Idol Chatter & Voice Views

American Idol’s Top 3, Trent Harmon, La’Porsha Renae and Dalton Rapattoni. (FOX Photo)

On Thursday night, for one last time, Ryan Seacrest will shout, “Dim the lights. Here we go.”

And then he’ll announce the final winner of American Idol.

That means it’s time to rank those finalists.

One last time.

As always, last week’s rankings are in parenthesis.

1. La’Porsha Renae (1): She was a favorite the moment she stepped into the audition room and wowed the judges with her rendition of Radiohead’s “Creep.” On Top 10 week, Kelly Clarkson, the original Idol, told La’Porsha: “You’re gonna win. If you don’t win, I don’t understand.” Well, the race for the Season 15 crown has tightened since then. But this hasn’t changed: La’Porsha still delivers a superb, passion-filled vocal every single time she performs. She’s delivered more moments or near moments than any Season 15 contestant. She deserves to win. But will she? Remember, just a week ago, she was in the bottom two with MacKenzie Bourg.

2. Trent Harmon (2): Thank you, Trent, for turning Season 15 into a competition. In fact, that Trent Harmon-La’Porsha Renae duet from Top 8 weeks seems prophetic now. That night, Trent compared La’Porsha’s voice to “the power of a thousand suns,” then held his own with her on a cover of “See You Again.” Five weeks later, they deserve to be standing together on the stage again, this time taking turns performing for the Season 15 crown. Trent hasn’t been as consistently brilliant as La’Porsha over the course of the entire season, but he’s matched her note for note for at least the past two weeks.

3. Dalton Rapattoni (4): And then there’s Dalton, with his boy band background, blond hair, blue eyes and eyeliner. Stage presence is his forte, though while La’Porsha and Trent get lost in the moment, everything Dalton does seems pre-planned, like that odd zombie walk to the stage at the beginning of last week’s cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World.” Harry Connick Jr. said it best last week: Dalton’s a good singer locked in a competition against great singers. He’s also been wildly inconsistent.

See also …
Dalton Rapattoni’s American Idol performances
La’Porsha Renae’s American Idol performances
Trent Harmon’s American Idol performances
Ranking the 11 judges of American Idol
Ranking 14 years of contestants on American Idol
A look back at American Idol’s winning moments