Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine American Idol

I had to place multiple votes for Diana. I'm sorry but Fantasia's voice just grinds on me now. It is NOT original nor does it sounds good. Everything she sings, to me, sounds like a Weird Al parody. Like she isn't serious. It is not a voice that will last.

Wow ...
I'm glad to see somebody else actually think of Nell Carter!! For some reason, I never really thought of her sounding like Nell Carter until Fantasia did the final number last night. Then it just sorta struck me. And I happened to love Nell's voice. :-)

I'm thinking both Diana and Fantasia should both be proud. Heck, I'll pick up the debut album from both of 'em. :-D

American idol shows here a couple of days after it does in the US (the final and the results are both this Friday night. And I'm gonna miss them because I'll be in Bristol. Argh! Chris has promised to video them though).

Personally I'm a huge Fantasia fan. Fabulous voice, great personality and completely owns the stage.

However... Diana has grown on me immensly over the last few shows. Her performace of 'Don't Cry Out Loud' (one of the best sings ever) was just astounding, and she was by far and away the best on the disco night (her rendition of 'No More Tears' or whatever it's called made me majorly goose-bumply). She just needs that little bit extra training and she's going to be amazing. Technically she's a bit wobbly in places but her voice is excellent and again she just owns the stage. That's where Latoya lost out, she was a great singer but didn't seem to have any personality or conection with the audience.

I did like Jasmine as well but no way did she deserve to be in the final three. My final three would have been Jennifer (why, *why* did she go so early? She was just coming into her own.), Diana and Fantasia. Diana for 'Don't Cry Out Loud' and 'No More Tears', Jennifer for just being fabulous and Fantasia for being fabulous but also for 'What Are You Doing For The Rest Of Your Life?' which i thought was just amazing.

Umm... so go on, spoil me (if you've had the results), who won? I wanna know. Actually I'll be happy either way, but I think Fantasia just pips it for me if only for the fact that she has the *best* name ever.

Oh, and one final thing. Ryan Seacrest sucks arse, Paula and Randy are complete bobbins and the UK judges and presenters (Ant & Dec, yay!) are a million times better but the actual quality of the singers on the US version is so much higher than it is here in the UK.

Jeepers, Bev, I think Ryan's a total hottie!

The results won't be on until tonight but I'm sure there'll be several of us posting here about it afterwards!

I missed the performances, so I'll have to hear them online, later. My family was *supposed* to tape the show for me last night. ~grumble,grumble~

I'll miss the results show tonight. My family's *supposed* to tape it for me..

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention that I've had Tamyra's song, "Raindrops will Fall" stuck in my head for DAYS now. I'll probably be buying her cd. The AI machine chugs along....

I just listened to both Diana's and Fantasia's versions of "I Believe." What a number! I do prefer Fantasia's. We'll see what happens....

Right now, I'm listening to audio from previous seasons of AI. Well, my favorites are Kelly, Tamyra, Clay, Ruben, Kimberly Locke, LaToya and Fantasia. This show has provided great entertainment for YEARS now. NO ONE (critics) can deny that.

CONGRATS to the new AMERICAN IDOL:

FANTASIA BARRINO!!!!

And Congrats to Diana DeGarmo also; her future in the biz is assured and she has won millions of fans!

MAN, how I've loved this show....

Can't wait for the next season!

My wonderful family taped the show for me, so I got to see it, and with the benefit of fast forwarding through the commercials! Fantasia was just adorable and lovable during her final performance. The woman is a star. I couldn't help but notice Kelly and Tamyra watching and admiring her. Kelly has been there and Tamyra co wrote "I Believe" so they both are close to the event. It was great to hear Kelly sing. Nice to see Ruben. I love American Idol.

You heard it here first -- next season's Jasmine is going to come from Anchorage, Alaska!

One thing I wondered about last night -- they didn't announce how many votes each finalist got, or how close the vote was.

In season one, I believe they announced the winner, "by a margin of _____ votes to _____ votes." And in season two, Ryan mentioned several times how close the vote was, even specifying (erroneously once or twice, I believe) the difference in votes.

