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'American Idol' Season 5: Taylor Hicks vs. Katharine McPhee
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The Season 10 premiere of "American Idol" is less than a week away and to make the days go by a bit faster, Zap2it decided to take a stroll down memory lane and re-evaluate the previous nine seasons. Each day leading up to the premiere on Wednesday, Jan. 19, we will post a retrospective on each season. We're breaking it down into four categories: Best Performance, Worst Performance, Most Underrated Idol and most Overrated Idol. At the end, we will decide how the season stacks up against the rest, rating it as great, good, or not-so-good.
We've looked back at Season 1 (yay Kelly!), Season 2 (aww, Clay and Ruben!), the black hole that was Season 3 and one of our favorite Top 2 in Season 4. Now let's get our Soul Patrol on.
Season 5 contestants in order of elimination:
Melissa McGhee
Kevin Covais
Lisa Tucker
Mandisa
Bucky Covington
Ace Young
Kellie Pickler
Paris Bennett
Chris Daughtry
Elliott Yamin
Katharine McPhee
Taylor Hicks (winner)
Best Performance: Katharine McPhee's "Over the Rainbow"
Sure, it's a cliched pick, but we thought that A) it was absolutely gorgeous and B) that Kat had the competition sewn up after she performed it. We're still surprised Taylor Hicks beat her. Nothing against Taylor Hicks, but that was a surprise.
Worst Performance: Kevin Covais, "Part-Time Lover"
This performance still gives us nightmares. We're sure Kevin is a sweet guy, but during this season, he looked like he was about 13 years old. So when he sings a song about being our secret part-time lover, we just feel icky. But to his credit, he seems to be in on the joke and that also makes it kind of awesome.
Most underrated Idol: Lisa Tucker
Does this choice surprise you? Sure, Daughtry went home early (we were hoping for a Daughtry/McPhee showdown in the finals), but Lisa Tucker had a voice far beyond her 16 years. Paris Bennett kind of stole Lisa's thunder for that demographic, but we thought Lisa sang rings around her. Just watch her audition -- her control and tone is out of this world.
Most overrated Idol: Ace Young
We thought Ace was pretty mediocre and was the start of a phenomenon where the cutest boy sticks around far long than he should because only teen girls and middle-aged women actually vote.
How this season stacks up: Good
And actually, we might upgrade that to great. We had forgotten until we started writing these reviews how strong this season was. We had the McPheever, Taylor was fun and both have put out decent albums since "Idol." Kellie Pickler and Bucky Covington have had some good country stuff and obviously Daughtry has really found his niche with his band.
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Photo/Video credit: FOX
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LISA?!?!?!?!
Did you watch any of her performances after her audition? THEY WERE AWFUL
This season also had the best finale!
This was the best for me. This i feel was the last season before the ratings dropped. after this one, i stopped watching. Something about the show changed. The nice thing about American Idol, was EVERYONE in america watched it. It was something everyone in America had in common. It brought us all together. But now, its just a ratings wannabee. Its different.
This season was very strong as shown by the post idol success by many. The top 2 Taylor and Kat have sold worse and struggled heavily compared to many of their competitors.
Probably my favorite season, the strongest field overall, and definitely the strongest final four. I cannot believe you did not even mention Elliot Yamin. His "A Song For You" was one of the best Idol performances of any season.
Mandisa has had a lot of success in the Gospel music world and I think was even nominated for a Grammy.
Mandisa has had success in the Gospel Music world and I think was nominated for a Grammy in that fiedl.
Oh man, Katharine really SUCKED BALLS during much of the season and especially the finale. Does My Destiny ring a horrndous bell for you? God, that was awful!
Taylor demolished everyone that season...and was the rightful winner!
Season 5 was the best season ever. Both Taylor & Kat were spectacular performers. For whatever reason, Kat wasn't as popular with young female fans as say Carrie Underwood. Taylor sold almost 300,000 copies of his debut album the first week it was out. Kris Allen sold 80,000 & lee DeWyze 39,000. In fact, Kris sold around 300,000 after a year -so don't try & put down Taylor, he's done really well for himself.
Why are you surprised Taylor Hicks won? He was never in the bottom 3 and had a huge fanbase that year. He was very popular and definitely deserved the title! I really love his music and how he's handled his post AI career! He was great in his Broadway run on Grease and on the road.