Who’s Going to Win American Idol? [Video]

American Idol host Ryan Seacrest says it will be one of the closest finales in Idol history. Jessica Sanchez versus Phillip Phillips! And last night, both contestants laid it all out on the line for your votes. So, who won the night? Who SHOULD win the title of American Idol? Let's turn to our Idol expert Steve Thompson, who was tuned in and ready to call the race!

This morning on The WBKR Waking Crew, Steve, Moon and I chatted about lsast night's show. LISTEN!

From Steve Thompson:

Frankly, I think the only way Phillip beats Jessica after what I witnessed tonight is that the P2 cult has been brainwashed into not recognizing what music is supposed to sound like. Consider: name any singer other than Adele who is currently in the same league as any of our female contestants over the past few years. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Back so soon? Oh, no don't choose people who can put on a good show. Ed Sullivan could put on a good show-- you just didn't want to hear him sing. I'm talking about anyone who can sit on a stage and actually belt out a song that can either break your heart or make you rise up like some Howard Beale railing against the political machine. (By the way-- we need more of those. Somebody get on that, will you?)

See? My point is that most of today's music has no high recognition factor for what passes as vocal ability. Autotune is the bane of my existence. If you can't sing without the help of some technical witchcraft maybe you need to find a career. In short, if God didn't bless you with talent, why are you wasting our time by cluttering up the radio?

This is the way the music industry ends. Not with a three octave range, but with sour notes.

Today's music listeners are too young to remember the 90s. So why wouldn't they vote for someone who can't stay on pitch? When was the last time Dave Matthews had a top 40 hit, anyway? Phil sang Stand By Me and I kept thinking that body those boys saw by the railroad track was going to reanimate itself and haunt that boy. He sang his version of I'm Movin' Out again and I heard nothing in his performance that even resembled the artistry of a David Cook or a Chris Daughtry.

I will give the P2 cult this-- the percussion arrangement on his song that will probably be released whether he wins the show or not had a compelling beat and rhythm. Not sure if the percussion was worthy of the lyrics, however. A song like Black Horse and the Cherry Tree had interesting percussive elements, but KT Tunstall wrote a compelling lyric to go along with it. I didn't hear anything of that quality in this performance.

Which leads us to Jessica Sanchez. I keep forgetting just how young she is-- but this makes anything that happens in the voting seem like so much gravy, in my opinion. Barring a complete breakdown, Jessica will have the ability to have a career for years after P2 has been forgotten. To paraphrase the old song, she's only sixteen. Imagine what a few years of seasoning will do. I'm hopeful that the vast indifference of America will only be a passing fad.

Her version of I Have Nothing equalled in my mind anyone who has ever tried to sing that song on Idol in the past. The eerie thing about her is her ability to sing so closely to a track that she sounds like she can channel a Whitney or even a Michael. I thought she was great. However, I thought her version of The Prayer exceeded the first time I ever heard her sing the song. Granted, she was one of a dozen I was trying to keep up with at the time-- so maybe I was just focused in on her more. The third song? Whomever suggested that song for her should be taken out back of the Nokia and shot.

I fear the P2 cult has won. While this may not be an event detailed in the Book of Revelation, it does point out some serious flaws in the voting system that need to finally be addressed by the Powers that Be.