Ladies and gentlemen, this is your American Idol! The long-running Fox reality series crowned the champion of season 14 on Wednesday night after a two-hour show packed with performances from Fall Out Boy, Pitbull, Jamie Foxx, Ricky Martin, NKOTB, former judge Steven Tyler and many, many more.
The two singers remaining in the competition, 29-year-old Nick Fradiani and 22-year-old Clark Beckham, made up the first all-male final two since season 8’s face-off between Kris Allen and Adam Lambert. (And, since Idol is ending after season 15 in 2016, it’s the second-to-last final two ever!)
After the aforementioned performers — plus the Idol judges, Chris Brown, Echosmith, The Jacksons, Vance Joy, Michael McDonald, Janelle Monae, Nile Rodgers, and Prince Royce — took the stage, some with season 14 finalists, Ryan Seacrest finally crowned a winner.
And the recipient of American Idol‘s penultimate confetti shower is Connecticut singer Nick Fradiani, who performed original single “Beautiful Life” after winning the title.
“I remember watching when [Phillip Phillips] won and he kind of broke down and the confetti and seeing his family — I was getting emotional watching it,” he told Us Weekly of whether or not he’d imagined winning the whole competition. “And that’s what I think about — I think of my family. I think of my mom and my dad. It takes a lot to get me emotional but just thinking of that is what I think of. My parents’ faces, that would be what I’m thinking of.”
Tell Us: Did the right singer win? What was your favorite finale performance?
