OMG.

That’s the best way I can think of to start this entry about American Idol. Last night was INCREDIBLE. I absolutely loved the finale….

Not only where there some incredible guest stars like Mary J Blige and Prince, plus a surprise appearance by Clay Aiken…what was up with the shaggy hair?? And of course our current American Idol (at least for the next 20 minutes of the show) – Carrie Underwood…

The show was actually quite hilarious…the American Idol awards were brilliant…it was great seeing some of the freaks from the auditions come back for a quick visit. Remember the girl wearing all silver who used expletives every other word? Yeah, she was back via satellite..it was brilliant. Remember the cowboys? Yeah…Brokenote Mountain – they were all back to do a number…very off key from a couple of them, but it was fun none-the-less, and I loved the “gay” overtone they gave it. (it was the male bonding award – although the hugging between Chris and Ace was fun to watch too)

They also did a judge montage, and brilliantly, when it was time for Paula, they played “So Emotional” in the background and did clips of her through the entire season…crying, laughing, cheering, dancing. Randy got the obligatory “dude” “dawg” “you worked it out” “we got a hot one tonight” montage…but the best part (as expected) was the Simon montage…apparently Simon likes to touch his chest and face constantly during performances…so we got to see clip after clip of him rubbing his mouth his face and his chest. I was laughing out loud in my living room….just brilliant.

The music was great – all of the idols were back to perform numerous songs…each of them featured for a bit of it, and it was nice to hear them again – there was only one of them that I’d actually forgotten about and could not for the life of me remember her name (and I still can’t – she’s the first one who forgot her lyrics – I think she forgot the word Superstition, when singing Superstition from Stevie Wonder).

Finally, they got to the end and awarded the 2006 AI to Taylor Hicks. Of the two left, he was the obvious choice. I never really had McFever…and two of her songs the previous night really weren’t all that great. I never really saw what the judges found so striking about her – yes she is beautiful, yes she has a good voice, but whomever picks songs for her did a TERRIBLE job…I really wish she’d done more like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” , which was indeed quite excellent…I love it when they do acapella stuff. Taylor was on top the whole night…and Simon even told him that based on his performance last night, he’d won the competition. Right on Taylor…I hope he goes on to great success.

Now we get to sit through another season of So You Think You Can Dance, as we wait for auditions to begin for AI6…plus they also promo’d Simon’s new show Duet…that one might be interesting to watch as well, so I’ll be programming that into Tivo too.

I hope you all enjoyed the show