They may have opted not to do it this time around because:

1) The vote wasn't that close at all, and they didn't want to make Diana or her supporters feel bad (or jeopardize her career).

2) The vote was extremely close, and they didn't want Diana's supporters complaining about voting improprieties, not being able to get through, etc. (as happened last time with Clay).

Of course, there could be any number of reasons why it wasn't announced, but these two don't seem unreasonable.

What I saw last night was an utter lack of respect for Diana so I think it was #2. It seemed to me the remotes for they did for Fantasia were far more geared to them knowing she was the winner. And I just got the general feeling that they tried to show her in a better light than Diana all night.

I actually got sick of the garbage (and quite bad singing, IMO) that was going on and turned it off long before the announcement. I watched some old That 70's Show I still had TiVo'd but not watched. Then I went back and fast-forwarded to the inevitable announcement of Fantasia's win. Then I deleted it and played City of Heroes for a few hours. I feel I would have had a better night had I just never turned on the TV to begin with.

I'll be the first to admit that I really did like Fantasia at the beginning (go back and see some of my earlier posts) but she was/is just one of those talents that wears thin very quickly. Mention has been made about how much she is like Macy Grey. Well, like Macy, Fantasia will burn out and fade away quickly. In fact I don't think there has been an Idol discovered yet that will have any kind of staying power. We, as fans, may give careers to the oddest, least talented people (Brittney, Jessica, et al) but we didn't have those people force fed to us 90 seconds at a time on national television.

A true Idol contest would have the contestants singing full versions of the song, not snippets. Test their stamina. I've heard longer commercials that will stay with me longer than most of Idol's performances. Maybe this season just made me more cynical. I don't see any lasting impression and hope the fad fades soon.

On the other hand, I do wish Diana the best of luck and hope that she will give thought to finishing her childhood before taking off to persue a career. Losing may be best for her as she now has a chance to be normal. Or as normal as her contract with the show will allow.

Stu, I've got the show on tape. Ryan DID say one time that the vote was "extrememly close", but no margin was revealed.

Scott, you sound like you're taking this too hard! Diana is having the childhood she WANTS to have, I believe, and best of luck to the little cutie. She IS a star and is this year's Clay Aiken!

I was excited to hear where the auditions will take place next year, including New Orleans, St. Louis and Alaska! My prediction for next year: The 2005 AMERICAN IDOL will come from the NEW ORLEANS audition!

I have to disagree with Scott about this lack of respect shown to Diana. On the contrary, I thought they were very fair about showing her family members and her home stadium fans. She was involved in plenty of the performances. Ryan made several comments like how the final two are so "equally matched" and had tremendous support bases. How they were the top two out of 70,000. He gave her lots of time after the announcement, acknowledging her as the "first runner up." I don't believe Justin Guarini and Clay Aiken got as much acknowlegement when they came in second. Diana was given a chance to say something. She was a trooper, too. Very supportive of Fantasia. The judges were clearly letting both girls know that they'd be stars, ready now to get on with their careers.

I'm sorry that you didn't find the show very entertaining, Scott. I guess I'm just responding to your comments because I found the show VERY entertaining. I loved "Impossible Dream" with Diana, Fantasia, Kelly and Ruben. I did NOT like Tamyra's National Anthem. Shaky. I wasn't really digging the Top 12 production number until Jennifer got the Barry Manilow Diva Fest going. She was good, then LaToya made it better, then Fantasia made it GREAT and brought it home. I liked Kelly's and Ruben's songs. (Kelly's dress wasn't very flattering.) I liked the "Knew You Were Waiting" duet by Diana and Fantasia. I liked the solo performances. Diana does "I Believe" very well, but the emotion Fantasia puts into it (especially after winning) is incomparable.

Yeah, had a great time with AI3!

Me too, Dean!

Though I love Diana, I thought 'Tasia's version of "I Believe" was better. I was feelin' it.

I also quite liked that "Beautiful Disaster" song by Kelly Clarkson. Is that an original song? Nice lyrics and a pretty, sad melody...

