American Idol 2012 Finale

Now that I’ve slept over it, here are my morning-after non-expert opinions and impressions on how the Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips performed last night. First song for Jessica (whom I consider “the great imitator” as most Filipino singers are, and I mean that in a good way), was Whitney Houston’s “I Have Nothing”. A very good imitated performance with subtle changes as can be expected. Then Phillip Phillip’s song – “Stand By Me”. When I viewed this online from video posted by East Coast bloggers, I thought it was something that you could fall asleep to. Who needs a sleeping pill with that kind of rendition? Ahem, sorry Phillip fans. When I saw it on the West Coast, I thought it sounded better. Next for Jessica was “The Prayer”. It was a beautiful song and she sang it excellently, again as can be expected and I think on par with Celine Dion’s version. These kinds of songs fit her voice like a glove. Phillip’s version of “Moving Out” was well sung too and mostly in tune even though his facial expressions looked like he was in pain (or worse, constipated) while he was singing it. Regarding Jessica’s final song “Change Nothing”, I have to agree with the judges on this one. It wasn’t a good song choice (who chooses those songs, btw?). Started too low and got better sung as it went on. I would have preferred “Change Something”. I watched an East Coast video of Phillip singing “Home” and I liked it. By the middle, I posted on Facebook that it sounded very much like a Simon and Garfunkel song, and this was about 3 hours before I heard Steven Tyler’s comment on the show. I’m glad we’re on the same page on that, Steven J. So there you go folks, I think with the final song, Phillip had the better choice. Still, it was not enough for me to switch up my votes.

Which brings us to the racial discrimination claims by some quarters. Personally, I think not. Racial bias? Perhaps. But that’s just human nature. Of course if Jessica Sanchez comes out the winner, then you can throw out the window the two claims mentioned beforehand. For the sake of argument, if Jessica wins, it may be a case of fans rallying the vote after she was supposed to have been eliminated and saved by the judges. That was certainly the case for me, because I haven’t voted since Carrie Underwood won several years ago and only did again this year after the judge’s save.

This is a side note about imitated performances and I just want to add it here before I forget about it. I still miss Simon Cowell and imitated singing is not the type that go well with him. I think he would have given Jessica Sanchez a hard time with that if he was still one of the judges. Has anyone found any sound bites of his impressions on AI 2012? If so, please send me a link. Thanks.

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