bowersox.
3. Lee Dewyze [Everybody Hurts]: The producers made a great pick here for Lee, and it was an improvement over Round 1. But I agree with Ellen that just when he was starting to get into it, he pulled back. When he pulled back, it wasn't exciting and I didn't feel a connection. So overall, better than "The Boxer" in some aspects, but not his best, and don't count on the winning song to recover him.
4. Crystal Bowersox [Black Velvet]: She needed a song like this, because she nails it when she has a song where she can put all of her energy into it, rather than the slower ones. I heard her voice off a couple times, but it was so brief, and it didn't matter because this was all about the performance. Round 2 goes to Crystal, once again. She is in it to win it!
5. Lee Dewyze [Beautiful Day]: Wait, his potential winning song is a cover? How original, huh? (sarcasm fully intended). This is a fantastic song, and it fits him, but vocally it was a mess; it was sort of all over the place. The last part was quite a bit better, but I was really disappointed. Basing it just on tonight, Lee struck out.
6. Crystal Bowersox [Up To The Mountain]: I loved this when Kelly Clarkson sang this during the first Idol Gives Back, and Crystal has matched her here. This is the perfect song because it allows her to let her guard down, be vulnerable, and put everything she has into it. And the song actually is a fitting winning song. Plus, I loved seeing her get emotional at the end. Crystal Bowersox just won American Idol!

Favorite Performances: Crystal Bowersox: "Up To The Mountain" / "Black Velvet" / "Me and Bobby McGee"

My Votes: Crystal Bowersox [200 votes]

Winner Prediction: Crystal Bowersox

Runner-Up Prediction: Lee Dewyze

My Season 9 Vote Tracker:

Crystal Bowersox: 735 votes

Lee Dewyze: 65 votes

Siobhan Magnus: 30 votes

Michael Lynche: 15 votes

Total: 845 votes cast during season 9

After the Top 2 sang for the last time for votes, Will Young closed out the show with this year's goodbye song, "Leave Right Now." If you don't know who he is, he won the very first season of the very first Idol competition ever in the entire world (Pop Idol). I wonder what Simon was thinking during that performance?

I have compiled some stats from the course of the entire season. I haven't ever shown them on Idol-Talk, but I gave each performance a score out of 25 (with subsections like vocal ability, song choice, personality, and stage presence). And I have added up the scores for both Crystal and Lee to find out who came out on top based on my scoring, and Crystal received a 97.2%, while Lee has a 94.1%. While that is close, Crystal still has the edge based on overall performances for the entire season. And I have tallied up my favorite performances, and Crystal has 15, with Lee at 10; again, Crystal has the edge. Based on my stats I've compiled, Crystal Bowersox is the clear winner. If that happens in actually remains to be seen, but she deserves it more if you look at the entire season as a whole, and not just Lee's upward momentum these past few weeks. Plus, Crystal slaughtered Lee last night, which definitely says something. I won't be surprised either way on who wins, but Crystal is the true American Idol at this point.

I was shocked to find out that the winners songs are not originals written for the show, but rather covers. I read on mjsbigblog.com that Crystal and Lee were able to choose the songs themselves. And I do have to say that they both picked great songs to complement their styles and talent, but Crystal nailed it completely with her song, while Lee was all over the place. "Up to the Mountain" is such a great song, and it fits in with the tone of what the Idol winning songs usually have.

End Time: 9:00pm - on time

If you want to buy any of the audio or video performances, head on over to TV Watch Online's American Idol on iTunes page. If you don't see this week's links up when viewing that page, they may not be released on iTunes yet. If that is the case, keep checking back.

Tonight, we will finally find out who our American Idol is! At least the two in the running have talent, unlike the current Idol, Kris Allen. Before we get to that, the 2+ hour show will be packed full of guest performances (let's hope the rumor is true that Melissa Etheridge will duet with Crystal), a reunion of the Top 12, a final goodbye to Simon Cowell (Paula Abdul will reportedly be in attendance as part of the farewell ceremony), and some filler (since General Larry Platts had one of the highlights of the season with his audition of "Pants on the Ground," there's no doubt that he will probably reprise that performance). Also, I really hope Idol does a sendoff for music director Ricky Minor as well, since he is leaving Idol to replace Kevin Eubanks on the Tonight Show. It would be really disrespectful if they don't, because he has been so influential on the show; he is the reason the show has a live band instead of the contestants performing to a backtrack recording of the music. And, the final is scheduled to end at 10:07pm; they obviously expanded it by a little bit since their finales haven't been ending on time these past few years, but don't believe this end time. They are obviously going to go over even that expanded time. There's so much to pack into a finale show running over two hours; will we even have time to announce the winner? See ya then...