I said from the beginning that this Idol season was a little weird. What made it great was that there were so many talented people. Not just people that were okay–but so many people that were great–which is rare. Normally we have a few good people (Kelly Clarkson, Tamyra Gray), and then everyone else is just average (Jim Verraros, Ryan Starr–everyone ever). We came into the top 12 with so much promising talent: the sultry Ace Young, the power belter Mandisa, the jazzy Paris Bennett, the adorable country girl with a rock tinge Kellie Pickler, alterna-rocker Chris Daughtry, the harmonica toting jazzer Taylor Hicks the pop-soul yet sophisticated vocalist Katharine McPhee, underdog funky white boy Elliott Yamin, and then a few that just need to die.

The problem, though–is that although there were so many people that were very talented–there weren’t that many stand out performers or performances for that matter. Were there fantastic performances? Yes. But there was no “All By Myself”, there was no “Bridge Over Troubled Water”, no “Summertime”, no “Alone.” This is precisely why Tuesday night’s finale was the worst in Idol history. Well–that and the fact that some of the best performers wre voted off too early.

The ideal finale would have been Chris Daughtry and Katharine McPhee like most people predicted–or if not–interchange one of those two with Elliott Yamin. But this finale–it just lacked spark. It didn’t live up to the event that it is. Part of that had to do with song choices (”Levon”? Honestly), and part of that was the orrid singles for the two of them. Katharine’s ridiculously generic and might I add too low for her voice “My Destiny” was dreadful. It gave her nothing to work with. Way to sabotage Kat in the same way you did poor Bo Bice with that disgusting piece of music you guys called a song you had him sing at last year’s finale.

Katharine’s first performance was good. But good is not what you need in order to win American Idol, especially when you’re coming in as the underdog. Taylor was clearly the favorite. She should have picked “Come Rain or Come Shine” or the Aretha Franklin classic “Until You Come Back To Me”. Mistake number one.

Then she sang “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”. Was is a great performance? Yes. Was it magical? Yes, unlike Taylor’s mediocre “Levon”. But guess what? You performed it last week. We all remember it. Thanks. You should’ve done the song that helped you get into the top 12, the Streisand hit “Since I Fell For You”, or what got you into the competition at the beginning “God Bless The Child”. Mistake number two.

I would say mistake number three was picking “My Destiny” (possibly one of the worst songs ever written), but to quote Kat’s response to her “I Believe I Can Fly” comments, she “didn’t pick it!”

Oh well Kat. Be glad you had some hot outfits and cute shoes.

So basically…Katharine McPhee barely contributed to a showstopping finale, which means we nearly wasted approximately 15 minutes of precious television time, when I could’ve tuned into the CMA Awards and seen Carrie Underwood perform “Jesus Take The Wheel”. You could’ve at least shown us some panty.

Overall grade for the night: B

Download mp3 of ‘My Destiny’ here.

Taylor, Taylor, Taylor. Need I add, that you shouldn’t be in the finale, and that you wouldn’t be had America voted right two weeks ago, eliminating you instead of shoo-in Chris Daughtry? Is he talented? Yes. But the only time he can give a 1st rate performance that has me dropping to my knees in applause and worship is when he jerks and seizures on stage, shouting “Hey!” and “Yeah!”, then doing that weird thing he calls belting where he growls like a pre-pubescent Mufasa. And even then I’m just clapping. No knee-dropping like when Carrie Underwood sang the hell out of her last song in Season 4.

I’ll admit, “Livin’ For The City” was a much better choice than Kat’s room temperature “Black Horse And The Cherry Tree”. You could tell he really energized the room–if not by the performance itself than by Paula Abdul’s drunken turbo-bobbing with her hands waving from side to side. Someone’s not biased. Not even a little. Round 1 rightfully goes to the Silver Fox.

But seriously–”Levon”? Give me a break, dude. Off-pitch here, bum note there–eh–looks like round two’s going to Kat McPhee sweetheart.

Now this is where Kat got completely screwed. There’s no doubt that just in terms of range, intonation, vibrato–the technical aspects of singing–Katharine has the edge. Which would lead you to think that when it comes to the usually generic debut singles the idols are given, she’d have the advantage. But think again. Though her performance of “My Destiny” was commendable, the song itself, and the arrangement of it were too far gone for her to be able to salvage anything. Taylor’s song however, “Do I Make You Proud”, was not only a better song, but he sang it better than Kat sang hers, and seemed to do it with much more conviction.

And of course, to cap off the night, Simon seals the deal by saying that Taylor has won American Idol. Which–who knows if it even made a difference–Taylor was already the fave. But it would be interesting to see if maybe the votes would at least be closer had he not given a particular idol his stamp of approval. After all, poor Clay Aiken didn’t get that, and that could’ve kept him from his rightful win over Ruben–who?

Overall grade for the night: B+

Download mp3 of ‘Do I Make You Proud’ here.

Judging from the Dial Idol results, which has Taylor with 47.8 percent of the vote and Katharine 38.9 percent, Simon’s right. Not that we needed those results to state the obvious.

The question is, does it matter? I asked Maxie Pulliam, a young college student from California, who she wanted to win, and her response was “Ehh, honestly, no one’s gonna buy Taylor’s CD”. Is she right? Obviously Taylor has lots of fans–otherwise he wouldn’t have made it this far. But wait–so did Ruben Studdard. And where is he?

Given the fact that Idol is a tad more popular than it was 3 years ago, and the fact that Taylor doesn’t buy his clothes in size “trash bag”, it’s likely he’ll fare at least slightly better than idol alumus Studdard. But I suppose it depends on what Taylor’s definition of success is. Will he ever be a Kelly Clarkson? Hell no. He’ll never have that kind of mainstream success–the type of music that he would do (that is–if he stays true to himself) just wouldn’t be played enough to be number one at Top 40 radio. But that’s okay if that’s not what Taylor wants for his career.

Maybe Ruben is content with merely selling 500,000 copies of a good gospel album that he loves as opposed to selling 3 million copies of some oversung generic melisma-d out Christmas album (cough, Clay Aiken, cough).

At the end of the day, neither of these two (Kat and Taylor) will be lining up for food stamps anytime soon. But my prediction is, they’ll both have success. Katharine’s will be on a bigger scale because her style and image are more mainstream, but they’ll both be successful in the different ways that they are meant to be.

Taylor, just hope your album is better than that horrid “The Real Thing” (sorry Bo).

American Idol, please find some better contestants next year. And try to make sure those ones actually make it to the finale. In other finales, where my favorite didn’t necessarily win, I was at least entertained. Tuesday night was a pathetic snorefest. Looks like someone’s gonna lose to “Amazing Race” yet again. Sorry, Paula. You don’t need anymore shiny shit anyway.

Best Vocal Performance: Katharine McPhee (”Rainbow”)

Most Original Performance: Taylor Hicks (”Proud”)

Best Overall Performance: Tie

Winner of American Idol 5: Taylor Hicks.