LOS ANGELES (LALATE) – Who won American Idol 2012 tonight? An American Idol 2012 winner was finally announced in results tonight May 23, 2012 after a season that produced shockers, some spoilers, and a lot of correct predictions. American Idol’s win tonight culminated a season in which Jessica Sanchez dominated earlier rounds, appeared to be the frontrunner, almost always avoided the bottom three, and delighted fans. But then came along Phillip Phillips. While news analysts predicted Phillip Phillips could win tonight, some fans still thought Jessica had the title locked up. So who was right?

Phillip Phillips has progressed, improved, and stunned judges and news analysts in the last twelve weeks. When Idol was approaching the Top 10, Phillips was good, but not great. But soon, he listened to judges’ advice and dramatically improved. At our Top 12 week, most spoilers predicted Phillip Phillips would advance. His performance of Superstition was solid at the time.

Meantime, Phillip battled his own health problems through the competition. Two years ago, Crystal Bowersox was hospitalized. Last year, it was Casey Abrams. But on the Top 12 week, Phillip Phillips fought through his pain and advanced, impressing fans and news analysts, week to week.

At the same time, Jessica Sanchez was surprising news, not just with her voice, but also her versatility. Her performance of I Will Always Love You dominated news that week. Randy Jackson said of her performance “This is one of the hardest songs to sing.” Jennifer Lopez said it was “Just, just amazing.” And Steven Tyler said “You may be the one. You just made forty million people cry.”

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As weeks progressed, Jessica improved, but not dramatically enough for some news analysts. Jessica Sanchez performed Turn The Beat Around. Randy said she needed to shorten her vibrato. Jennifer agreed. But Steven said “you can’t stray too far.”

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But once we got to the Top 9, everything seemed to change. “The contestant to beat this season, however, has been Jessica Sanchez” LALATE wrote at the time. Her performance then of “Everybody Has a Dream” blew all three judges away. Randy Jackson said every performance by Jessica is “a moment”. Jennifer said the song fit her perfectly and Steven told news that “You’ve gone way past my judging.”

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Yet, the night that defined tonight’s outcome wasn’t last night but April 12. Initially eliminated that night in April was Jessica Sanchez. But the judges saved Jessica. Fans were still, however, perplexed for weeks about why Jessica was eliminated.

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Jazmine Sullivan Stuttering by Jessica Sanchez, for many, was one of the best performances of the season, and certainly not worth of elimination. One viewer wrote “Jessica Sanchez just killed that Jazmine Sullivan song on American Idol….She got an amazing talent.” As one fan noted “if you can sing a Jazmine Sullivan song well, then you can sang”. Another added simply “not just anybody can sing Jazmine Sullivan; Jessica ate that song up.”

So who is the American Idol winner 2012? In the end, after an impressive season of stellar performances, your American Idol 2012 winner is …. Phillip Phillips!

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