The 'Idol' Finale Takes Us Back to the Year 2000

Dear American Idol, the year 2000 called — they want their talent back. The American Idol Season 14 finale took us on a serious trip through time with it's many musical acts. Fall Out Boy kicked off the festivities and was then followed by Ricky Martin. Yes, the King of Latin Pop himself took the stage at the Adobe Theater — and it was just as insane and corny as it sounds. The Top 6 Idol Guys joined Martin to perform a medley of his most popular hits — from 15 years ago. Seriously, was Daniel Seavey alive when Martin was relevant? But the strangest part of the whole thing? The whole show has been weirdly enjoyable.

I'll admit — it's extremely comical that these performers (the Jacksons and Niall Rodgers included) are gracing the same stage in the year 2015. You know the show is in crisis mode when it needs to pull talent from this far back. Where are the former Idol winners? Not even Justin Guarini wanted a shot on the stage? Even he would have been a relevant and reminiscent pick for the show. But instead, we get Fall Out Boy and Ricky Martin. Even the season 14 contestants themselves seemed to be laughing at the hilarity of the situation. They were good sports about it — I mean they were performing with Martin and that's pretty cool — but they were still in elementary school when this music came out. The most exposure they probably had to "Livin' la Vida Loca" was from Kidz Bop.

All joking aside, these performances were pretty awesome for those of us that knew this music (yes, I was in elementary school in 2000 too — but am admittedly a huge "Livin' la Vida Loca" fan). It was a solid attempt for the show to appeal to it's older audience, but I'm sure it failed to impress the younger crowd. American Idol will have to try a little bit harder if they want their next and last season to stand out. This is certainly not the way to do it — but at least it's fun.