American Idol Season 10 Recap: Other Highlights

If you haven't read Parts 1 and 2, here are the links: PART 1 - Season Summary | PART 2 - Finale Retro-Diary

To commemorate this year’s outstanding comeback, here are some other highlights

Top 25 Performances of the Season (Note: There are slight adjustments from the one that I blogged about Haley’s best songs of the season)

25. Lauren Alaina - Anyway
24. Lauren Alaina - Turn On The Radio
23. Casey Abrams - With A Little Help From My Friends
22. James Durbin - Maybe I'm Amazed
21. Stefano Langone - If You Don't Know Me By Now

20. Jacob Lusk - A House Is Not A Home
19. James Durbin - Heavy Metal
18. Scotty McCreery - She Believes In Me
17. Pia Toscano - All By Myself
16. James Durbin - While My Guitar Gently Weeps
15. Lauren Alaina - Candle In The Wind
14. Pia Toscano - Where Do Broken Hearts Go?
13. Casey Abrams - Have You Ever Seen The Rain?
12. Haley Reinhart – What Is And What Should Never Be
11. Haley Reinhart – Beautiful
10. Haley Reinhart - I (Who Have Nothing)
9. Scotty McCreery - You've Got A Friend
8. Pia Toscano - I'll Stand By You
7. Casey Abrams - I Put A Spell On You
6. Casey Abrams - Your Song
5. James Durbin - Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?
4. Haley Reinhart - Rolling In The Deep
3. Haley Reinhart/Casey Abrams - Moanin'
2. Haley Reinhart - House of the Rising Sun
1. Haley Reinhart - Bennie and The Jets

“Bennie and the Jets” has to be the Number One song because it was the game changer for Haley. She transformed from fodder to a legitimate dark horse because of this song. The final five songs were Haley heavy because she had the most amazing momentous performances. This season is rich with moments. For me, all the Top 10 performances were moments.

Most Robbed Contestant: Pia Toscano

Most Hilarious Contestant: James Durbin/Casey Abrams

Honorable Mention: Scotty McCreery

Most Likeable Contestant: Scotty McCreery

Cy Young Award: Naima Adedapo

If you didn’t get the reference: Cy Young Award is baseball’s best pitcher. Scotty pitches the ball well as shown in clips but Naima was pitchy

Best Tone: Thia Megia

Carrie Underwood Award: Pia Toscano (because she was robotic)

Best Growler: Haley Reinhart

Funniest Performance: Casey Abrams – Harder to Breathe (damn, he tanked badly on this performance)

Worst Finals Performance: Jacob Lusk – No Air

Best Costume: Paul McDonald

Worst Costume: Paul McDonald

Best Exit Performance: Haley Reinhart – Bennie and the Jets

Most Memorable Exit Performance: Casey Abrams – I Put A Spell On You

Best Theme Night: Elton John Night

Best Judge: Jimmy Iovine… wait, he’s not a judge? Then who are the judges? The ones on the panel are cheerleaders/Haley’s critics

Best Homecoming Contestant: Haley Reinhart. The producers did not focus on showing a lot of people but if you look at the numbers, Haley (30,000) had more than Lauren’s (10,000) even if you could see a throng of people on Lauren’s concert. Furthermore, Haley performed on a bad weather. That’s a good following she got considering that Lee just performed there a year ago.

Most Drugged Personality: Steven Tyler beats Haley by a hair

Bitch Queen: Haley Reinhart

Most Memorable/Funny Reaction upon getting eliminated: Haley Reinhart

Honorable Mention: Pia Toscano

Best Duet: Haley Reinhart and Casey Abrams – Moanin’

Best Dog: Casey Abrams beats Randy Jackson by a bone

Contestant Rankings

Haley and her dad performing for the Led Zeppelin cover, "What is and what should never be"

I don’t care about the results. They never fully affirm which contestants are the best. “American Idol” always has shocking eliminations and overstaying of contestants. Nevertheless, I am still penalizing the elimination shockers a bit (like Pia) because even if they have few performances, it also led to fewer bad songs. You were eliminated early for a reason – you did not resonate that well then.

1.    Haley Reinhart. This was a no-brainer. James’ tanking + Haley peaking at the right time sealed the deal.
2.    Casey Abrams. I initially planned to put James on this spot because he was the best contestant when Casey left. However, I remembered that Casey lost his luster when he sang two trainwrecks (Smells Like Teen Spirit and Harder to Breathe). If not for those songs, he was the best at the point when he was eliminated. Guess what, James tanked three times before he got the boot (Closer to the Edge, Without You, Don’t Stop Believin’)
3.    James Durbin. Yes, he tanked in the final two shows. However, he was still great for most of the year.
4.    Pia Toscano. You can’t be the show’s best contestant if you prematurely left at Top 9. It is like Kurt Cobain dying after recording half of the songs in “Nevermind.” Nevertheless, Pia was the top contestant during the time she left as she sang consistently.
5.    Scotty McCreery. Wow! Pia was better than this year’s American Idol? Yes. Scotty barely risked. He had two Top 20 performances after attempting 19 times (.105) as opposed to Pia’s 3 out of 6 tries (.500).
6.    Lauren Alaina
7.    Jacob Lusk
8.    Stefano Langone
9.    Thia Megia
10.    Paul McDonald
11.    Naima Adedapo
12.    Karen Rodriguez
13.    Ashthon Jones

In conclusion, I learned to always trust celebrities named ‘Haley.’ Paramore’s Hayley Williams is one of my most favorite vocalists even if it took me six months before I considered listening to them. I initially thought that the Haley character (played by Sarah Hyland) in “Modern Family” was meh, but she has turned out to be beautiful now (if you’re thinking ‘jailbait,’ she’s not). I once thought Haley Reinhart was an afterthought.

Things change.