I don't have too much to say about Fantasia Barrino winning the American Idol crown. Of the final pair she was clearly the better performer, though that's not been a slam-dunk for victory in the past.

The show was its usual overblown nightmare. The first half-hour was kind of a pre-show thing, with Jennifer Love Hewitt hosting a "concert" where finishers 3 thru 5 performed their songs from the American Idol 3: Sucking the Life Out of Soul Classics album. Ford (as sponsor) had big logos on the stage that were occasionally visible, while a Chevy billboard could be seen frequently during performances. Money well spent.

Christina Christian from season one did a red carpet thing which suggests that she's got a future doing this long-term with E! (who, sadly, was doing their own red carpet thing).

The show itself had a bunch of performances by the final pair, a medley by the finalists (a waking nightmare preview of their concert), and songs by Kelly Clarkson and Ruben Studdard. Rather than have local Fox folks cover rallies in the final pair's hometowns, they had Kimberly Caldwell and Clay Aiken do the job. I think Kimberly Caldwell bought all of that skank that Christian Aguilera had left over.

As for the upcoming first single, "I Believe," it's pretty much the same theme as the previous songs - "look at me, I've made it after all this struggle and blah blah blah." It was co-written by Tamyra Gray, whose album finally got released yesterday. What a coincidence!