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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American Idol Results – Jessica Sanchez With Lowest Number of Votes

Here’s my quick and delayed take on last week’s American Idol results. Why do I think Jessica Sanchez got the least number of votes? Well, I’ll get to that in a minute. The other surprise of course was that Joshua Ledet was in the bottom three too. There’s the usual excuse of voter apathy when people assume that their favorites and previous leaders will get votes regardless. That probably figured into the equation. In my opinion, there were a few factors. First, the teenage and young adult female vote probably boosted Colton Dixon and Philip Phillips. Second, even though Jessica sang a very beautiful song called Stuttering by Jazmine Sullivan, both the artist and the song were not familiar to me and I assume to a lot of other people. I certainly haven’t heard about her or the song in the top 40 radio stations that I usually listen to. Even the powerhouse song by Bruno Mars that Joshua sang is not a Bruno song that gets the most play among the ones in his album. A lot of you might disagree, but that’s just my perception.

Here is another concern I have about Jessica Sanchez. I have observed from the start of this American Idol season that although she shows emotion when she is singing (she has that down pat), she appears unemotional or at least blunted on results nights when somebody gets sent home (even on the night she was saved by the judges). She seems to only show a “pretend cry” face. Has anyone also noticed that she appears to be distant and isolative from the other contestants? Maybe the voters have picked up on that one?

So even though Jessica Sanchez has sold the judges on her extraordinary singing, unless she starts doing familiar songs and showing more affinity to her fellow contestants, she may have a difficult time winning this contest. Heck, even Carrie Underwood, a country singer who supposedly was always the top vote getter week after week during her season, probably got those results because she chose songs that the general public knew and sang them very well.

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