American Idol Finale

Here’s the play by play of the American Idol finale through my eyes and ears: It was an incredible night of music. I loved Melinda Doolittle singing with BeBe and Cece Winans on "Hold Up The Light." She did a great job filling in for Whitney Houston. The top 6 guys sang a tribute to Smokey Robinson kicking off with a song arranged by Take 6, featuring the gospel group’s unmistakably tight harmonies. Chris Sligh really sounded right on. I’ve been following Chris’s blog lately. He is a worship leader at Seacoast Church in Greenville and has a passion for Jesus Christ. AI had, in my opinion, the ultimate soul songstress, Gladys Knight, who came out with a gospel song, which was followed by one of my favorite songs of all time, "Midnight Train to Georgia." (I loved it when the girls did the train motion as they sang "Whoo Whoo.")

The bad: Tony Bennett and Bette Midler. I am so thankful for TiVO!

And the winner is: 17 year-old Jordin Sparks. Jordin closed out the night with her first single "This Is My Now" which was chosen by a national competition this year. The winning song was written by Christian singer/songwriter Scott Krippayne. Jordin has sung bgv’s with Michael W. Smith for a couple of his Christmas tours and came in second in 2004 at Music in the Rockies (which was founded by Cam Floria, if that name sounds familiar to you, think "Bram" Floria and you’ll get the Connection connection). I’m excited about her winning because she has an awesome platform to be a roaring lamb in our culture. Let’s pray that she will make wise decisions and keep her focus on Jesus as her career takes off. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer, or more gifted, girl.