American Idol crowned Candice Glover its twelfth-season champion over Kree Harrison during Thursday night's live finale broadcast on Fox.

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Candice, a 23-year-old from St. Helena Island, SC, defeated Kree, a 22-year-old from Nashville, TN, after she received the majority of home viewer votes cast immediately following Wednesday night's performance broadcast which featured the Top 2 finalists each singing three songs.

During a Friday conference call with reporters, Candice talked to Reality TV World about her American Idol experience. Click here to read our separate interview with Kree.

Reality TV World: Congratulations!

Candice Glover: Thank you.

Reality TV World: By the end of Wednesday night's performance show, based on the judges' critiques, they seemed to think you kind of had the edge on Kree.  What impact did that have on you afterwards?  The next day when you were waiting for the voting results, did you kind of grow confident you might be the winner?

Candice Glover: Actually, I don't know.  Because the judges, when they give you good critiques, like they're not the ones who are voting. 

So they give you their input and everything, but at the end of the day it all depends on your fans and everything.  And Kree's amazing, so at the same time, when we were waiting for the results to be called, we were calling each other's names.  She was like "You won," and I was like, "No, you won!"

We definitely had no idea what was going to happen, because America is so unpredictable sometimes.

Reality TV World: Up until the last couple of weeks, Angela "Angie" Miller was presented as the frontrunner throughout most of the competition.  Looking back, did you ever think you had a chance to beat her and win, and did the fact she was considered the frontrunner and had so much hype surrounding her, did that almost take the pressure off a little bit and maybe even work to your benefit?

Candice Glover: I knew that Angie has a humongous fan base. Her fans are very dedicated to her.  So I'm pretty sure all of us -- I even would go as far as to saying that I knew Angie would possibly be the winner all because of her fan base and how big her fan base was. 

So I don't know if I would say it was like a benefit that she went home, but I definitely know that no matter what, like I knew that she would be successful.

I know it was a shock to American and everything when she got cut because she's phenomenal and I know that no matter what she'll be fine, like I said.  But I don't know if she was a threat, because everybody in the Top 5 -- like all the girls were so different and we had our different fan bases for different reasons.  So I wouldn't say she was like a threat to anyone. 

Reality TV World: Was there every a particular point where you first began to feel you might actually have a chance at winning the whole thing?  And if so, when was it?

Candice Glover: I think when I first auditioned, Nicki said, "If you don't make it to the last round of this entire competition, then something is definitely wrong." And that stuck with me throughout the whole competition, and I stuck with it and I said, "Okay, I just have to make it to the last round, I just want to make Nicki proud and my family."

Mariah actually asked me for a mix tape at my audition and she asked for an album -- so I don't, I mean, ever since then I said, "Okay, this is going to turn out to be something good."

So I just stuck with my plans of what I'd been doing the whole time, and it just worked out.

Reality TV World: You got to close out the show Wednesday night with that powerhouse performance of "I Who Have Nothing," and Kree also got awesome reviews for her performance.  But do you almost feel you might have gotten a slight advantage because you got to finish out the show and were fresh on viewers' minds when home voting began?

Candice Glover: I don't know if it was an advantage, because there was only two of us. Like usually, in Top 10 and stuff, you get the order and you worry about being forgotten if you go early in the show.  But there was only me and Kree, and it was only one hour, so I was just very confident in all three of our performances. But at the same time, so was Kree and she did a real good job.  So we went into it on Thursday not even really knowing what was going to happen.

Check back with Reality TV World on Monday for more with Candice.
About The Author: Steven Rogers

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