DaveChung.com – A Guy’s Blog From Girl World

American Idol Season 7 Runner Up David Archuleta’s self-titled debut album hit stores today and the lukewarm reviews won’t help the fact that the smooth voiced Idol has some tough competition this week – going up against Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” (which is selling for $3.99 for the week of its release on AmazonMP3) and a re-release of Colbie Caillat’s “Coco.”

With David Cook’s album hitting stores next week after his still-shocking win in Season 7 of AI, it might not be a question of whether David Cook beats David Archuleta again, but a question of how much he will beat the early favorite by in terms of album sales.

I didn’t see these because I was watching the show on a live press feed, but these David Cook and David Archuleta Guitar Hero commercials are pretty fun!

Having commercials like this during the American Idol finale reminds me of how EA’s NCAA Football games are advertised during the NFL draft. It’s pretty cool and I think people don’t mind commercials like these!

If the results were based on tonight’s performances, David Archuleta would win American Idol Season 7. However, with over two hours of votes still to be tabulated, David Cook, who many chose to win (like former Idol runner-up Bo Bice), still has a chance of joining one-namers Kelly, Ruben, Fantasia, Carrie, Taylor, and Jordin as this year’s winner of American Idol.

From top to bottom, David Cook was outsung and shockingly outperformed by the younger, oftentimes called robotic David Archuleta. While I believe Cook consistently performed at a higher level throughout the season, Simon Cowell was spot on when he said that Archuleta’s three performances on the night equaled a “knockout” in the boxing themed night complete with Michael Buffer’s trademark introduction.

When David Cook performed tonight, he was good. When David Archuleta took the mic, it was electric. With Cook heavily favored going into the finale, a subpar night from him paired with Archuleta’s strongest ever night could equal results show that rivals the contest between Clay vs. Ruben.

Cook’s performances all night were pretty good, notably his performance of “Dream Big,” one of the Songwriter competition songs that could potentially be a “winning moment” song. In a rare occurrence, an Idol’s best performance was a “finale song,” which is usually one of the lesser performances on the night (see Blake Lewis performing “This is my now” and looking like he wanted to gouge his eyes out).

“Dream Big” was a good finale song that showed good range from David, but it also felt a little bit ominous that David will have to be extremely careful with his career to walk the line between pop and rock.

While Archuleta closed out the show in the with his Star Search winning song, “Imagine,” David Cook decided to go with a new song for him, “The World I Know,” which I felt like was a poor choice for him to leave as the last memory of him on stage. We’ve come to know David Cook for semi-hard rocking performances like “Billie Jean,” “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing,” and “Eleanor Rigby,” and this song was really missing those David Cook big note moments.

I respect Cook’s desire to perform new material, but he was going up against Archuleta’s bread and butter song that he’s been winning competitions with for years. It would have been fun to see Cook’s “Billie Jean” face off with Archuleta’s “Imagine.”

From Archuleta’s first performance of “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”, which blew away Cook’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” David showed a stage presence and desire to win that we haven’t seen from him in weeks past. It was a pleasant surprise and one that would make even some Cookies be ok with seeing David Archuleta win tomorrow night.

If David Archuleta wins American Idol on Wednesday, he earned it tonight. It would be tough for anyone to say otherwise and this is coming from a David Cook fan. David A. was passionate on stage, reaching for bigger notes than normal, and there was an “I didn’t come this far to lose” determination in his voice that made you believe that he was ready to join the American Idol winners’ ranks on Wednesday night.

And while Archuleta’s finale song, “In This Moment,” could have easily been renamed “This is my now Part II” and was one of the corniest songs ever performed on AI, he was so on fire that you could picture him performing the song under a shimmering golden curtain of fireworks on Wednesday night. The song was god-awful, but Archuleta made it work and that continued his surprise “Wow” performances all night.

After a performance of his staple “Imagine” that brought the house down, will Archuleta see his moment tomorrow night?

These two have long been front runners in the competition and their diverse talents were on full display on Tuesday night. Archuleta shone brighter, with one of the top performance nights top to bottom in American Idol history, but Cook arguably has more memorable performances from earlier portions of the competition.

Will David Cook “Dream Big?” Or will David Archuleta be crowned the winner “In This Moment” tomorrow night?

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Hold up a second, Arch Angels, the odds appear to be on David Cook to win this week’s American Idol finale compared to all-season favorite David Archuleta.

