Brian Melo Crowned Canadian Idol

Hello out there...if there's anyone left out there...

Sorry I let the Blog die again. But I just decided to revive it. Because I've pretty much followed Canadian Idol here on the Blog all summer long, and last night was the finale, so I thought I'd better bring it all full circle.

It seems like so, so long ago that I first started watching the auditioning process. Funny, I barely remember seeing Jaydee Bixby back then, and I have no recollection of Brian Melo at all. And yet, last night, it was the two of them, centre stage, amongst the 2-hour hoopla that saw the Top 10 perform on several occasions, along with appearances by Avril Lavigne, Bon Jovi, and last year's champ, Eva Avila.

It was a star-studded affair, as the camera was continually flitting over celeb faces in the crowd. One that they missed, but that I spotted, sitting directly behing judge Zack Warner, was last summer's winner over on Rockstar: Supernova, Lukas Rossi. Seeing Lukas smirking through the extravaganza was one of the highlights of the night for me!

I still have a bitter taste in my mouth over Greg Neufeld's long-ago elimination, and every time Greg got to sing a snippet last night, I was reminded of what a travesty it was that he was not in the Final 2 competing for the Idol crown. That being said, Brian Melo had really stepped up his game, especially since Greg's elimination, and if there was anyone in the Top 10 that deserved it as much as Greg, it was Brian.

That's not to say Jaydee wasn't talented. I've never heard a 17-year-old sing like Elvis Presley quite like he did, and everytime he performed one of the King's hits, or when he did Conway Twitty's "Only Make Believe", he gave me chills. Jaydee's old-school rockabilly style was bang-on, and he was a real crowd-pleaser. I can tell you my mom saw him do "Only Make Believe" last week, and she fell it love with him. (To be honest, when Jaydee originally did that song at the beginning of the Top 10, that's when he won me over too.)

However, going into last night's finale, there was really only one choice in my mind as to who should walk away with the honours, and that was Brian Melo. And finally, after two hours of schmoozing and a billion performances and "looks back" at the summer that was on Canadian Idol, host Ben Mulroney crowned Brian the Idol champion. It was rewarding to see Brian standing there amidst the showering confetti and hear him sing his new single "All I Ever Wanted". It restored my faith in the circus that is Idol - because a legitimate singer with a potentially-legitimate career, someone who's not going to be a flash-in-the-pan or an Elvis impersonator, walked away from this thing as the winner, and I can't wait to see where Brian goes from here.

But Greg still shoulda been there...