Philip Phillips wins 'American Idol' (Season 11)

Wall Street Journal ^ | 05/23/2012 | By Stephanie Krikorian

[SeekAndFind]

This year’s “American Idol” is Phillip Phillips, the 20-year old from Leesburg, Georgia, who seemed to have had a lock on the title at, well, hello.

He’s been compared to Dave Matthews and some critics have said he had the advantage of a female-voting-base, but his performance of “We’ve Got Tonight” last week, and “Home” last night proved his voice and talent as an artist might have a little something to do with it as well.

It was a star-studded and sequin-heavy finale at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles with performances by Rihanna, Jennifer Lopez, John Fogerty, Chaka Khan and Reba McEntire. There was an amazing duet between Jessica Sanchez and Jennifer Holliday. But the highlight of the evening, the performance fans have waited for for two years, was Aerosmith, singing “Legendary Child” and “Walk This Way.” Even Ryan Seacrest seemed giddy.

[trebb]

I loved the fact that he wrote and sang his own stuff for the finale. His genuine humility moved me to tears..I think he was the right choice. I will buy his first CD on principal.

Same here Gunny - he's an actual artist which can transcend better vocal abilities. He obviously wanted to win, but you could tell it wasn't as important to him as the others - he pulled it off and accepted rather than clawing and gloating - class act.

[commish]

Glad to see Phillip win as I much prefer the artist/stylist he is over the dime a dozen screaming Diva types.

I do admit though that I thought Joshua was going to win all along and was surprised to see him miss the final.

But, I will make a prediction right now — while Phillip will probably be very successful in his little Niche, and both Jessica and Joshua will also probably have good careers -— The one who I think will end up having the biggest career Album Sales wise out of the entire group is Skylar Laine.

She went note for note with Reba last night, and has showed that she has the chops and uniqueness to be a country force for a long time.

I expect her to join Carrie Underwood, Kellie Pickler, Scottie McCreery, Lauren Alaina, etc. in the long line of successful country Idol Alumni. Heck, even Kelly Clarkson had a decent foray into the Country scene a couple years back.

[fabian]

yes..it was a turn off!

[Manic_Episode]

When I heard PPs version of Thriller at his audition I told my wife this guy will win. True artist. His song Home was Dylanlike.

[mupcat]

Hi pajones, Yes, and especially when it’s so easily avoidable by using a headline like “American Idol Winner—Spoiler”. Then if you want to click it fine, but for many of us who don’t see it live, we can avoid the announcement.

[mupcat]

Hi RummyChick, Thanks, actually I did, but almost didn't. It was really the principle of it that bothered me since posting the headline as "American Idol Winner--Spoiler" would have worked great giving us in the west the option of knowing or not.

That was an amazing show, and they certainly pulled out all the stops. I really didn't care which one won only because they both were so good. Hope he gets well enough to enjoy his success.

[Beatthedrum]

They hooked him up with Brad Paisley for his first tour, one of the major acts in the business. The fan base AI created for the winners will always produce good sales on the first project. The country acts that come from Idol always get plugged straight into the country mainline. Acts like David Cook and Chris Allen have no industry mainline to plug into.

He still sucks and will be gone in under 3 years.