Who will win American Idol 2014? That’s the big question looming in the minds of the final four contestants taking the stage this week. There are only two weeks to go until the American Idol finale for season 13. There isn’t much time left for Caleb Johnson, Jena Irene Ascuitto, Alex Preston, and Jessica Meuse to capture enough voters to propel them all the way to the win.
Caleb Johnson: The fan base for Caleb is strong and devoted. He’s pulling votes from the younger viewers and the older ones, the Southern rock lovers and the Northern ‘cool’ hipsters. No one owns the stage like he does or looks more like he’s already the lead singer for some band playing stadium concerts. Although we would say his Aerosmith song last week was one of his weakest of the competition. But then he came right back and smacked it out of the park with his Whitesnake song.
However, Caleb has one a couple of really big obstacles to face. He’s not your typical ‘hot’ guy that gets all the tweens voting for him, and he’s a hardcore rocker with a classic bent. We’ve never had a winner like him before, and that pretty much screams it’s an uphill battle. We could see a lot of votes for Alex Preston and Jessica Meuse votes swinging to Jena Irene instead of Caleb after they are gone, making her an even more formidable opponent.
Even so, based on the American Idol betting odds, the track record of the voters so far, and the latest results of our readers’ poll — we’re going to call this one for Caleb Johnson at this point. He’s potentially neck and neck with Jena Irene, but after that blow-out Whitesnake performance to top off the show last week, we’re giving him the edge for now.
Of course, that’s if he doesn’t blow it all pulling stupid stunts like this one where he calls people “retards” and slams his fans.
Jena Irene Ascuitto: We would put Jena Irene as the only other final four contestant who can challenge Caleb right now. Last week, we might have even given her a slight lead. However, after Caleb’s second performance last Wednesday night, we take back anything we may have thought previously about him peaking too soon. Jena was good last week, but Caleb owned the night even with a first performance that left a lot to be desired. Jena is going to have to push herself to the limits to steal victory away from Caleb in the American Idol finale if they end up face to face.
However, Jena has already proven that she can pull out a big performance and suddenly grab the spotlight away from Caleb, as she has several times in the past few weeks. Even the Las Vegas betting odds gave Jena a leg up over Caleb in the American Idol 2014 finale for a while. Jena is still capable of surprising us, perhaps even more than Caleb is, and that could be the thing that takes her all the way. All she may have to do is blow it out right at the end and outshine Caleb at the last minute to win.
Alex Preston: If we are going to be real, we just don’t think Alex is going to win American Idol 2014. We could see him making the final three over Jessica Meuse, but we feel it isn’t in the cards for him to make the finale. This is somewhat sad to us because we do think he is probably the most purely talented all around musician and artist of the remaining finalists.
But being a star is more than just that. You also have to be the master of the stage and connect with your audience, Alex just doesn’t seem really gifted at doing either of those things. Even if Alex did manage to make the finale over Jena or Caleb, we give him almost no chance of beating them.
Jessica Meuse: We liked ‘Pinky’ from the beginning of the season for her old school rock with a touch of country vibe. However, she has continued to fail at truly clicking with the audience or the American Idol judges all season long. No matter how hard she tries, she just comes across as stiff and cold on stage. Plus, she’s started to get a reputation as having a bit too much attitude, even if that isn’t really true. If Jessica doesn’t go home next, we really would be surprised.