Fantasia Wins: I'm A Believer

Although I would have not lost any sleep if Diana DeGarmo pulled the upset, I believe the Idol legacy is in much better shape this morning in the hands of Fantasia Barrino.  As expected the vote was close, not quite the tenth of a percentage of last year's Clay/Ruben battle - but Fantasia's 1.3 million vote lead only translated to a 2% margin of victory.

Some random notes on the evening:

Ditch the "pre-show" including what had to be emptiest red-carpet in Hollywood history.  If the biggest celebrity you can come up with is Ray Romano (who did not even feel the need to shave for the big event) you have a problem.  And when asked her thoughts on the previous night's show,  I think Sharon Osbourne based on her oh-shit expression and answer ("It .... was....  terrific") had not even watched it.  Christina Christian please stick to singing, your interviewing skills are non-existent...and ditch the hair (didn't you learn anything from Jennifer Hudson...the Mrs. Roper look doesn't work).  Kimberly Caldwell - go away and you to need some hair help as well (maybe Julia DeMato can help).  Jennifer Love Hewitt - fire your agent if this is the best gig you can get.

Though this is asking for the impossible, stop trying to channel "The Brady Bunch" in the group sings (weren't you just waiting for JPL to do the Peter Brady puberty-induced"It's time to change" line?). I know this is always the kitschiest part of the show...but the oh-so-1970s white and yellow "uniforms" the final 12 were forced to wear were truly horrific.  But alas the ugly attire did not distract us from the fact that America got it right with some of the early evictees both vocally (Leah & Camille, I am looking at you) and dance-wise (John Stevens and Matt Rogers... cringe-worthy in totally different ways).  And has Amy Adams aged like 20 years since ditching the pink hair, I kept thinking it was Diana DeGarmo's mother up there on stage. 

What was it with Tamyra opening the show with the National Anthem... I guess it was an attempt to solidify the finale as some kind of major sporting event (thus the endless boxing match references in re-capping the previous night)... that said, I did not like Tamyra's take on it at all.

Paula Abdul's breasts.... fabulous!   Get working on a wonder-bra endorsement deal...pronto!

Simon - stick with the black Armani tight t-shirts.. the button down (down down down) look is kind of creepy and do you think Randy always looks like a pimp when he dresses up?

Why did they let Diana sing "I Believe" as her last solo song?  The poor girl nailed it even better than the night before... it was pretty much the next-day quarterback-ing sign that she had not won ... as she would have had to sing it again to close out the show.  You can tell there was more than a little twinge of pain when she helped Ryan introduce Fantasia's victory version of "I Believe" ... Diana really wanted it to be "her" song.

Was not all that impressed with the return of the former champs, Kelly and Ruben.  They did all right in the opening "Impossible Dream" (though it appeared the walk down the ramp pretty much wiped out poor Ruben), but their solo numbers left something to be desired.  Kelly sounded "ai-ight" but the song itself was pretty awful, while Ruben's "new" song sounded much like his debut "Sorry 2004."  No wonder they banished Clay to North Carolina!

Finally, I thought Fantasia was just picture-perfect last night.  You can tell she was pretty exhausted, but she pluckily plodded through all the hoops the producers put up for her for the two hours.  Her final performance announced that there is a new diva in town.  Could she recover from her emotional response to winning to sing "I Believe" -- you betcha!  Got teary at the right times and just when you think she was done...she belted it out again.  Say what you will about the quality of her voice, but she works a song for all its worth.