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American Idol 8: Finale!

American Idol

Weeks of auditions, eliminations and memorable performances would finally culminate in a single evening of music and melodrama. Yes, it’s the finale of 8.

Various celebrities sat in the crowd as warmed up the episode. Almost 100 million votes were logged after Tuesday’s performance round.

A montage of Randy Jackson clips served as the dog’s intro, he who, for reasons quite beyond me, wore a bow tie for the evening. Kara DioGuardi moments followed, and I never realized she had such a tendency to use the word “sweetie.” She looked great for the evening, at least. The same can’t be said for Paula Abdul, who wore a hideous ensemble. Her clip showed her saying a lot of words, the meanings of which she likely doesn’t understand. Simon Cowell’s video tribute was, of course, the most entertaining of all.

The host then introduced the two stars of the evening: Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. The judges stood up for the men as they took the stage. Each wore white; both looked very different. The sound equipment was hardly functioning when the two touched based with Seacrest.

A gaggle of girls stood in Conway, Arkansas (Kris Allen country) to hear the results. Carly Smithson reported from Symphony Hall (what a sad gig), where Lambert fans gathered to await the final vote count. But each camp would sit through many more video clips, performances, and general hoohah before they would find out what they most wanted to know: who won?

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American Idol 8: Alexis Grace Talks Elimination

Alexis Grace “I feel kind of like I let my state down,” petite Alexis Grace spoke with reporters following her elimination. “I’m from the South, and we’re supposed to do country well.”

“I think I actually sing country pretty good. So it was a disappointment,” she admitted. Alexis plans on pursuing her career in music, with or without American Idol.

Grace was cut from the show just shy of making the Top 10, which means she won’t be part of the summer tour. But don’t write off just yet. “If you want to do anything in life, if you want to pursue a dream, you’ve got to work hard at it and believe in yourself,” Grace remains positive when it comes to her dreams, though she had her hopes dashed when she thought she might be saved from elimination Thursday night. “It’s early in the game, and it wouldn’t be good for TV if they did it so early,” Grace said of the judges’ save. “It just wasn’t the right time.”

Before she kicks off her post-Idol career, Alexis Grace is heading to Memphis, Tennessee for some family time. When she does get ready to record her own tunes, Alexis expects that her sound will be something like “Joss Stone, mixed with Carrie Underwood, mixed with Sheryl Crow.”

(You can find all the American Idol 8 posts here.)

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American Idol 8: Top 11 Results


The mood was appropriately grave at the top of the Wednesday night hour. It was a somber Ryan Seacrest who started off the evening by saying, “one will face the fire.” He also inferred that the evening would hold “shocking” results.

Could it be that, as suspected, Adam Lambert was up on the chopping block? The audience would have to wait awhile to find out what the evening held.

First, the filler. The Top 11 were seated on the stage, the judges were introduced, the performances of the evening hyped. Clips from Tuesday night aired, which featured mentor Randy Travis.

The Top 11 then performed “Trouble,” which started out with the men. Scott MacIntyre jammed on the piano while the male contestants sang, horribly out of harmony, before the girls appeared to gyrate oddly and screech onstage. I didn’t much care for the group number.

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American Idol 8: Top 11 Perform

American Idol logo Performance night for the Top 11 of 8 began as usual: lengthy, time-wasting introductions, useless judge-host banter and other tactics meant to delay the singing. Somewhere in the midst of all this filler, host Ryan Seacrest posed an odd question.

Has the group “evolved”? “This is always a tough week,”   answered. Ryan Seacrest talked about Paula Abdul’s predictions of the week before, which she’s “standing by” for the moment.

The Top 11 Idols were then presented, and the theme of the week presented. Grand Ole Opry singers number among some of the greatest recording artists in the industry. Giants like Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Dolly Parton were featured in the clip, which culminated in Carrie Underwood’s entrance to the Opry and clips of week mentor Randy Travis.