I DO NOT KNOW HOW I will make it until JANUARY! ARRRGH!!

Ah, I see. I missed the first half of the program because I was watching the season finale of Enterprise, and after that I was just flipping channels until the last twenty minutes, so I'm sure I missed it when Ryan said that. It's still interesting that they decided not to provide actual figures this time around.

I generally agree with Scott, although maybe a tad less strongly.

I thought there were a few times when Fantasia gave a less-than-stellar performance during the competition, and basically got a free pass from the judges.

What I took issue with was not the fact that the judges liked Fantasia and praised her -- because they're obviously entitled to their opinion, and providing that opinion is their job. What I found objectionable was the fact that it seemed that they (especially Simon) had made up their minds that Fantasia should be the winner on day one, no matter how good anyone else turned out to be over the course of the competition.

Nobody likes being told that their opinion is less valid than another person's opinion. And toward the end, a lot of folks (judging by stuff that's been posted to AI message boards I lurk at) were starting to feel like the show and the media were promoting Fantasia a bit too heavy-handedly. Even normally even-handed media outlets were characterizing Fantasia as being "far more talented than Diana," as though talent were something that could be assessed objectively, like height.

I think both finalists are talented. But I do think that Diana will grow a lot more in the future than Fantasia will. I suppose we'll see...

According to an AI message board, you can hear Diana and Fantasia perform "I Believe" simultaneously at www.aibyrequest.com -- apparently Diana comes out of one speaker, and Fantasia out of the other.

I haven't tried it myself yet...

Well, since I've missed this whole conversation...

Guys, THANKS for supporting Diana. I knew when she hit that sour note on Tuesday night that she was going to be #2, but honestly, I couldn't be happier. Fantasia was wonderful throughout the entire competiton, and I think deservedly won the contest. I got a bit tired of the judges pimping her like everyone else too, but even so, she deserved to win.

Oh, and this life is exactly what Di wants. Believe me, she's going into this thing with both eyes wide open.

Bottom line: Fantasia made a better winner on Wednesday night, what with all the emotion and love... AND, honestly, Diana made a better runner-up. When she spoke, she was so honest and open with her emotions. I think coming in second allowed the country to see what a great girl she is.

I couldn't be happier with the results, and I can't wait to buy my little cousin's first CD! (I could get it for free, but I'll buy one to support her!)

KP, you've made a terrific statement. I hope you could see that I have tried to put across that same sentiment. I am always impressed by people who show class in situations like this and especially from someone so young, like Diana.

The only addition I'd like to make to all the comments about how the judges seemed to pick Fantasia from the beginning is this... they really do make a lot of positive statements to other contestants, too. How many times did Simon say he thought LaToya was the best singer there? How did that make Fantasia feel? The judges loved how different John Stevens was, even though his performances weren't very strong. Last year, when it was down to the top three: everybody felt like it was Clay vs Ruben, but it was the judges who said, hey, look out for Kimberly Locke, she's not out of this (though it did turn out that way...). The judges were surprised when LaToya and Fantasia were in the bottom 3 that one week, but they did acknowledge the fact that Diana and Jasmine had strong, worthy performances.

I can't wait to see what happens with everybody. There's enough room for all of them to put out and album and give it a shot!

Lash, yes, Beautiful Disaster is an original song from Kelly's album. It's got full instrumentation on the album, but I agree that the simple piano arrangement was really nice. I love Kelly Clarkson's voice.

Hmm. I very well might have to purchase Kelly's cd now; I already liked "A Moment Like This" and "Miss Independent" has grown on me. "Beautiful Disaster" is enough to put me over the edge and get me buying!

PS/ I heard from a friend that the vote was 51%/49% in 'Tasia's favor; don't know where he got the info though.

I can corroborate the 1% vote spread. It really was pretty close.

I listened to the "side by side" version of I Believe. It's really cool that way. Both girls sing the song very well, and although it's quite similar most of the time, they each give it their own bit of flavor in small ways. I like each version individually, but somehow, listening to them both at once makes the song even better! Gotta love the internet!