Rising Star Winner Revealed: Results, Recap and Video for 08/24/2014
The winner of Rising Star Season 1 was announced tonight Sunday August 24, 2014 on ABC. Who won the recording contract from Capitol Records?
The finalists are: Jesse Kinch, Audrey Kate Geiger, Austin French and Dana Williams.
Rickey.org readers picked Jesse Kinch to win tonight.
(ABC/Bob D'Amico)
LUDACRIS, KESHA, BRAD PAISLEY, JOSH GROBAN
Live Blog Recap
-We open with the standard singing show finale opening, about the journey, the moments, and this being the night.
BRAD PAISLEY opens the show!
-We kick things off with a big finale staple: the coach performing with the finalists. Brad is joined onstage by Jesse Kinch, Audrey Kate Geiger, Dana Williams and Austin French.
They sing "Moonshine in the Trunk" and it's a pretty lively tune to open the show. I kind of wish Dana and Audrey had given this sort of thing a shot during the competition. I like them both but almost neither has a shot against two guys who've never been at risk of elimination. A country type performance could have showed more of their range. Ah well, insane as this is going to sound, I don't expect this will be the last we hear about these girls.
-So apparently, we're getting duels tonight. And we're starting with Jesse Kinch vs. Dana Williams. I...do not expect this to be anything less than a complete slaughter.
JESSE KINCH VS. DANA WILLIAMS
Dana Williams is up first!
-Dana sings "At Last" and while I think it's mostly good, I kind of feel like it's all too little, too late. She's a great vocalists, but this song has been done so often and with such little variation that there's almost nothing new to be done with it. A good performance, but not the blow away she needed this to be. Dana ends up with a disappointing 30% of the vote.
Jesse Kinch is up next!
-Jesse sings "Fortunate Son" and, yeah, it's pretty much over for Dana. This is perhaps my favorite Jesse Kinch performance this season, and one of my favorite performances of the entire competition. It's not perfect, but I'd argue it's damn close. The man is a rock powerhouse, and I feel like it's going to take some major rallying to keep him from winning the title. Kesha is eager to proclaim that Jesse has "slaughtered my face," and while that might seem a bit excessive, that's basically the feeling I got from this. Jesse wins easily with 87% of the vote.
VIDEO: Jesse Kinch sings "Fortunate Son" on Rising Star 2014
JESSE KINCH advances to the final duel!
DANA WILLIAMS is eliminated from RISING STAR 2014!
-We say goodbye to Dana, and while I admit I did grow to like her a lot, this isn't a surprising result, nor is it the wrong one. Still, she has a voice, and has a look, so you never know if this might not be the start of something with her. I know it's crazy to say as much, given the very low ratings threshold this show has achieved, but people have done more with less, and less with more. So I wouldn't write her off completely.
AUSTIN FRENCH VS. AUDREY KATE GEIGER
-This should be more of an even matchup, and could be a real surprise if Audrey picks the right song.
AUSTIN FRENCH is up first!
-Austin sings "Fell In Love With A Girl" by The White Stripes and it's a fairly surprising departure from the usual with him. But I enjoyed it for what it was. By no means was this the "finale performance" I was expecting from Austin, yet I thought he showed real grit, and passion, and energy with his rendition. That said, this really needed to be a knockout performance, and it wasn't. So I'm actually pretty interested in how this could go, since he's opening up the door for an Audrey Kate upset. Of course, an upset would be a tall order on her part, since Austin still finishes with 70% of the vote.
AUDREY KATE GEIGER is up next!
-Audrey Kate sings "Love Me Like A Man" by Bonnie Raitt, and I thought this was exactly what it needed to be: a soulful performance that illustrates Audrey doing exactly what she does best. I was just so impressed by this, as her voice is so rich and nuanced, and this song brought out all of that amazing tone and all those incredible layers. That said, while it was the right song for her voice, and to showcase exactly the kind of artist she is now and will be after the show is over, it was probably the wrong song to be singing in a head-to-head duel, as it lacked the immediacy of Austin's tune, and left the entire duel feeling one-sided. To raise the Wall and unseat Austin in the duel, she would have needed to beat 70%...but she finishes with just 48%. And like that, the journey has come to an end for Audrey Kate Geiger.
AUSTIN FRENCH advances to the final duel!
AUDREY KATE GEIGER has been eliminated from RISING STAR 2014!
-And now, Josh reveals the final duel twist: neither Jesse nor Austin will know their scores as they're singing. Um...I dunno, that doesn't seem like much of a bombshell. If anything, it would be more freeing, since they don't have to constantly be looking at their scores and having a panic attack. Of course, this means we don't know the scores either, which is as it should be. Can't ruin the suspense of the finale!
-Because Austin won the coin toss, he can decide whether he'll go first or second. He opts to go second.
FINAL DUEL: JESSE KINCH VS. AUSTIN FRENCH
JESSE KINCH is up first!
-Jesse sings one of my absolute favorite songs, "Love Reign O'er Me" by The Who, and it's exactly the perfect kind of finale song that he needs to be singing. If there's such a thing as a "heartbreakingly epic rock ballad," this is it. For a moment, it's like he pretty much disappears into the song. It's a raw, passionate performance that leaves me feeling like Jesse has done literally every last thing he could possibly do to win this competition. If this can't get it done for him, he was never going to win it. Brad Paisley is on his feet before the performance is even over, giving Jesse a standing O. And I don't disagree with that motion one bit.
VIDEO: Jesse Kinch sings "Love Reign O'er Me" on Rising Star 2014
AUSTIN FRENCH closes the show and the season!
-Austin sings "God Bless the Broken Road" by Rascal Flatts, which is a far more expected choice for a competition like this. And Austin sings it well, although I felt like this had a bit too many runs. But if I'm not going to dock Jesse points for his voice cracking left and right, or going raw-throated at critical moments, I don't feel like I can really fault Austin for getting carried away in his emotion with this song. And the audience and judges seem receptive to it. I dig this, and feel like this just screams "CORONATION MOMENT". That said, I'll be utterly stunned if even a likable underdog like Austin French can derail the Kinch Express.
FINAL RESULT
-Back from break with Josh Groban asking the two final contestants for their final words, and they both take the opportunity to thank their families, and everyone who helped them get this far. But by this point, we just want the results, and so Josh reads them...
With a winning score of 76%
JESSE KINCH WINS RISING STAR 2014!
-Jesse seems like he can hardly believe it, as all the contestants from the season rush the stage (the microphone even picks up one of the girls screaming "I KNEW IIIIT!"). Josh interviews Jesse's father, who thanks the experts and America, as Jesse has his head down as if caught between trying to fight back tears, and trying to make sense of everything that's happening. I like Jesse a lot, and this is a wonderful winning moment, since...well, he just seems kinda stunned. And yet, it's kind of inconceivable to think that he didn't know he had this in the bag, no?
He closes out the season with a killer performance of his favorite song of the season, "I Put A Spell On You", and it's just as good as the first time.
-And that's a wrap! What did you think of the Rising Star finale? Did the right singer win? Should there be a season two? If there were, would you watch? And which of these finalists from this season do you think has the best shot of a sustained/successful career in the industry? In short, whom do you think we have the best chance of hearing from again? Sound off in the comments!