E! Online reports that BetCRIS.com is showing a 74% chance for Cook to become the first-ever rocker to win the American Idol title (avenging the on-stage ghost of Chris Daughtry) on television’s most-watched program. In that same news item, while not scientific at all, nearly 75% of E!’s readers chose David Cook over David Archuleta to win this week’s finale.

Somehow, though I’m a Cook fan, it would still feel like an upset to see anyone but Archuleta win Season 7 of American Idol. David Cook has struggled at times when the pressure is on him to perform and it will be no greater than this coming Tuesday night. I’m not yet ready to give Cook the crown, but I’ll still be surprised if he wins with all the momentum and crazy fanbase that Archuleta has carried all season.

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Seeing as David Archuleta has no inhibitions about performing songs like “Angels” and “Imagine,” two songs that he’s been performing for years, on American Idol last week and during Top 20 week, it seems like his rendition of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles,” would be a perfect fit if a theme week allows him to do so.

In no way is this meant to be a critique of David, since I feel like I would do the same thing if I was in his position, wanting to sing songs that I was comfortable with performing.

In fact, I think that if David performed “A Thousand Miles,” it would break him out of the ballad mode, give him some variety, and as long as he doesn’t mess up on the piano, it would guarantee him a spot in the finale. It might actually be a great finale performance song as well?

American Idol named its Top 7 this week, as Michael Johns was sent home on Idol Gives Back week, with Syesha Mercado and Carly Smithson joining him in the Bottom 3. This was probably the most shocking elimination that we’ve seen in a while, going back to when Danny Noriega

went home in a showdown against Chikezie (before Chikezie started being pretty good), but it was still likely only off by a week or two at best.

There are a lot of Idol fans who are pretty upset about this elimination, saying that Brooke, Jason, or perhaps most commonly, Kristy Lee Cook should have gone home instead. However, the real question for these angry fans is, “Were you actually voting for Michael Johns?” Clearly, a lot of people were for him to make it this far in the competition, so if those fans are the ones complaining or mourning the loss of “their” Idol, then that’s completely fine. The week Alaina Whitaker went home, I was guilty of not voting for her and I was pretty devastated (relatively), but I didn’t vote for her that week, so I wasn’t allowed to complain.

A lot of fans are beginning to drop the “P” word – Popularity - as in “Popularity Contest,” at this point in the competition, just like every year. Around the Top 6 or Top 7 or so, people start complaining that the show isn’t about talent, but that it’s about popularity.These arguments coincidentally seem to coincide with the time that everyone’s favorite Idol goes home.  

The reality is that only one person wins American Idol. There can only be one Idol and there always will be one Idol. We have an extremely talented Top 7, who have come from the most consistently good Top 12 that I think we’ve ever seen on American Idol, and if we’re being honest, there’s probably three people out of this group who have a chance at winning the competition. Every week, we’re going to see someone “good” going home from this point forward, so while there will be surprises, they’re inevitable surprises.

Tonight, Kristy Lee Cook sailed into the Top 7 because her fans voted for her, not necessarily because she’s the best singer, but because fans voted for what was her best performance of the season and a great performance overall. While I was a Brooke White fan earlier in the competition, I found her performance this week to be so painful that I thought that she deserved to be in the Bottom 3 if we were going on a straight singing competition based on this week only. The reality is that this isn’t the way American Idol works, nor Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, Big Brother, and any other competition reality show. Popularity obviously matters, but  performers can earn popularity with consistently good performances (see: David Cook), even if they didn’t start as a front runner.

Has David Archuleta really been the best every week? If we’re being honest, he hasn’t. However, David blew everyone away with his “Imagine” performance, which gave him the fanatic fanbase that will continue to put him through until at least the Top 3, if not the finale. Yes, popularity matters. But popularity can be earned with good singing. In the immortal words of Simon Cowell, “This is a singing competition.”

Do I think Michael Johns should have gone home? No, I don’t.

However, if I didn’t vote for Johns, as clearly a good amount of people weren’t compelled to do (nor do I think his spot of going first helped him at all), I have no reason to complain about the results because it is that type of complacency that leads to surprising results. It’s part of every American Idol season and it’s something that is inevitable every year.