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American Idol 8: Top 13 Results


The Top 13 results show of 8 began with a dire warning: only 11 would remain once the night was all said and done. More than 33 million votes were logged to bring us this first - and perhaps only - Top 13 elimination round.

Idol again referred to a “twist,” one of several times it’s been mentioned. then brought up three very well-known Idol names: Michael Johns, Jennifer Hudson and Chris Daughtry. The latter two have already gone on to great post-Idol success, and Johns seems well on track to do the same. All three were favored contestants among judges and fans, and many feel that all three left the competition early (each during different seasons, of course). Seacrest spoke of the “uproar” that accompanied the departure of each one.

It was as this point the host introduced “the judges’ save,” which exempts a single contestant from elimination - but only once. Once a save is used, it cannot be used again…not for the whole season. When the save is used, it’ll work for a week. After the save, however, the next week will see two contestants eliminated.

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American Idol 8: Top 13 Perform

American Idol 8 Top 13

Randy Jackson advised ’s Top 13 to “bring it hard” for their Tuesday night performance round. They would each have to do just that if they want to survive on the show - Simon Cowell made the not-so-unexpected announcement that on the following elimination night, two contestants would be sent home.

This shouldn’t be a shock. Do the math: ten weeks left in the show, thirteen contestants. At some point, we’re going to have to lose two at once…so it might as well be now.

The Idols chose Michael Jackson songs for the evening, which gave them plenty of room to succeed or fail. Let the chips fall where they may…

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American Idol 8: Three Left Standing in Second Group


Twenty-five million votes were tallied up to create Thursday’s live show, but did all the results go as expected? watchers were treated to montages, recaps and four performances - and at the end of the night, half of the Top 12 was firmly in place.

Alexis Grace, Danny Gokey and Michael Sarver waited through the group performance (it was a song I’ve never heard before and didn’t at all like…the best I can say is that it was better than last week’s group) and tons of other filler before real results were featured.

spent a few moments chatting with the current crop of competitors before getting down to business. When asked about his future, Nick Mitchell said, “I’m looking for employment, always.” Jesse Langseth finds selecting songs “awful” and “very hard.” Jeanine Vailes admitted that “less could have been more” with her performance.

But eventually, even the time for chitchatting was over.

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American Idol 8: Second Group Performs

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As Alexis Grace, Michael Sarver and Danny Gokey looked on from the sidelines, twelve more contenders took to the stage last night. All of them were singing for what could be the last time on the Idol stage; all of them wanted to impress.

Few of them did. Almost everything about the Wednesday night performances - from ’s outfit to more than half the song choices - was a bit of let down. Which three diamonds will be roughed out this minefield of poor decisions, off-key notes and obvious voter influencing?

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American Idol 8: First Winners Speak

Danny Gokey Alexis Grace Michael Sarver

is underway, replete with live performances and suspenseful eliminations. But for the next two weeks, three contestants can breathe easy. Alexis Grace, Danny Gokey and Michael Sarver have made it all the way to the Top 12.

What do they think of that?

recently spoke to reporters about her size (“I might weigh ninety-nine pounds. Maybe ninety-eight. And I would say I’m five feet tall”), her song choice (“I knew I could sing in that range, and I feel connected to her music, so I went with it!”) and being among the first to make it into the Idol dozen.

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American Idol 8: First Results Show


Twenty-four million votes were tabulated to bring us the first results show of , which aired live Wednesday night. Out of the twelve who came to sing, only three would definitely move forward into the Top 12.

And all of them wanted to be there.

The night started out slowly - it takes a lot of filler to say three names in sixty minutes - with judge reactions from last night’s singing. Of course, we all heard their reactions right after the singing, but let’s hear it again. New judge on the panel “thought it was a good show” but found some performers (namely Casey Carlson, Stephen Fowler and Stevie Wright) “disappointing.”

The first group of twelve then performed “I’m Yours,” only passably well, which disappointed me. But soon enough, it was time to start weeding the Idol garden.

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