17-year-old Scott McCreery WON THE AMERICAN TITLE joining Jordin Sparks as the youngest winners of the contest - Fox photo

Video Beat MAX Part 2 - SCOTT McCREERY WINS AMERICAN IDOL TITLE

James Loving - National Radio Text Service

Lauren Alaina's charge at the end of the season was like a race horse being six lengths behind on the Kentucky Derby race track at the last turn heading for the finish line. She almost beat McCreery but in the end but he won by a nose - Recommended TV Listings

Thursday May 26, 2011

WINNING BY A NOSE

17-year-old Scott McCreery walked away with the Season 10 American Idol title after a record breaking 122 million votes were cast. The multi talented singer and high school athlete was a bit stunned when the result was announced as he should have been.

At the start of the finale Idol host Ryan Seacrest announced that Lauren Alaina was suffering from a vocal injury. A doctor treating her was called on to the stage to adequately describe her condition and in simple terms. The doctor noted that in practice she strained a vocal chord he said it was like an athlete playing on a sprained ankle. At that point Alaina had the sympathy vote on her side.

Although we favored the deep voiced country singer from the audition stage he had a lax finale performance. The songs chosen for him by George Strait the recording star he most admired and Idols in-mentor Jimmy Iovine were not as strong as those chosen for Alaina.

The two country singing contestants chose their first song from their most favorite song of the songs that they sang during the competition. For his choice McCreery sang the up-tempo Gone and received rave reviews form the judges. Alaina followed up with an up-tempo song Flat On The Floor also receiving rave reviews though McCreery was given the edge for the first round but then things turned sour for the eventual winner.

Strait chose a laid back song for McCreery Check Yes or No. McCreery did a good job but the song was too laid back putting him in a hole against the 16-year-old high school cheerleader Alaina. Alaina sang Maybe It Was Memphis chosen for her by her Idol Season 4 winner Carrie Underwood. For that round the judges gave Alaina the edge.

Then came what appeared to be the decider when Iovine made his selections of the songs that he felt would be the direction they should go in their recording careers and would be their first record release. Iovine chose another laid back song for McCreery Love You This Big. McCreery sang it well but two slow songs in a row put him at a disadvantage to the energetic, sparkly eyed Alaina.

Alaina sang Like My Mother Does superbly drawing tears from her mother who was in the audience. Alaina added a performing enhancement when while singing she walked into the audience to hug her tearful mother. Jennifer Lopez commented, "With that song you may have just won it."

At the end of the night all of the judges gave Alaina the nod to win the title with womanizer judge Steven Tyler being the most enthusiastic in praising Alaina. He gave her the first round saying that she was prettier then McCreery.

As usual the result was a surprise but mild one compared to the Adam Lambert loss to Chris Allen in season 8. We preferred McCreery but felt that he lost on the performance show. Apparently the voting was based on the overall performance throughout the season. McCreery was strong throughout but Alaina came on strong in the middle of the season. Her charge at the end was like a race horse being six lengths behind on the Kentucky Derby race track at the last turn heading for the finish line. She almost beat McCreery but in the end he won by a nose.

The bottom line is there are no losers here. Both were worthy of winning and both will have great recording artist careers.

ELIMINATED

# 2 - Lauren Alaina

# 3 - Haley Reinhart

# 4 - James Durbin

# 5 - Jacob Lusk

# 6 - Casey Abrams

# 7 - Stefano Langone - Review canceled due to lack of interest

# 8 - Paul McDonald - Review canceled due to lack of interest

# 9 - PIA TOSCANO

# 11 & 10 - THAI MEGIA & NAIMA ADEDAPO

# 11 - CASEY ABRAMS SAVED

# 12 - KAREN RODRIGUEZ

# 13 - ASHTHON JONES

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