Michael Johns was really starting to grow on me as I felt like he was getting better and better every week. His growth was truly a lot of fun to watch and he’ll be missed this season. With Michael Johns going home, David Cook is left as the lone member of the “Four Horsemen” who made the Top 24 this season, and suddenly, it’s impossible for us to have an all-male Top 4 this season.

Also, by Michael Johns going home, the TiVo predictor has officially been proven wrong, after four straight weeks of predicting Idol eliminations based upon the performances that were rewatched and skipped by TiVo users. Syesha Mercado lives to see another week, so take that TiVo. You are no match for voting complacency.

Inspirational songs week couldn’t have been more surprising tonight as three finalists – Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado, and Kristy Lee Cook

– who had almost become afterthoughts, turned out some of the best performances on the night.

It was front-runners David Cook, Brooke White, and Carly Smithson who stumbled a bit tonight in my opinion, continuing this season’s theme of having no contestant being able to completely break away from the pack.

While the judges were crazy about David Archuleta’s performance of “Angels,” I didn’t think that it was that spectacular, especially when compared to some of the performances that Archuleta has performed in earlier weeks. The judges also found Brooke White’s performance Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend” to be “pleasant,” but I found this to be one of the most painful performances of the season. I don’t know if it’s her facial expressions or awkward responses to questions that seem to get more frequent every week, but I find myself liking Brooke less and less every week and think that she more than deserves to be in the Bottom 3, if not go home this week.

Michael Johns turned out a great performance to kick off the night in Aerosmith’s “Dream On,” which didn’t necessarily blow anyone away, but it showed a continued progression of improvement week to week.

Joining Michael Johns in the “I’m getting better!” club was Kristy Lee Cook, whose performance of Martina McBride’s “Anyway” was by far her best of the season. Not only was this performance Kristy’s best, but it was just a very good performance overall. It was good, not just “good for Kristy Lee,” which would be a little better than “kind of ok.”

While I’m happy to see that Kristy Lee is improving week to week, the reality is that many of us will never ever be able to shake her trainwreck performance during Beatles Week. Though I found this performance to actually be really great, the problem that I’m having with Kristy Lee is that if I know the song she’s singing, I will know exactly what her performance is going to sound like before she starts singing (again, minus that horrible Beatles performance, as no one could have seen that coming). It’s not that it’s a bad thing, but it takes away from her ability to have a David Cook-like “WOW” factor.

While the judges wouldn’t agree, I thought Syesha Mercado turned out one of the best performances of the night with Season 3 winner Fantasia’s “I Believe,”

which was her winning song four years ago. Syesha may not have a realistic chance of winning Season 7, but she is more than proving that she deserves to be in this talented Top 8. Vocally, she’s about a half step away from being incredible every week and her awkward answers to Ryan’s questions don’t really help out too much.

However, this week Syesha turned out a pure, pop version of a song that most of us only know as Fantasia’s emotional, raspy, stomping around the stage (but amazing), Idol song. Personally, I really enjoyed it and thought it was a stand out performance and Syesha’s best of the competition so far.

Though not as incredible of a beat down as David Archuleta gave the other 19 during Top 20 week with his performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” Jason Castro took a moderately sized deuce on the other contestants tonight with his performance of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the acoustic, Hawaiian-influenced wedding version, a la 50 First Dates.

Jason Castro looked like he was running out of steam before this week and he really needed to wake up and prove that he could regain the magic that was his performance of “Hallelujah.” Not only did Jason prove that he could regain that magic, but he proved that he deserves to be back in the upper half of remaining contestants.

The song was perfect for Castro and vocally, he did just enough to “make the song his own,” while not even coming close to overdoing it. It was by far the best performance on the night, giving him and David Archuleta likely the only two guaranteed spots in next week’s Top 7.

Who deserves to be in the Bottom 3 this week? (though Michael Johns could be in this group as well)

Carly Smithson

Brooke White

Kristy Lee Cook

If Brooke or Carly go home before Kristy, it will be because they both really stumbled this week. Brooke’s performance was almost painful and Simon Cowell was completely right in saying that it was a bad move for Carly to choose a song that was almost angry during inspirational song week. Brooke showed that she just doesn’t have what it takes to win this competition, while Carly’s subpar song choices continue to make her seem like less of a front runner than she should be at this point in the competition.

My vote count for this week included a vote for each of the following contestants – David Cook, Jason Castro, Kristy Lee Cook, and Syesha Mercado.

