American Idol’s 10th Winner Announced – finale recap

American Idol season 10 finale was one that most were not expecting. Last year’s winner Lee DeWyze did not attend, breaking a record for the show. But they had some other big performances lined up with Steven Tyler, Marc Anthony, Lady Gaga, and others. However, most of the performances had nothing to do with the this season’s contestants. Let’s get a quick overview on the performances and then get down to who won!

The top 13 sang “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga to kick off the night. It brought back great memories of when the season first started, and all thirteen sounded great together for a change. It makes me wonder just how live these performances really were. Then the girls sang a medley of Beyonce and Destiny Child’s (“Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)” /”Irreplaceable” / “Get Me Bodied” /”If I Were a Boy” / “Deja Vu” / “Crazy (in Love) songs. Then Beyonce came out to join them mid-way through.

Next was Judas Priest, who had a chance to sing with fan favorite James Durbin and performed “Living After Midnight.” They also sang “Breaking The Law.” That was a real performance and helped us see a little bit more why James will do better without Idol. Then it gets a little blurry in my memory on who sang next, etc. So these songs will not necessarily be in the order that they appeared.

Lil Jon and TLC did a medley with the top girls for “No Scrubs” / “Water Falls” / “Get Some.” It was good to see that two-thirds of the band has carried their music on, even after Lisa Left Eye passed away. Gaga came on with “Edge of Glory,” which I found improper for a family TV show. Of course, Beyonce came back and sang her newest single “1+1.” Steven Tyler had a chance to sing “Dream On,” even if his own band was not backing him on the show.

Bone and The Edge took on Spider-Man: The Musical with “Rise Above.” Haley got the chance to sing with Tony Bennett on “Steppin’ Out With My Baby.” Casey got to sing “Fat Bottomed Girls” with Jack Black. Lauren got to sing “Before He Cheats” with previous Idol winner Carrie Underwood. Tim McGraw and Scotty sung “Live Like You Were Dying,” which fitted Scotty so well. Jacob got to sing with Gladys Knight and Kirk Franklin on “I Smile.” Marc Anthony sung “Aguanile” with Jennifer Lopez. Then the top men from this season sang a medley of Tom Jones songs, of course with Tom. The medley consisted of “Kiss” / “She’s A Lady” / “Whats New, Pussycat?” / “Green, Green Grass of Home” / “L ove Me Tonight” / “Delilah” and “It’s Not Unusual.”

Finally they also showed us a flashback of all 3 judges, showing Randy as the hopeful one, Jennifer as the nice one, and Steven as the ruthless one. All three clips were funny, but they were not the reason why we were watching. After the 2 hours ended, Ryan was ready to announce the winner. Everybody knew it was going to be Lauren, since that is what the show wanted. Yet we were all wrong; Scotty won the title! I am thrilled for him and Lauren both. She will also do extremely well, as I doubt this will hinder her career at all.

Who do you think should have won? Are you glad that Scotty won? Or were you hoping for Lauren to win? Do you hope that they will change the way the show works next season? I am not sure; I do think they need more saves than they have. But other than that I am pretty happy with how it ended.