FoxLadies and gentlemen, one of the following two singers will be your final American Idol—and you should not be mad about this one bit. The first half of the Idol series finale saw the field narrowed from three singers to two, then saw those remaining two finalists pretty much crush each of their performances.
Spoilers, obviously, but: The two young musicians competing to become American Idol's 15th and final winner are La'Porsha Renae and Trent Harmon. Here's how the episode went down.
We started with a brief top three performance, which was really lovely, especially considering we didn't really get any of Idol's trademark group numbers this season (the finalists would just occasionally join in with the guest performers).
Then, La'Porsha, Trent and Dalton Rapattoni sang their potential coronation singles. For the first time, all three songs were jams. (Remember when Phillip Phillips got "Home" and Jessica Sanchez was cursed with…whatever that forgettable song was? That totally didn't happen this time.) Trent's "Falling" was a sexy R&B jam, Dalton's "Strike a Match" was a synthy, dancey song and La'Porsha's "Battles" was a strong, upbeat anthem. The singles really suited the artists.
After, Kieran dimmed the lights and Dalton was sent home—but not before being a truly gracious second runner-up and seeming genuinely happy for his competitors as he tearfully watched his exit package.
Then came creator Simon Fuller's choice. While in past years his selections have occasionally seemed a little stale, this year his old school picks were welcome—because the singers weren't stuck with cheesy old-fashioned themes at all, they hadn't really tackled classics like these.
Trent's "If You Don't Know Me By Now" and "La'Porsha's "A House Is Not a Home" were both beautiful—as were their reprises of some of their best performances in the third round. Interestingly, they both chose to re-do songs written by Sia: Trent picked "Chandelier" and La'Porsha picked her Kelly Clarkson-endorsed version of Rihanna's "Diamonds."
While they both received wild cheers and standing ovations, the crowd chanted "La-Por-Sha" after the single mom's performance, bringing her to tears.
The judges had nothing but great feedback for both singers, who sweetly hugged before Ryan Seacrest gave us one last "Seacrest out."
Honestly, this competition is as even as it gets, and either finalist would make a great bookend to Clarkson. What did you think of the final two, and who are you rooting for? Vote in our poll and leave your thoughts in the comments!
The winner will be crowned during tomorrow's two-hour American Idol series finale beginning at 8 p.m. on Fox.