by Tolu Orekoya

There is a joke going around that lately on American Idol, only cute ‘white guys with guitars’ (WGWG) win the show. This season did not try to prove them wrong as yet another WGWG has won American Idol, for the fifth year running. The voting for the finale was outrageously massive, and this 11th season of the show set another record with 132 million votes cast to decide the winner.

At the end it was Georgia native and pawnbroker’s son Phillip Phillips, a charming 21-year-old that edged out the incredibly talented 16-year-old Filipino/Mexican/American Jessica Sanchez to win the coveted prize. It was somewhat of an upset as most expected the pint-sized Jessica to win the show, after an incredible run of performances. And many have said that young teenage girls have too big of a hold on the voting process, eliminating solid contestants (usually female and older) in favour of keeping ‘cute boys’.

Phillip has had some incredible performances one of which is this chilled, laid back rendition of R&B singer Usher’s ‘U Got it Bad’:

And one of his strongest cover’s was of the song ‘Volcano’, originally by Damien Rice:

On finale night however, Jessica Sanchez just might have clinched the title if the ‘And I am Telling you’ duet Jennifer Holliday with below had been performed the night before. It is amazing.