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While Ramiele Malubay’s departure from American Idol tonight felt like nearly a forgone conclusion after her performance of “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind,” it was the Bottom 3 that shocked yet again this week. Though Kristy Lee Cook lives in the Bottom 3, the Girls’ front runner Brooke White

found herself in the Bottom 3 this week, much to her surprise.

Brooke’s inclusion in the Bottom 3 shows that Carly Smithson’s powerful voice and superior vocals may have caught up to and perhaps even surpassed the excellent song selection and arrangements that made Brooke appear as if she was the only legitimate contender on the Girl’s side after we made it to the Top 12.

Though Carly may have “beaten” Brooke this week, I have a feeling that Brooke still holds an edge in the long run that makes her feel like the only legitimate female contender who can possibly make it to the Idol finale with either David Archuleta or David Cook.

What was more than obvious was Brooke’s shock at being in this week’s Bottom 3. Not since Alaina Whitaker’s shock at being voted off have we seen a contestant be as stunned as Brooke White was to be in the elimination stools tonight.

After Jason Castro surprisingly landed in the Bottom 3 earlier in the competition, it also feels like Michael Johns’ consistently decent performances may have him sitting above Castro in the guy’s power rankings at the moment.

Honestly, while everyone will point to Kristy Lee Cook as the person who they’re most shocked to see in this Top 8, I might be just as shocked to see Michael Johns in this group.

I think that he’s a good performer and seems like a nice guy, but here’s a contestant that doesn’t necessarily have a set genre where he belongs. I am still confused as to where he would end up in terms of his professional recording career. Johns has definitely had some good moments, notably his performance of Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” but while talented, it’s hard to picture who he will be, in terms of a musical career, after American Idol.

abbott and costello meet the invisible man movie download Though I am a converted Kady Malloy turned David Cook fan until the end, the top performance of the week belonged to David Archuleta and his take on Dolly Parton’s “Smoky Mountain Memories.” Though Cook’s unique performances always find a way to stand out, there is no contestant left that can match the purity in David Archuleta’s voice. There is a smoothness and confidence in his ability to hit every note and as Randy Jackson said, “David Archuleta is back.”

Right when it looked like David Cook had a chance to really take control of the competition, David Archuleta showed that he’s not yet ready to give up that top spot with one of his best performances of the competition. Cook, who has been under tremendous pressure all season as he deals with his brother’s battle with cancer, addressed the report on TMZ that said he was hospitalized and said that it was merely a regular high blood pressure medical condition and that it wasn’t nearly as serious as Internet outlets were making it out to be.

Next week, barring an Idol Gives Back “Get Out of Jail Free” card, Kristy Lee Cook’s time on Idol will run out, as she’s been an escape artist of the most mind-boggling kind for what feels like forever, leaving no female hotties left in Season 7.

Since I didn’t have the chance to vote this week, I’ll make the risky move of ranking the Top 8 in writing. Here’s how I think they stand:

1: David Archuleta

2: David Cook

3: Brooke White

4: Carly Smithson

5: Michael Johns

6: Syesha Mercado

7: Jason Castro

8: Kristy Lee Cook

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While the story tonight was supposed to be Chikezie Eze heading home, turning the Top 10 into a Top 9, the real story was seeing one of the front runners, Jason Castro, in the Bottom 3 tonight – a la Alaina Whitaker.

Jacuzzi was an early favorite of mine. I felt like he was part Luther Vandross, part Clay Aiken in terms of his voice. A pleasant surprise, he turned out to be a really great performer in spurts. While Chikezie is definitely a good singer, he, like Amanda Overmyer, really made it just about to where he should have in the competition. I could see Chikezie making it to the Top 7, but anything beyond that would have just felt like borrowed time. He’s a fantastic singer and had some fabulous moments on the show, but just didn’t seem to carry that “WOW” factor that David Cook and Brooke White (my “Dream Finale”) are bringing by the backpack lately.

While most will say that Chikezie’s performance of “She’s a Woman” was his best moment on Idol, I would have to say that Chikezie really shined at his audition, where he performed this song, just as he did during Top 16 week.

Jason Castro knew that he had an off-week this week and I agree with the judges in saying that it looks like he is taking the competition a little too lightly.

