'America's Got Talent': Jackie Evancho loses to Michael Grimm but wins a duet with her idol

We don't usually watch infomercials unless Billy Mays or the SlapChop guy are involved but we made an exception Wednesday for the finale of this season's "America's Got Talent."

Stretched agonizingly over two hours, we endured random guest acts (the Goo Goo Dolls are still a thing?) ridiculously lame product placements and a number by the "AGT All-Stars" (read: rejects) to find out that soul singer Michael Grimm squeaked past fan favorite Jackie Evancho to snag the $1-million prize.

But first came the most shameless advertisements -- the finalists' duets. This was a chance for the Final Four to sing with their heroes, as long as their hero was tying to resuscitate a career or had a new disc to shill. Grimm looks up to Jewel?  Seriously?

It has been a long time since we have encountered a production so utterly pointless. NBC's show is constantly being billed as live, as if crazy things could happen at anytime, but all the action is so tightly scripted that it is impossible not to suspect that every possibly spontaneous turn is designed to manipulate. Piers Morgan's buzzing of Prince Poppycock on Tuesday night, for instance. (Poppycock was the first to go on the finale.)

She might not have won, but Jackie did something on the show that no one else did: She was real. She was genuinely excited to meet Sarah Brightman and over the moon at being able to sing with her. Winning a contest is a worthy but abstract goal, especially for a child. Meeting a hero is tangible and it was a pleasure to watch Jackie realize that dream.

In a previous post, Culture Monster poked fun at Jackie copying the "wandering hands mean I'm emoting" technique from the Brightman playbook but they were so sweet together our heart burst to only two sizes too small.

Sensibly skipping the low-sitting triplet passage that marred her earlier performance of the song ("Time To Say Goodbye") Evancho sung circles around her idol. The ensemble bits were mostly awful because, as is usual for sopranos, each had her own ideas regarding pitch. In the end we were so pleased with Jackie, it didn't matter.

While Twitter is ablaze with outrage over the results, in our opinion, America made the right choice. Grimm gets his Vegas show, his grandparents get their new house and Jackie will be free to pursue her career on her own terms.

What left a bad taste in our mouths was the feeling that we were being held hostage by advertisements and promotional spots that took the focus away from the talent. The compelling nature of those less tightly scripted moments made the whole contest seem mawkish and tacky.

What did you think?  Was two hours too long?  Would it have made a difference if the guest acts were actually entertaining or am I just a cranky blogger incapable of appreciating a good thing when I see it?

-- Marcia Adair

Follow me on Twitter @missmussel

RECENT AND RELATED:

Choose one for Jackie Evancho: Stardom now or a real singing career later?

Prince Poppycock takes on Jackie Evancho

Jackie Evancho's voice strikes a chord

Before Jackie Evancho: Remembering Julie Andrews, Beverly Sills and other young vocal prodigies

Hear Jackie Evancho, the 10-year-old with an operatic voice

Comments

[Galen]

I'm forced to agree with A2Z on this one Dee. It was actually Jackie who was adjusting to Sarah's pacing, and also attempting to match her pitch. Of course, pretty much all sopranos have there own sense of what constitutes perfect pitch, so when they sing simultaneously, the results are often unspectacular, even with seasoned professionl opera and classical singers. That being said, Sarah and Jackie sounded amazingly cohesive while singing together, and their performance as a whole was simply astonishing for several reasons. Number one, Sarah unfortunately has never fully recovered from her vocal cord surgery in 2004, and she also took the AGT "gig" on very short notice with almost no time to prepare. This being said, she still gave a quite credible performance, even when judged against her otherworldly performances when she was in her prime. Equally, and indeed even more amazing is the fact that Jackie stayed right with one of the finest voices ever to grace a stage anywhere in the world! Consider this, if you were to engage in a game of pick-up basketball with Michael Jordan, who would win? Michael is well past his prime, and Sarah is also past her prime, but still a magnificent singer and performer. I think the mere fact that Jackie hung in there and basically matched Sarah's performance in most respects speaks volumes of the unbelievable potential this "child" has.

[Galen]

What in the hell were people thinking? Jackie Evancho's unbelievable talent dwarfs Michael Grimm's average talent!

[Scott]

Jackie Evancho scored yet another standing ovation last night while performing before a packed house on "The Tonight Show" with Jay Leno! Jimmy Smits said she sounded "like an angel, like a voice from God"! INCREDIBLE!

[Brian]

First David Copperfield and some of the other acts were good even if they were promoting their projects. In case you were wondering this is called "advertising" or "Business"
Jackie Evancho and Sarah Brightman were stunning.
As to Jackie (clearly the best act) not winning. The public outcry tells me that it isn't due to lack of taste on their part, but some more sinister reason.
Recount anyone?

