'Idol' wrap: Who's gonna win?

'Idol' wrap: Who's gonna win?

For two rounds, Tuesday's American Idol competition finale seemed close. Scotty McCreery sang Montgomery Gentry's Gone, then Check Yes or No, a song his hero George Strait had picked for him. Lauren, who lost her voice shortly before the show from pushing too hard during rehearsal, sang Carrie Underwood's Flat on the Floor then had Carrie choose Pam Tillis' Maybe It Was Memphis for her.

But Alaina had gone all season without her one defining "moment," that performance that made her seem like more than just a girl with a great voice on a big stage. She got it, and it couldn't have come at a better time. To close Idol's competition finale Tuesday, she gave an emotion-filled performance of her presumptive single, Like My Mother Does, singing the song's final chorus directly to her mother in the audience. It was the vocal equivalent of an injured basketball player coming off the bench and hitting a three-point buzzer beater. Scotty's song -- a rather pedestrian, if good-hearted, ballad called I Love You This Big -- paled in comparison, as did his vocal.

Should this year's American Idol be decided on the strength of the coronation single, Lauren would win in a landslide. But while games quite often get decided by buzzer-beaters, seasons usually don't. Tonight's big winner? Probably Nashville, which may get not only an American Idol winner, but a runner-up with momentum and sympathy behind her.

See photos of: Scotty McCreery

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