The American Idol results are in, and the final two that everyone was waiting for has finally arrived.
All season, it appeared that Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene stood head and shoulder above the competition, and to many it seemed inevitable that the two would end up as finalists. But American Idol has been known to surprise before, so it was not until Thursday’s results show that fans found out if the scenario would play out.
[WARNING: Spoilers ahead]
The American Idol results showed that the hype was for a good reason, and the the finalists vying for the title would be Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene. Alex Preston saw his American Idol dream come to an end.
This week’s performances were quite the hurdle for Caleb Johnson, who lost his voice after making a hometown visit to Asheville, North Carolina. Viewers on Wednesday’s episode of American Idol were told that Johnson had a bruised vocal chord and wasn’t able to practice at all during rehearsal.
But Caleb was still able to wow the American Idol crowd with his final song, Led Zepplin’s “Dazed and Confused,” which judge Jennifer Lopez called “a true Idol moment.”
“You on your worst night are better than (some) people on their best night,” Lopez told Johnson.
Judge Keith Urban also praised Caleb Johnson for turning in such great performances despite his vocal setback.
“You’re doing such a great job working through that,” Urban said.
Jena Irene also stood out with her performance of Demi Lovato’s “Heart Attack” and a version of Radiohead’s “Creep” to end the night. Lopez, who the week before came onto the stage to embrace Irene after a performance, declared Jena a frontrunner to win the show after the final performance on Wednesday.
“I just feel like you’re going to be so hard to beat,” Lopez said.
Alex Preston seemed to enter the final performances with a note of resignation, mentioning before his final song that it could be his last time performing on the show. It turned out his premonition would be correct, but he still turned in a strong performance, singing Bastille’s “Pompeii” and turning in a surprisingly good rendition of Rihanna’s “Stay.”
With Thursday’s American Idol results, the finalists Caleb Johnson and Jena Irene will now have one more week to win over American voters.