[Scott]

Good points Brian. If you noticed, the extremely classy Sarah Brightman was the ONLY "famous" perfomer on the show NOT blatantly promoting something for herself (even though she goes on tour in Japan in October), although she did promote Jackie Evancho. However, she had nothing to gain monetarily at all for this endorsement. Sarah flew in form Great Britain at the last minute mainly because of Jackie, and that should also tell the sceptics something about this little girl, and also her idol who crossed an ocean to meet and perform with her.

[Jackie Evancho]

This was really great final performance! Hope she will get great career after this show. She was better tam Michael if we speak about raw talent. But Michael has a better luck.

[VOX]

J, you're a joke. Move to Iraq and convert to Islam if you're ashamed to be American, moron.

[wayne]

Ms Adair there has been so much confusion this year over what significance Las Vegas has after all the hype on Americas Got Talent. It would be nice if you would research it and do an article based on it.
I haven't read anywhere that Mr Grimm gets a Vegas show of his own because he won. That wasn't part of the prize. He will appear in Las Vegas along with the other final AGT acts as will Jackie Evancho. He will headline because as the winner his name will appear first on the marquee. Vegas isn't any different than the 24 other tour cities. The winner will headline a show in all of the other tour cities too. Americas Got Talent influnced the vote with constant Vegas hype. Who wants to send a child to sin city? No Vegas hype or equal hype for all of the tour cities and Jackie wins. On principal I don't think Americas Got Talent should ever engage in conduct that influences how people vote. Jackie didn't need to win but this was a talent contest where winners and losers should be selected by voters on merit alone. Voters should not be forced to respond to conditions put in place by hyping one city over all others. I for one will never watch this show again based purely on principal.

[wayne]

The weeks of Vegas hype being pounded into the publics collective mind caused Jackie to lose. The public bought the hype and voted against sending Jackie to Vegas in enough number to cause her to finish second. We now know that the hype was just meaningless hype. There was only a tour stop in Vegas and Jackie wasn't even there. AGT also labeled her an opera singer along with other media. Opera isn't popular with average Americans so it has a negative conotation. Thus more votes were lost because she was misrepresented. Couldn't they have labeled her a classical music singer? She lost votes for other reasons too but the single major reason was the show Americas Got Talent. It has lost at least one viewer.

[Trancas]

Well, now that the dust has settled, everyone should realize that the outcome was exactly as it should have been. Michael Grimm is the "headliner" that AGT needed for for the 25 tour shows. His life is theirs for at least a year. He will do nothing without their permission. He gets his "million" only if he takes the $25,000 installments over the next forty years, like Publishers Clearing House (he can take the current cash value now, about 1/5th). AGT didn't tell anyone that Michael Grimm had already released four CD's during the time he played lounges in Las Vegas. Newcomer? It just doesn't make any difference.

Jackie Evancho on the other hand will participate in only 10 tour shows, and with David Foster & Friends at the Mandalay Bay Event Center tomorrow (read: different contract than the rest of the top ten). She's already made a singing and interview appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

She's just released her Christmas CD/DVD album "O Holy Night" for pre-order on Amazon.com, and it's already #25 in Bestsellers, #23 in Hot Releases, and #1 in Movers & Shakers.

She taped the Oprah show today ( to air tentatively October 22), and to top all of it, signed a multi-million dollar, multi-year contract with SYCO/Columbia records (SYCO=Simon Cowell). This happened already in early September.

Disney will need a replacement for Miley Cyrus. Hmm.

And Jackie has the attention of everyone important in the music and entertainment industry, and a lot of them will be looking out for her.

Did you notice that Jackie didn't shed a tear when Michael Grimm was announced the winner? She already knew who had won.

[Sandra Racine]

Jackie Evancho is amazing! She has a gorgeous voice for a ten year old. She sings like an angel and she brings tears to my eyes, that's something Michael Grimm couldn't do.
She was the winner in my eyes, it's too bad the judges didn't have their hearing aides on that day.

[Maciej Bugajak]

I just saw and heard the video, you know ...living in Poland among white bears :)
I have to say that Jackie's performance was by far better than the renown star.
Amazing,nobody noticed that...

[wufs]

Thank god--I thought it was time to say goodbye a while ago. THis over-produced and advertized lil twerp and the oozy reception/build up accompanying her wasgetiing a bit smarmy. THe BRightman evancho SCRIPTED meeting was the icky sweet icing on a highly caloric cake. good riddance

[boyd]

m the biggest fan

[Jake]

Michael Grimm set records for how many votes he got. The most in the history of AGT. Jackie didn't deserve it she came in to the competition like 3 weeks before finals when Michael and the Prince were there for many months. Get over your selves she lost. Michael deserved it