Best thing about finale night? Seeing Schmidt in the audience. Second best thing? Melanie Amaro’s rendition of All I Want For Christmas is You. The girl can sing, y’all! By now we all know who the winner is and if you don’t I’ll leave it until after the break. First we need to talk about the performances from Wednesday night’s show. I’ll be brief, but I thought they were worth a mention.

Josh Krajcik

“Uninvited” with special guest ALANIS MORRISETTE! Guys, I would have been freaking out if I were Josh, and it seemed he was a bit. Alanis is the shit. No joke. Though she makes for a bit of a horrible duet partner. The girl does her own thing and it’s hard to get in on that. Josh did his best, but was out sung by a powerhouse.

“At Last” This song fit Josh like a glove. It was soulful and perfect stripped down to just him and a guitar. The guy should have a great career in the music business, but he really didn’t do enough to win the whole shebang.

Chris Rene

“Complicated” with Avril Lavigne. Well, it was fine. I don’t know. It’s obvious Chris is not able to sing with anyone duet-wise. He couldn’t do any of the harmonizing they had for him, but he was having a great time. I’ll give him that. He seemed to lack confidence until his little rap solo. I think auto tune would be a godsend to this guy.

“Young Homie” This is where Chris shines. Maybe it’s because this is his original song and we’ve all heard it and loved it. I think it’s because he just does so much better with the lyrical hip-hop or whatever we’re calling this. It is the best he has every sounded and he knows it. I thought it was a winning worthy performance if we’re just judging on this one song. Hopefully America votes on the totality though. I think cleaning up your life should be rewarded, just not with a 5 million dollar recording contract.

Melanie Amaro

“I Believe I Can Fly” with R. Kelly. Say what you will about R. Kelly, the man has the voice of an angel. L.A. Reid was wrong when he said Melanie was lost and/or out sung by R. It was a fantastic duet and what they all should have hoped for. They harmonized beautifully, they seemed to be singing as one and he let her do her thing. I loved it. It was a great song sung by two great artists.

“Listen” This song really solidifies in my mind that she should win. This was a 5 million dollar song/performance if there ever was one. L.A. even called it a 50 million dollar performance. Simon knows what he’s doing. She look and sounded like the winner of The X Factor. You can’t tell me the order of contestants wasn’t influenced by Simon. He got her the plum spot, mark my words. She should have had it anyway. Awesome. The one thing that might hurt her is the way she looks when she’s listening to the judges. She either doesn’t look at them or she seems to roll her eyes. I think it’s just a defense mechanism, but it makes her look bitchy? I don’t know.

On to the FINALE NIGHT! Wooo Hooo!

The two hour show was filled with a lot of crap. 50 Cent (what do you think all the mothers and 10 year olds watching for Bieber thought of the song/sex simulation through the first part, oh and In Da Club was actually good too. Why did they bleep out Bacardi though? Is that a euphemism for something I don’t know about?), Pitbull and Ne-Yo (actually I did end up watching the performance Pitbull’s International Love was awful, Give Me Everything with Marcus Canty was actually pretty good), and the anything else I fast forwarded through I’m talking to you. What in the HELL was Paula wearing? Of all the clothes in all the world to wear she chooses hot pink and red? Awful! There was actually some good. Even Bieber made sense. Though I FF through some of it. The bringing out of Drew and letting her sing a line was great.

The Christmas Songs

Melanie Amaro “All I Want for Christmas is You” Fabulous. The best cover of this song I’ve heard even if it was nearly identical to the original. I loved it so much I want you to watch it!

Chris Rene “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” This is the second best he’s sounded on the show. I don’t know what it is but this is the first time I’ve thought his singing voice was really good through out. I think auto-tune will do him wonders.

Josh Krajcik “Please Come Home for Christmas” A very Josh performance. The song fit him perfectly. The girl trapped in the giant ornament was weird.

Chris Rene finds out he’s third. At this point it’s not question that Melanie’s got this thing rapped up right? Chris is really gracious and so is L.A.

Melanie and Josh perform “Heroes” and it actually really good. They harmonize well and seem to really enjoy singing with each other. I can only imagine what this duet would have been like with either one of them and Chris…a bloody mess. I’m not just speaking in a British voice there either.

The winner of the very first American X Factor? MELANIE AMARO! She is stunned though I’m not sure she should have been. She is so overwhelmed Steve can’t get a word out of her and her winner song is terrible. If I’d just won a 5 million dollar recording contract I’d probably be unable to sing either.

Congrats Melanie. You’re the first girl to win one of these contests since Jordin Sparks, season 6 of Idol in 2007. You go girl!

What do you think? Did the right person win? Did Pepsi vote their asses off so they didn’t have to create a commercial with Josh or Chris in it? Could you stomach an entire Bieber medley? All I want for Christmas is COMMENTS!!!!