Clark Beckham and Nick Fradiani will find out who wins American Idol tonight. (FOX Photo)
Over the course of Season 14, he delivered more memorable moments than Nick Fradiani and he took far more musical risks than his older counterpart.
And he certainly can help that Simon Fuller picked a better song for Nick than for him in Tuesday’s finale. Or that Idol served up a far better coronation song for Nick (“Beautiful Life”) than for Clark (“Champion”).
Little wonder Clark called “George On My Mind” his favorite performance from Tuesday. Probably not the correct thing to say after you’ve just performed your first single. Just Clark being honest about his artistic tastes.
But all that said, I’m not the best picker of Idol winners. I would have given Season 8 to Adam Lambert, Season 9 to Crystal Bowersox, Season 10 to Haley Reinhart (still the best Cinderella contestant EVER), Season 11 to Jessica Sanchez, Season 12 to Angie Miller and Season 13 to Jena Irene.
So when I wrote that Jax should win Season 14, I knew she was doomed. But I really didn’t think the most talented and creative of the final three wouldn’t even make the finale.
Who do others think will win the Idol crown tonight? Let’s take a look:
TV Line (Michael Slezak): Says the finale belonged to “Nick — a guy who rarely misfired, perhaps because he rarely stepped outside his safety zone — who carpe diem-ed the bejeezus out of the hour, capping things off with a perfectly tailored original track that might give Phillip Phillips’ “Home” a run for Coronation Single Most Likely to Bombard Your Ears For the Next 18 Months.”
Buddy TV: Predicts a Clark win, because singers from the Midwest and South who make the finals always win.
MJsBigBlog: Supports Nick Fradiani, saying he has the best chance at post-show success and he’s the contestant Idol mentor Scott Borchetta is clearly pulling for.
Newsday: Says Nick will win, summing it up this way: “Clark is the better singer, but he may not be the better ‘Idol’ personality. Nick must be a super-nice guy in real life (or Clark must be truly awful) to sway the judges so intensely to his side. What the judges feel, their audience will likely feel as well.”
Yahoo Music: Says Keith Urban probably got it right when he picked Nick as the winner, but adds “I’m secretly, or I guess not-so-secretly, rooting for Clark by default now. He seems like more of a real artist to me.”
