The Idol Madness

The whole world was watching. Many were nervous, including me, when they gave Ryan Seacrest, the host of the show, the card where the 11th winner of the hit TV series, American Idol, was placed. He announced it, and there we have, Phillip Phillips. I was shocked, but not totally, knowing that for the past few years, the winners were just like him, White Guys With Guitar (as the internet would call them) or WGWG.

BTW, I live in the Philippines so in no way I can vote for anyone in this singing competition. All I could do is watch them perform on TV, critic them in my own way, and wait for the results every Friday. This has been my trend since I started watching Idol during its seventh season. Ever since, I've been hooked up with this show and I would watch every year. I tried voting, but I know it would not be counted.

So it came to this finale where a diva and a guitarist would face to face in the finale, Jessica Sanchez, a 16-year old student from Chula Vista, San Diego, and Phillip Phillips, a 21-year old guy from Georgia. Both are talented singers, but I have been rooting for Jessica Sanchez since the beginning not because she's part Filipino, but because her singing prowess amazes me.

I was amazed by her when she sang Whitney's, "I Will always Love You," but I really began rooting for her when she sang, "Everybody Has a Dream," by Billy Joel. It was her greatest performance for me. Week per week, she became very consistent in giving us world class performances. She was supposed to be eliminated during the TOP 7 week but was saved by the judges. I can't find any reason why she had the lowest votes during that week where in fact, she was one of the best then.

And her competition was Phillip Phillips who was consistently using his guitar in almost every performance he had. Like any other past winners, he was never in the bottom three, though in some weeks, he deserved to be. I became a fan of him when he sang the song, "Volcano." Aside from that, he's just another guy playing guitar and singing bland songs. Another performance of his which was absolutely great was, "Beggin." I thought that was his best performance yet.

Phillips and Sanchez: the Top Two

When Joshua Ledet, the great Gospel singer was eliminated, I thought in my mind that Jessica would win everything, but I predicted too soon. When I watched yesterday's performances, I thought she was in very big trouble.

The songs of the first round was given by Simon Fuller, the creator of the show. Her first song was, "I Have Nothing," by Whitney Houston. She sounded perfectly well, and there's no doubt in that. Phillip's "Stand by Me," had girls screaming for more. Round one for me went to Jessica hands down.

The songs of the second round would be their best performances of the whole season. Jessica's song was, "The Prayer," by Celine Dion and Andrea Boccelli, the song that let her to the Top 24. She did it very well that I had goosebumps all over me. It was just perfect. Phillips favorite was, "Moving Out," by Billy Joel, the song he sang during the Billy Joel week. I thought he did well, but I liked it better when he first sang it.  Round Two was given to Jessica again although the judges had mixed reactions.

Round Three would be their potential singles if they won. This was the round where Jessica fell, in my opinion. She was given a song entitled, "Change Nothing," that doesn't match with her voice or her singing style, the tune was common and not that good, and the production was very simple. She did great vocally anyway. Phillip's song, "Home," was much much better in tune, in lyrics, in the production, though the voice was just mediocre. I started liking this song so much because it reminds me of Mumford and Sons. The judges gave him a standing ovation. I agree with them, this round went to Phillip.

Two is to one, Jessica might have won, but that was not the case. I've read many sites that says, Phillip's last song pulled many votes to him. That might be the reason why. Another reason was that, they do not want another race to win. In my opinion, this is not merely the case. I do not know the actual reason behind that. I was checking on DialIdol.com every now and then to check who was leading and Phillip was leading all the way. I had to respect their decision because they can vote, I can't. I'm not even an American.

We have a winner, our American Idol Season 11 is Phillip Phillips. He made a record to be the 5th consecutive guitar-playing guy on the show. Jessica, on the other hand, made history to be the youngest runner up ever, the first Asian-Mexican ever, and many more firsts.

Speaking of the fact that I'm not even American, we all know that Jessica Sanchez has mixed race: Filipino-Mexican-American. Here in the Philippines, we give our whole out support to her. Based from the News I've heard last night, in Bataan, her mother's home province, they threw parties and had a fiesta and even had a Jessica Sanchez day. All have been crazy over Jessica Sanchez, win or lose.

Right now, all I can think off is Jessica's future. I know she'll make it big. She'll have a huge career ahead of her. Based on what I've read, Tommy Mottola, the producer behind Jennifer Lopez and Mariah Carey already had plans for Jessica's CD and the songwriters of Rihanna and Beyonce are reportedly starting on the album. I can't wait for that one.

I can't wait for the 12th season. I've heard it's gonna be big and there's gonna be a lot of changes happening. We'll see.

Wait, did I mention to you that Jennifer Holliday and Jessica Sanchez had the best performance of the night and of the whole show?!