AMERICAN IDOL WINNER TONIGHT - DOES IT COME DOWN TO RED vs BLUE?

Can you predict the winner on tonight's American Idol Season Finale? I think it is just too close to call. If you missed last night's performances you can get a taste of the show by clicking on the links below which will open a new window at the Idol on Fox home page to give you some chance to size up the action and to catch up if you haven't got a clue about what this is all about.

AMERICAN IDOL Home Page

This link gives Bo Bice's best performance of the evening. Powerful commanding and one of my favorite Tom Jones tunes. He is totally in command here. Fun, hot and giving his fans everything they want and a lot for those in the middle something to thing about.

The key here is drawing the former Vonzell vote. How many were voting on talent alone and how many were voting for "Girl Power" reasons. To many of the latter an Bo is history.

Well, not really. Like Carrie, less so in fact. Bo is now in music a made man. If he doesn't have contract offers coming out of his ears by now someone isn't paying attention. He has genuine talent and I would buy his records - and I've been blase about buying records for quite some time, mostly I-tuning holes in my collection. I was surprised to find someone like Bo this season who I generally found exciting musically. Take a listen below.

Great God in Heaven They Loved Bo!

On the other hand, Carrie Underwood is not to be underestimated. If you click her link you see someone who has grown incredibly throughout the competition into a major talent herself. Bo started with the advantage of age and a lot more experience but Carrie has been catching up fast. Some of the news accounts criticized her song choice - certainly it was no "A girl like this" that ended season 1 - but it was exactly Carrie's kind of song, solid powerful country rock and in the meat of her range with no chance of weakness but showing off her power and style. A good solid choice.

Carrie's Day of Reckoning Rings Out with Powerful Independence Day!

Taken together, you have Bo doing driving urban Rock and Roll inspired by the 60's with all the power of horns ablazing and Carrie doing her solid Country Rock thing and in a way we are back to Red and Blue - but no one has seemed to notice.

I think this is in part because both contestants have sung each other's style earlier in the competition and because each is so obviously "right" in their venue.

Who will win tonight? Really a close call. I'm a city boy at heart and as a singer was moved and impacted by Bo's daring a capella version of "In a Dream" last week. Not only was it a gutsy thing to do, but to a trained singer listening to him, it showed clearly just how much skill and range Bo actually had as every nuance of his voice was laid naked before the national audience and was not only not left wanting, but was thrilling. I think one of the columnists this morning may have had it right, perhaps Bo should have picked it as one of his songs last night. The fact that he did not might have been an indication of a small cold or some other problem as you HAVE to have your voice in perfect condition to do that.

In doing that song, Bo in essence threw down a gauntlet that was not picked up by any of the other challengers, so, like the Olympics, for exhibiting that extra degree of difficulty, and for his overall fine performances, and for last night, I think Bo should win.

But frankly, Carrie was so good and so charming that if Carrie wins there will be no salt tears here, and I suspect none from Bo Bice either. {Ed. Note: Carrie won and Bo is reported to have said that the day of competition was the happiest day of his life, so at least one of my predictions here was correct! 5/26/05}

In fact, one has to wonder if Bo, knowing his career was made and Carrie's was not, regardless of the outcome, did not do his powerhouse a capella number just to give Carrie a better fighting chance just because he knew that she could not compete at that level. Could Bo be that nice? Carrie is awfully cute and they DO sing very well together I have noticed.

Tonight we will know. And the best part is, we will hear them sing again one more time.

That's it for this file,

Peter

P.S. Idol Producers. You took a great step in raising the age limit of Idol Contestants. But you are still guilty of rampant age-ism. Why assume that only the young can inspire record sales? Why not for one season take the lid off the age limit and see what kind of talent shows up at the door. My bet is that you will be a lot, a lot less bored during auditions. Even if you set a limit for us older folks, I think those of us who never had the chance deserve a break - or is that a new show?

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