American Idol Season 11 Finale! Winner’s Announced!

The moment we have been waiting for since January – Who will be the NEXT…. American Idol!

Show starts out the way all finales start out… the eliminated contestants, dressed, in all white, sing a group song together (Runaway Baby, I think is the name).  They do have some killer backup dancers dressed in all black though.  Which is a nice segue into So You Think You Can Dance starting tomorrow. I’m sure that was no coincidence.

132 million votes came in for the finale last night!  That’s pretty big, but this is also the first year that voting online was made possible.  Or was it last year?  Either way, you haven’t been able to vote online for many seasons.

Phillip is singing first with CCR’s John Fogerty with the song “Have you ever seen the rain?”  Sounds great!  John looks great except for some very apparent plastic surgery that makes his eyes very squinty.  But he still looks amazing and they sound great together!  Then they sang “Bad Moon Rising.”  Good job Phillip!

Typical bloopers of bad auditions… blah… fast forward…

Wow… Joshua Ledet performing with Fantasia.  “Take me to the pilot (?)”  Fantasia is wearing a sequined cat suit with a slit all the way up the sidef the leg and very long hair extensions.  I do not normally trash how women look because, let’s face it, it’s hard being a woman, but she…. she does not look good.  I think she should have chosen a different outfit.  Oh weird… they just cut to commercial and they weren’t done performing.  Going to rewind to see if I can see why…   Okay, it seems like the band wanted to end the song, but Joshua and Fantasia just carried on anyway and then the choir joined in… so maybe they just went over their time.  It seemed that Joshua and Fantasia were just seeing who could scream the most anyway.

Ladies of the top 12 sing a medley of Chaka Khan songs, and Chaka Khan herself comes out and nearly stumbles down the steps.  Cameras nervously pan to audience instead of focusing on Ms Khan.  She is wearing a flesh colored sequined cat suit as well, but she sounds great!  Jane Lynch was seen in the audience singing along to “I’m Every Woman.”

New Ford Escapes are given to the musical mentors of the final two contestants.  They go crazy, especially Jessica’s mentor.  It’s really sweet.  Phillip and Jessica receive a new Ford car of their choice.

Rhianna hits the stage in quite the theatrical performance singing “Where Have You Been?”   She looks hot as always.  And the whole production was quite impressive.

“Turn On the Radio” is sung by Skylar and out comes Reba McEntire.  Just wishing Ashley Clark from the Clark Brothers were out on stage with them like he was for so many of Skylar’s other performances on Idol.  Reba is so stinkin’ cute and I’m not even a country girl.  I really like both of them performing together.

Inside Steven’s house… blah… filler…

Jessica singing “I Will Always Love You”.  This was my favorite song she sang throughout the season.  However, seems a little eerie that we know Whitney Houston won’t be coming out to sing with her…. so who will it be??  Okay, so nobody came out.  lol. Even though I want Phillip to win, Jessica really is uber talented.

Guys of the top 12… singing a Neil Diamond medley?  Love Colton Dixon!  Wish he would have made it further.  Heejun is just making a big joke of the whole thing.  Colton’s even laughing at him at points.  Then Neil Diamond comes out for the “Sweet Caroline” song.  It was cute and cheesy.

Just wanting to get to the end!!!  Clip with the top 12 singing the phone book.  That was actually kind of cute.

Jennifer Lopez now performs with Lil’ John… I think it is and somebody else that I couldn’t tell.  She’s such a good dancer, I wish she was one of the judges on So You Think You Can Dance. Then another song with Pitbull and another guy that came down from the ceiling on these really cool platform thingees.

Ace Young just proposed to Diana DeGarmo!!!  Ace: “Will… You…. Marry Me.”  A little dramatic, but so sweet.  I love it!  I’ve always love Diana!  She can’t even talk!  Seems like an unlikely pair, but so cute!!

Hollie Cavanaugh sings “You Will Never Walk Alone” and Jordin Sparks joined her for it half way through.  Cute, sounds good, but I want to get to the results!!  Such a slow song.

Honoring Robin Gibb by a medley of BeeGee hits by the guys of the top 12.  Heejun finally seems to be taking it a little more seriously.  Ouch, the guys can’t harmonize though.  Eek… this is bad.  Colton still makes me swoon though!  Can’t we just have him sing?

Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holliday sing “And I’m Telling You”.  Damn, Jennifer Holliday is awesome!  Joshua Ledet and Fantasia could take lessons from her.  This is the best duet of the night.  Wow, I got chills.  WOW!!!  They both are INCREDIBLE!!!  This is the Jessica I love.  And Wow, Jennifer Holliday!!!  I can’t stop saying Wow!  It actually brought me to tears.   That was awesome.

Areosmith performs…. pretty cool!  That’s all I have to say.  I love watching Steven Tyler perform.  There’s nobody else like him.  I don’t care how old he is, he still rocks it.

Jessica Sanchez and Phillip Phillips perform “Love Lift Us Up”  Cheesy, but sung well.  Want to hear the results already!!!!

RESULTS!!!!!!!!!!

DIM THE LIGHTS…….  THE WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL IS…..  PHILLIP PHILLIPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So happy!!!!  He finishes the show by singing “Home”.   He makes it half way through the song, almost emotionless, and then just breaks down crying and can’t sing.  It’s beautiful.  Absolutely beautiful.  Takes his guitar off and just walks to his family in the audience to hug them.  And of course I’m crying like the sap that I am!  Congrats Phillip!  I wanted you to win from the start!