Jason’s performance of “Fragile” was uninspired at best and perhaps being in the Bottom 3 was the kick in the pants that he needed to regain that magic that he had when he performed “Hallelujah,” in what feels like forever ago.

Being in the Bottom 3 tonight proves that the Dreadheads aren’t nearly big enough to carry Jason through the competition on the memory of “Hallelujah” alone. Castro is truly a breath of fresh air in the competition and I hope that he steps it up because he really brings something unique to the stage.

Even as David Archuleta continues to drift down the Idol Power Rankings (to maybe…spot 1.5 by now), competitors like Carly Smithson

and even Michael Johns have been stepping up their game to try and get to that Tier 1 level where David Cook, Brooke White, and David Archuleta have firmly staked their claims.

With nine contestants left in the competition, I believe that there are three tiers that are quickly starting to form week to week:

Tier 1

David Cook, David Archuleta, Brooke White

Tier 2

Carly Smithson, Jason Castro, Michael Johns

Tier 3

Syesha Mercado, Ramiele Malubay, Kristy Lee Cook

But let’s be real here, guys.

Yet again, the performance story of the week was rocker David Cook, who is proving to be everything that Blake Lewis was last year and more – originality, stage presence, mixed in with a little over confidence, and memorable performances that leave you wondering what he’ll do the next week.

This week, Cook’s take on “Billie Jean” was not only risky, as Simon Cowell recognized, but incredible. If I would get out of the mid-2000’s, I would purchase an iPod Video and buy that performance. Much like his performance of “Hello” and “Eleanor Rigby,” Cook absolutely won over the in-studio crowd during his performance and generated more excitement than any of the other nine contestants could on their own (yes, even David Archuleta).

It’s interesting because while Archuleta gets the big cheers when his name is called, it is David Cook that electrifies the studio audience with his performances week in and week out. At this point, I can’t imagine cheering for anyone else to win American Idol, despite the fact that EVERYONE is playing underdog to David Archuleta.

My vote count this week was as follows:

David Cook: 2

Syesha Mercado: 1

Amanda Overmyer received the fewest number of votes this week and American Idol named its Top 10, who will embark on this summer’s Idols Live tour – including David Cook, David Archuleta, and the unlikely Kristy Lee Cook.

In my opinion, Amanda Overmyer went about as far as she should have and was able to in the competition. Honestly, I thought that every song she sang sounded the same, as if it was the same note over and over, but I could see why people enjoyed her originality.

With a voice and style like Amanda’s, I knew it was going to be tough for her to really make it through the theme weeks, many of which one could argue were really conducive to her style this early in the competition.

If she wasn’t going to make it with these more classic rock theme weeks, she was really going to be hurting once the competition moved into more modern, pop music. I’m impressed she made it this far, but I think she made it as far as she should have.

We saw this week that consistency doesn’t always pay off, as a shocked audience saw the competition’s best female vocalist, Carly Smithson, in the bottom three. Interestingly, all of the bottom three were girls, meaning that only two of the top seven contestants are girls in this season’s competition so far.

With Brooke White likely being the only girl with a strong enough fan base to take her into the finale, it looks like a guy will follow in the footsteps of past male winners Ruben Studdard and Taylor Hicks to be named the next American Idol.

What we also saw this week is that it is very, very likely that we’ll see a David A. v. David C. finale. Their consistency, with the exception of the train wreck that was last week for David A., is definitely paying off with viewers.

It’s arguable whether David Cook or David Archuleta pulled out the better performance this week, as Cook’s had more energy and style, while Archuleta’s vocals were goosebump worthy.

However, Jason Castro is not too far behind in terms of consistency and arguably carries a larger fanbase than Cook at this point in the competition.

This week was also one of surprises, as Chikezie continued to impress , perhaps even surprise, with some really bright moments in his performance. As mentioned, Carly Smithson’s inclusion in the bottom 3 was unexpected.

Perhaps even more unexpected was Kristy Lee Cook’s inclusion in the Top 10. Not only did Kristy sing possibly one of the most repetitive and simple songs in the history of The Beatles catalog, but her vocal was definitely very ok. I will admit that it is getting entertaining to see how long Kristy can continue to make the bottom group and still survive to the next week.

Here’s my vote count for this week as I wasn’t able to get a vote in for David Archuleta because his line was still busy at 11:52 PM Pacific:

David Cook: 1

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