American Idol wrapped its 20th season on Sunday, crowning Noah Thompson as the winner, with HunterGirl and Leah Marlene coming in second and third place, respectively.
But before the 20-year-0ld construction worker took home the trophy, the show rolled out a parade of musical numbers, letting some of the season’s most memorable contestants share the stage with Idol‘s panel of judges and other A-list artists.
While Thompson belted out his coronation song “One Day Tonight” as the confetti fell in the episode’s closing moments, HunterGirl got the chance to sing “I Told You So” with Luke Bryan. And Marlene’s acoustic duet of “Firework” with Katy Perry started out with a tender clip of the finalist performing the hit at a talent show as a young girl before transitioning to her harmonizing with the pop star more than a decade later.
The entire top 10 also got multiple moments to perform together in the finale, whether it was opening the show with Flo Rida on “Good Feeling” or singing with Lionel Richie (“You Are”) or TikTok sensation Tai Verdes (“A-O-K”).
Elsewhere during the more than two-hour finale, Ben Platt and Sara Bareilles were joined by Jay, Emyrson Flora, Nicolina and Marlene on backing vocals for a group rendition of “Grow as We Go” and top five contender Fritz Hager duetted with James Arthur on “Can I Be Him.”
Now that the finale is over, we want to know: Which performance was your favorite of the night? Were you rocking out to Thompson performing “I’m the Only One” with Melissa Etheridge ahead of his big win? Did Christian Guardino’s performance of “Smile” with Michael Bublé put a grin on your face? Or maybe you preferred a different musical number altogether!
Vote in Billboard‘s Idol finale poll below.
