Idol Chatter & Voice Views

Chayce Beckham, Willie Spence and Grace Kinstler will compete for the American Idol Season 19 crown Sunday night.

A special three-hour finale set to begin at 8 p.m. eastern standard times will feature more performances from the Top 3 and celebrity duets with Season 19 cast members.

Luke Combs will be on hand to sing with Chayce. Leona Lewis will duet with Willie Spence. And Alessia Cara will sing with Grace.

Here are the final American Idol rankings for Season 19.

As always, the number in parenthesis is where the singer was ranked last week.

1. Chayce Beckham (1): For most of the season, I’ve felt Chayce would win Season 19. Not only is he talented, he’s a white guy who plays guitar on a show where artists matching that description have prevailed in nine of the past 12 seasons. After last week, I’m convinced Chayce should win Season 19. Why? Two weeks ago, he performed a brilliant original he wrote for his Mother’s Day dedication. Last week, he served up another original he wrote called “23.” The song rocketed to number one on the Apple Music Top 200 and was still embedded in the number one spot on the site’s county singles chart as of Thursday afternoon.

2. Willie Spence (3): Willie was positively lights out vocally last week. He took the stage three times and I gave him an A- or better on all three occasions. He was especially effective singing “Glory” by John Legend and Common as his idol dedication. He’s not very versatile, but on nights when Willie sounds like that, who cares?

3. Grace Kinstler (2): After a stellar string of performances over the past month, Grace stumbled a bit on Top 4 night. It might have helped if Idol had allowed the Top 4 more than a 1 minute, 30-second rendition of their originals. And I’m still wondering if it was Grace’s idea to sing “A Moment Like This.” I think she could have been much more effective with a different Kelly Clarkson cover.