Millions of viewers tuned in Wednesday night to see Phillip Phillips crowned as the new American Idol. Phillips beat out his 16-year-old rival, Jessica Sanchez, for the coveted title and recording contract.
The 21-year-old Georgia boy from Leesburg impressed America with his bluesy voice and guitar skills every week. The pawn shop worker stole Tuesday night’s finale show with his final performance of “Home,” which might be Phillips’ first single. Phillips seemed to be frozen in shock when Ryan Seacrest announced him as the new American Idol, but young Jessica Sanchez excitedly hugged her competition as the other contestants from the top 24 swarmed the stage. Phillips received all the many congratulations in silence and broke down in tears as he tried to perform “Home” one more time for his many adoring fans.
Phillips’s victory over Sanchez extends the five-year streak of white male guitar players taking the American Idol title. Backstage he confessed, “I have no idea why I won, man… I’m just lucky. I was just doing my thing each week.” Sanchez appeared to be more than happy for Phillips and claims that the outcome of the competition was solely based on music. “I don’t blame it on anything. Phillip has his fans, and I have mine. We’re totally two different people. Our genres are completely different,” Sanchez told reporters. Other fans claim that Sanchez’s defeat was caused by the lack of “her” in her final performance on the show, believing that she needed a younger more high energy song to beat out Phillip’s bluesy crooning. Sanchez also confessed that she expected to be the runner up, not the victor.
“You’re gonna win this,” Sanchez told Phillips while they were on stage awaiting the results. Sanchez said that she was smiling at him the whole time, waiting for his name to be announced and waiting to give him a big hug.
Several star studded performances filled the stage, but nobody expected Ryan Seacrest to call former contestants Diana DeGarmo and Ace Young to the stage. After Seacrest called for the stage crew to “dim the lights,” Young dropped down on one knee and proposed to DeGarmo, who is from Snellville, Georgia, as tears filled her eyes. The couple has been a part of several Broadway productions together and recently even moved in together. DeGarmo looked stunning in a fitted pink dress, bobbing her head in acceptance to Young’s proposal.
