The show was taped at 3 p.m. instead of live as usual, because of Rosh Hashanah and the fact that several members of the production team and two of the judges are Jewish. Shana Tova to them! The rush line was huge, especially considering it was the middle of the afternoon on a school day. Lots of parents seemed to have no qualms about taking their little children out of school for an afternoon to attend, and there were many, many high school girls who were clearly cutting class. Tsk. Of course, the first thing I was faced with upon approaching the theatre was the sound of girls shrieking "JACOB! JAAAACOB!". I thought I was having a nightmare in which Jacob was in the Final Two, but in fact, he was just out there famewhoring and signing autographs. Beh. I can't escape the horror!
Just like last year, Final Two night was a bit of a letdown after Final Three night. Possibly the best part of it was the fact that Jacob was not on stage. That part was awesome. The rest, not so much. That being said, the judges (with the exception of Farley) were pimping big time for Theresa, but if she and Kalan had gone into this finale absolutely equal and I had to pick the winner based only on the night, I'd say Kalan ran away with it. They were both obviously affected by nerves and fatigue, and it wasn't the world's greatest performance night, but Kalan did remarkably well with two out of three of his songs. Of course, he didn't even have to bother - he could've wandered onto the stage, sat down, and twirled his hair, and the fangirls would've shrieked, given him a standing ovation, and stared 908098098 threads on the scary official boards about how cute he was when he played with his hair. *snort*
I was seated next to some radio guy who wanted to make conversation, and so I nodded and smiled for fifteen minutes and threw in an "uh huh" whenever appropriate. He also thought K-Lo, who was in the crowd since she's in town promoting her album (weird timing, but whatever), was Kelly Clarkson. He's all, "Isn't that Kelly?!" and I'm looking all around going, "Huh?" And then I realize he means Kim and I try not to laugh in his face. Anyhow, Kim was sitting just a few seats over from me, one row up, so I went down to say hi and talked to her for a minute. She was a little ho'd out (big hair, big bling, black tanktop with glittery slogan on it, etc.), but girlfriend looked good, anyhow. She's very sweet, takes compliments graciously, and got extra points for saying she loved Toronto. Other celebs in the crowd included Dahmnait Doyle, Kim Stockwood and Tara Maclean (from Maritimes girl group Shaye) and World Cup champion hockey player Ryan Smith.
Oh! Kaleb is a K-Lo fanboy! During one of the commercial breaks, he came over to her with this suuuuuuper fanboy expression on his face and proceeded to, like, tell her how much he loved her and drool over her. Brandy came up behind him and was making stupid fake-sincere hand-on-heart gestures trying to outdo him. I was hugely amused.
CTV was pimping big time for Instant Star in all the commercial breaks - the three stars of the show were in the crowd, and they interviewed the chick who plays the main character. She sounded like a super-ditz and seemed really proud of herself for co-writing and singing songs on the show.
Kalaresa looked like they were going to keel over with nervousness when they first came out. When they showed the Beachfest clips, Kalan decided he was going to deal with his obvious squirminess at watching himself on screen by just turning his back to the screens. Of course, Ben and Theresa were not going to allow this, and physically turned him around and made him watch, at which point, he blushed, squirmed, and shuffled his feet through his part until Theresa came on screen. Then, of course, he turned and hugged her. Hee! As for the actual performances...
Theresa - "Awake in a Dream", "Come Away With Me" & "Crusin'." That crystallization moment or whatever that Zack was going on about? I don't think she managed to quite find it. I mean, one of the things I love about Theresa is her subtlely, but damn, sometimes I just wish she'd sing something with some impact to it. Her version of the Worst Song Ever was a struggle - in some ways, she handled the cheez better than I thought she would, and there was one moment in the latter half of the song where she busted out with more power than she's given us, vocally, all season, but in other ways, she clearly had no idea what to do with the material (or lack thereof), and it showed. Her voice was clearly suffering through most of this song.
