'American Idol' 2013 Finale LIVE BLOG Coverage - WINNER IS CANDICE GLOVER, Performers, Highlights
Candice Glover, a 23-year-old singer from St. Helena Island, North Carolina, was crowned the winner of American Idol Season 12 Thursday night at the end of a two-hour telecast that featured performances by Psy, Mariah Carey, Jennifer Lopez and Jennifer Hudson.
Read below the Live Coverage as it happened:
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WINNER ANNOUNCED: AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 12 IDOL IS CANDICE GLOVER!
"I can't even... Oh my God three years.." she says in tears. Tons of confetti on the Idol stage, her family is celebrating and all the Idol contestants storm the stage to hug her.
Candice takes the microphone for the last time and performs her new single "You are Beautiful."
Update (10:01 p.m.) Finally the moment fans have been waiting for: The Winner of American Idol 2013 is about to be revealed, this year's winner is...
The envelope is brought to Seacrest...
And the WINNER OF AMERICAN IDOL SEASON 12 IS...
Update (9:57 p.m.) Not yet. There is one more performance. A duet by the two finalists Candice and Kree take the stage for the last time. The two singers are dressed in elegant black gowns. Who is going to win tonight?
Update (9:55 p.m.) The show is not back yet.
Update (9:53 p.m.) Commercial Break and Ryan Seacrest says that when they are back the winner will be announced.
Update (9:48 p.m.) Jennifer Lopez takes the stage with Pitbull to perform their hit Live it Up.
J.Lo looks sexy wearing a white body suit with golden boots.
Update (9:43 p.m.) Seacrest is announcing that Candice and Kree are getting a Ford Escape each.
Producers are showing tapes with highlights of people who auditioned for Season 12 with Phillip Phillips' hit Gone Gone Gone playing on the back.
Update (9:32 p.m.) Aretha Franklin is on the show featured from New York City. The legendary singer is congratulating Candice Glover and Kree Harrison for making it this far into the competition and wishes them success.
The Top 5 girls are singing along with Aretha her hit songs including You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman, Respect and Think.
Commercial Break.
Update (8:41 p.m.) Seacrest introduces a clip with a look at the "Idol" favorite Ford Fiesta "missions" of the season. Candice says her favorite Fiesta mission was when they played soccer and Kree says that her favorite "mission" was visiting the children's hospital. The singer's mentors (Candice's grandmother and a male friend of Kree) are presented with two new Ford cars and they look very happy.
Update (8:37 p.m.) Top 4 Finalist Amber Holcomb is taking the stage with Emily Sande to perform the singer's hit Next to Me.
Update (8:28 p.m.) Mariah Carey is performing short versions of her hits including her latest one Beautiful, in a stunning strapless floor length gown.
Update (8:17 p.m.): The Top 5 male singers of Season 12 perform with Frankie Valli his famous hit I Love You Baby and Grease is the Word.
(Judge Urban is dancing on his chair and seems delighted at Valley's performance.)
Update (8:14 p.m.): Producers are showing a segment with all the guys from Season 12 talking about been defeated by the girls and joke of it being a "conspiracy." At the end of the segment, Jordin Sparks (The last female singer to win the American Idol in 2007) appears to the guys. They ask her why she thinks no guys remain in the competition.
"It was actually pretty easy. None of you guys play guitar," Sparks replies.
Update (8:09 p.m.) The Band Perry is performing with Idol finalist Janelle Arthur.
Update (8:01 p.m.): The finale opened with a performance by all Season 12 contestants of Glad you Came by The Wanted. All the singers are wearing white clothes. .
Judges Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban arrived and Ryan Seacrest introduced the two finalists Candice Glover and Kree Harrison.
"Did you guys sleep at all last night" Seacrest asks the finalists. Glover says five hours and Harrison replies "same."
Seacrest says Psy and Carey will be performing today.
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It's been since 2007 that a female singer hasn't won the American Idol title. Finally this year on American Idol Season 12 there are two female performers competing for the crown: Candice Glover and Kree Harrison. The 2013 winner will finally be announced Thursday night in a two-hour finale that kicks off at 8 p.m. EST and will feature performances by Psy and Mariah Carey.
Enstars will be live blogging the event and keep readers updated through out the night for the moment when the winner will be announced at 10 p.m. EST at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.
The Top 2 Candice Glover and Kree Harrison, performed three songs each last night. A pick from show creator Simon Fuller, the Best Performance song of the season and a song that they would release if they win the competition.
Fuller's pick for Glover was Chasing Pavements, the coronation single she performed was titled I Am Beautiful and she sang I Who Have Nothing, a song reprised from earlier in the season.
Glover's performance of I Who Have Nothing led the show's judge Keith Urban to call her a "powerhouse singer" and said her performance was like a "planet exploding."
Nicki Minaj told her, "what comes across from you is superstar, you command the stage...you always walk on there and own it immediately. Salute!"
"Everybody knows that that girl can plum flat-out sing! This is how you do it!" yelled Randy Jackson.
"What you have is the innate ability to take any song and turn into a vehicle for that amazing voice that nobody can deny," Mariah Carey told Glover. "Your talent surpasses what even I could have ever imagined I would see here," Carey continued, adding, "I know I'm going to be listening to you for years to come."