Reality Roundup

08:20 AM EDT on Wednesday, May 26, 2004

By BRIAN MORAN / Special to WCNC.com

North Carolina has its second contestant sitting pretty in the top two for the second year in a row. After a closing performance of an original song that blew the doors off the place, the decision comes down to voting for Fantasia Barrino or the other girl. The other girl, Diana DeGarmo, had a somewhat off night but even at her best, she never could have kept up with the dynamic North Carolina diva who doesn’t seem to be afraid of anything.

Ryan Seacrest started the night off with a laugh by sporting a new haircut in an obvious effort to alleviate some of his insecurities about his height. He was listed as 7’1 in the program due to his Kid N’ Play rip-off. I can’t help but wonder how bitter Brian Dunkleman is right now.

He’s probably even huffier then the entire state of Hawaii whose best efforts to destroy a popular television program came crashing down last week when Jasmine Trias was finally put out of her misery. Don’t worry about our 50th state, gang. When I get there on my honeymoon, I’m blasting into everyone at the airport. “Alright, who was it?!? Who voted 18 million times?!? It was you, wasn’t it?!? Get that lei out of my face!”

Ryan reports that both girls will be singing a new ditty written by none other than the most talented person to never crack the top three, Tamyra Gray. Not to fret, it sounds like she is doing ok for herself as the song had a nice hook to it and a strong close. This solidifies her as the most successful Idol contestant this year next to Mr. Hung, who we will probably be hearing about for decades. Diana sang it first and I thought she did well enough to give her a chance at the title.

Fantasia countered with her worst performance of the year. I don’t even now if I would call it a performance; it was more like gibberish over muffled music. Midway through “All My Life”, I pronounced to an empty room, “This freaking song doesn’t have any lyrics.” My fiancée now hates the show, hence the empty room. Seriously the song was not well put together. The background singers did all the singing while Fantasia adlibbed some nonsense over the inaudible orchestra. Thankfully, the judges agreed with me and blamed the disaster on the arrangement. Simon called it a complete mess which is rare for him since he started printing up Fantasia album covers three months ago.

Diana returned with a forgettable performance of “No More Tears”. I can usually write a song off as a bust when I can’t even place it. And this was a prime example of a poor song choice in my eyes.

Fantasia played the repeat performance card by bringing back her old standby: “Summertime”. Things started off well and I’m thinking, “Sweet, this song has lyrics and everything.” There is probably not a song in the world that suits Fantasia better than this one. She made it look easy and Simon who seemed panicky after he realized he may have cost her some votes with his last estimation, essentially handed her the title by proclaiming, “You are the best Idol contestant of all the 30 participating nations across the globe.” Are you kidding me? Shameless! She’s not even the best contestant to come out of North Carolina. He’s really reaching now but I don’t blame him. He still probably has a space in his financial ledger from 2002 for all the money he lost when Tamyra got the boot.

Diana tries to play a trump card with a repeat performance of her own with “Don’t Cry Out Loud”. She nailed in the first time but this rendition had her family mouthing the title to each other in consolation. You can’t hear her when she starts to sing. She’s like the anti-Clarkson. Kelly always nailed that first note and that really set her apart from Justin; that and the fact she wasn’t completely bizarre looking. As for Diana, she starts realizing it’s over as the judges dig her grave. She didn’t even verbalize the number America needed to call to cast a vote for her which has been a template that every contestant abides by, albeit an incredibly annoying one.

At this point, Fantasia could come out on a scooter and sing “She Bangs” and still take it home. But she did much more than that. She got her chance to sing Tamyra’s “I Believe” and she made it count. It was so much better than Diana’s version that I wasn’t completely sure it was the same song. She was all over the stage. She made it seem effortless. She looked confident and most importantly she looked like she was having fun. At the end, she wrapped up the title by shedding some humble tears instead of celebrating like madness which is probably what I would have done.

In the end, I’m glad to see Fantasia take it. I have not been her biggest supporter throughout but her breaking down at the end was a nice moment. The judges spoiled her early on and gave her an heir of confidence that I just didn’t care for. In the end, I guess they were right. It was clear that she was probably the most talented throughout as she turned Diana into the other girl.

Now if Diana somehow pulls a Buster Douglass and comes out victorious tomorrow, I’m banging out 6,000 words in an hour on the fallen empire of America Idol. As for AI, I really think you need to take a couple of years off. Come back with a few new devices. As much as I hate to say it, it might be time for some new judges. One thing that absolutely has to happen is the voting process needs to be changed so that the American public votes for the person they wanted booted instead of the person they want to stay. That would limit the ability of Hawaii to stuff the ballots for their local heroes.

Don’t give up just yet AI. We’re not buying the whole “best AI ever” routine your employees are spewing all over our living rooms. It was the worst one yet, we all know this. But it’s an idea that has a future. You just need a tweak here and a brilliant idea there.

Until then, congratulations Fantasia. Keep your head up but not too high. Try to stay humble. It’s your best side so show it more often. And come back to the Carolinas once in a while, even if it’s only in your mind.

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Brian Moran is a freelance writer for WCNC.com. Click here to send him an email. For more Reality TV stories click here.