"Come Away With Me"... well, I love the song when Norah Jones does it, but the thing with most of Norah Jones' material is that it would be dead boring sung by anyone who is not Norah Jones. It's not brilliant material - she's just a brilliant artist who elevates it above its stature. This is also not the kind of thing one should sing when one is trying to leave an impression. I thought Theresa did a good job with it, but overall, well, I wasn't thrilled with the arrangement, and I found the whole thing a little meh. I did like the dress-over-jeans boho look, though - that worked for me. Finally, Jack Gold needs to shut the #@%^ up, man. "In a few years, she [Norah Jones] will be covering your [Theresa's] songs"?! WTF?! I love Theresa, but come on.
"Crusin'" is another no-impact song and I thought she sang it better the first time around. I did very much like her outfit and would steal it in pieces if I could. Sadly, I think the outfit had more impact on me than the performance. Luv ya, Theresa, but it's time for you to go home, start writing some songs, get your guitar back in your hands, and release a nice, folky album that highlights your subtlety and charm. Zack may think the title would rest more comfortably with you, but I disagree - you were never really meant for this stage.
Kalan - "I Can Only Imagine", "Born To Be Wild" & "Awake in a Dream." Annnnd... LITTLE PRINCE CROWNED KING indeed. Not his most brilliant night, but definitely one that was much better live than it came off on TV. His first song choice was supremely ill-advised, IMHO, in many, many ways. First of all, please, please, child, do not sing to/about/for Jesus on a show called Idol, especially on the eve of Rosh Hashanah when two of the judges are Jewish. I have nothing against singing about God, honestly, although I think most "inspirational" music is dreck, but not on this show, on this stage, on this night. Second of all, when the stakes are high, singing a song that means this much to you, emotionally? Tactical error, kiddo, big time. Nerves and emotion did him in on the first half of the song - it was pretty clear he felt everything he was singing, because he visibly swallowed more than once and looked like he was trying to sing over a lump in his throat. (Insert obligatory "Aw!" here unless you really, really hate CCM.) He opened up in the second chorus and saved the whole thing, but overall, one of his weakest performances, and he did not look very pleased with himself. As an amusing note, some girl yelled out, "I want your babies!" and the poor child just blushed.
"Born To Be Wild" was freaking... just... I lack words. It was like last week's U2 song, except x 100, in the "TV just didn't do it justice" books. Absolutely phenomenally killer. Just insane. The kid has never connected with the crowd in the way he did with this, and if everyone had been in the theatre instead of watching on TV, he could've been handed the title right there. The screaming was the loudest thing I've heard all season, and yes, I include the insane screeching of the Jacob fangirls in this. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Finally, "Awake in a Dream" is awful, but if anyone can save it, Kalan's the one. For two seconds there, he made me forget how totally hopeless it is and just listen to him sing about not wanting to wake up. I am sad that he is saddled with this as his first single, but... the kid managed to feel it. Anyone who manages to infuse crap like this with real emotion is a star, plain and simple. Of course, what he was really feeling might've just been, "To hell with everything else, I want to win this thing, dammit!", but hey, that's enough.
Also, the mass media is stupid and needs to stop referring to the dreck as "Awaken a Dream." Read the press releases, idiots.
Kalan and Theresa hugged for like, half an hour during the recaps until Ben forced them to stand on either side of him. The post-show group hug was super-amusing. Jacob obviously jumped up on stage first, because he's an attentionwhore and needs the camera in his face as much as Kimberly Caldwell did way back when. However, he lunged straight for Theresa rather than Kalan, which amused/relieved me immensely. Then they were all in this huge group hug and Kaleb was standing around the edges patting Kalan's head. Bwah! Elena and Theresa hugged like four zillion times. It was extremely, um, friendly, if you know what I'm sayin'! *snicker* Kaleb and Theresa seem pretty close - he hugged her for a really long time and kissed her on the cheek, and she kissed him back. She then literally jumped on Josh, hugged him with her legs around his waist, and then let him pick her up and carry her off stage.
That is all for the performance show - Grand Finale and Press Conference report to follow!