American Idol has deemed its top 2 after months of competition. Tonight (May 15), it was deemed that Jena Irene and Caleb Johnson will compete for the title of the next big music superstar.
This week's results show of American Idol, which was back to a one-hour length, was all about family. Ryan Seacrest started this trend off from the start by bringing out his ADORABLE NEW PUPPY Georgia. She had the cutest wittle faaaace.
Before delving into the hometown visits, Top 3 finalists Alex Preston, Jena Irene and Caleb Johnson revealed their possible coronation songs, "Fairytales," "We Are One" and "As Long As You Love Me" (respectively), all while driving Fords, of course.
Jena was the first to go home for a visit, returning to her Michigan hometown. She was greeted by her family at the airport and two little dumpling dogs before doing a shift at work because... why not? As always with these yearly home visits, the whole town comes out for a Jena Irene concert and she performs for her senior class at high school.
No one in high school liked me that much...
It was then revealed that, shocker, Jena will be performing with Paramore during next week's finale.
Then, Idol got a little bit of a throwback with a performance from season 10 winner Scotty McCreery, who played his party-friendly anthem "Feelin' It." I was feelin' it! It's always a weird thing to see such a seasoned Idol alum perform on the stage, when the new crop of talent is still perfecting their artistry. Though none of this season's finalist have a country lean, they could certainly learn a thing or two from ol' Scotty.
Then, we saw a peek into Alex's home life in New Hampshire where he performed a jam session, had an entire day in the state named after him and met up with his old high school bandmates.
Ryan Seacrest then revealed that Alex will be tackling the finale alongside his friend and total musical twin, Jason Mraz.
Finally, it was time for Caleb to return to Asheville, North Carolina, where he visited a rock day camp, ate some biscuits and gravy, and once again, rocked out in front of a massive hometown crowd.
The best part of Idol is those unscripted family moments, ya know? And when Seacrest announced that Caleb will be performing with KISS, his little brother (who's actually quite a big brother...) freaked out and jumped around, totally losing his s--t.
It's good to be an American Idol.
After all the celebration on American Idol's 501st episode, it wa time to get down to business... elimination time. The remaining three contestants huddled together as Seacrest announced, well, the inevitable.
Jena Irene was, unsurprisingly, the first to be called as a top 2 contestant. After performing consistently throughout the season, appearing in the bottom three only during the first live show, she was far and away a fan favorite. That, combined with her undeniably strong voice and stage presence made her a sure thing. Plus, her "Creep" is always creeping and haunting, in all the right places and she closed out last night's episode with that song.
So, it was down to the two guys, Alex and Caleb. The hugged, exchanged love with each other... and then Caleb was called as a finalist, sending Alex home.
Though he won't get to perform "Fairytales" for the win next week, Alex took on the bluesy anthem with a really solid performance. It's almost a shame that he won't get to sing for the win. Though Alex has been shaky the last few weeks, he's really a strong artist... just not as strong as Caleb and Jena in the eyes of America.
Those two will sing for the win next week, when the 13th lucky American Idol will be crowned.
