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

While Group 1 looked to be the top group this season with Danny Gokey, Casey Carlson, and Anoop Desai, it was clear that some of the other groups were going to surpass what was largely a disappointing first week of AI’s eighth season. To accomplish this feat, Allison Iraheta, Adam Lambert, and Megan Joy Corkrey of Group 2 stepped up and blew away the performances of Group 1 – yes, even Danny Gokey’s.

Allison Iraheta’s performance of “Alone” (performance video here) was probably the biggest surprise on the night to many since she wasn’t really front of mind throughout Hollywood. While it’s not even close to the first time that Heart’s “Alone” has been performed on American Idol, her performance is up there with Carrie Underwood’s as the best performance of the song ever on the show. More than anything, it was just Allison’s passion and near recklessness with the song that made it such a joy to listen to. She just let loose and really got the night going.

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While I don’t think it was an incredible performance, I think that the very pretty Megan Corkrey’s performance of Corinne Bailey Rae’s “Put Your Records On” (performance video here) should be just enough to let her squeak into the top 3 from Group 2. Megan has a unique look, an unconventional pretty, and a unique sound that I think gives her an identity in this competition. I can’t really remember anyone prettier than her now that Casey Carlson is out and her unique stage presence (the dance is kind of silly) could set her apart. Again, it’s not the first time that this song has been performed on AI, but I think anyone will agree that Megan Corkrey outsang Antonella Barba from a couple seasons back.

Lastly, Adam Lambert did the impossible – he made Danny Gokey appear beatable – not just beatable, but very, very beatable with his performance of “Satisfaction.” Adam is clearly the guy with the most stage presence, confidence, and range left in the competition, but it will be interesting to see how some of the theme weeks treat him. Like Blake Lewis, Adam takes risks with his arrangements and he’s going to have many “love it” or “hate it” moments and while he’s clearly great, I don’t think anything is guaranteed for him thusfar, but at least he’s making it interesting – along with Allison and Megan.

While the good performances weren’t incredible, they were solid. What we’re starting to see with Idol is that every good song has been done before by another Idol in a performance that is not only memorable, but possibly impossible to top. For every “Natural Woman” by Ann Marie Boskovich, there has been a better one by Kelly Clarkson. For every “A Song By You” by Ricky Braddy, there has been a better one by Elliott Yamin. And for Michael Sarver’s “I Don’t Wanna Be,” there has been an epic performance by Bo Bice that has been better

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One of the most disappointing performances on the night had to be that of Casey Carlson, my early favorite who might end up going home well before she should after a poor song choice of “Every Little Thing” by the Police.

Carlson is probably the most strikingly beautiful Idol that we’ve seen this side of Kady Malloy and Katharine McPhee (yes, even Carrie Underwood wasn’t nearly this strikingly beautiful off the bat). And while Casey has the looks of a star and seemingly the personality, the judges ripped on her performance that was in the same company as Steven Fowler’s “Rock with You,” which I considered to be the worst performance on the night.

Regardless, anyone who knows me knows that I stick with my favorites until they are no longer in the competition. So for Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai, and yes, Casey Carlson, my votes keep coming because I think that all three have the potential to truly be great.

Here are my top three performances on the night:

Danny Gokey – Hero

Anoop Desai – Angel of Mine

Tatiana Del Toro – Saving All My Love For You (it’s true! not even joking)

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Will Casey get another chance? Let’s hope so.

As we all get ready for the last week of competition before the crowning of this season’s Top 10, here’s a preview of So You Think You Can Dance this week. The couples compete for votes particularly hard this week because this show decides who gets to go on the tour. This week’s show might surprise some with the emergence of a couple very reminiscent of Sabra and Dominic last season, Courtney G. and Gev, who continue to improve, yet fly under the radar a bit.

There are some fun surprises in this week’s show as well with the return of a couple from last season, a little Kourtni L. in the audience, a first-ever on the show, and some interesting commentary from Mia Michaels in the guest judge chair. All in all, a great show and something to look forward to for all.

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In my opinion, still the couple to beat at this point in the competition is Chelsie H. and Mark, who perform a Broadway routine, along with an Alex Da Silva Salsa routine that takes advantage of Chelsie’s Latin ballroom experience.

What truly separates this couple from the others is their ability to take on the characters that they’re playing that week. In the couple’s Broadway routine, Chelsie H. takes on the role of a strong-willed W-O-M-A-N who pushes Mark around, the opposite of the couple’s dramatic hip-hop routine a couple weeks ago. Chelsie’s footwork is truly something to watch this week and their Broadway routine is one of my favorites from a genre that is generally tough for me to like – definitely look out for the couple’s strong performances this week.

The judges are treating the leggy Chelsie H. as one of the frontrunner at this point and why not? She has done nothing but impress since her audition, where she WOWed the judges with her footwork – something that continues to be her strength throughout the competition.

Beyond the footwork, Chelsie commits to whatever role is presented to her – whether it be hip-hop, contemporary, or Broadway. From her moves to her facial expressions, Chelsie has shown no fear of any style of dance so far and that’s the attitude that will keep her in the competition well beyond the Top 10. Even more, Chelsie and Mark work extremely well together, are believable in numerous contexts, and dance as partners, not individuals.

Having a rough go at it this week from the judges was crowd favorite Twitchington – Kherington and Twitch. While the couple pull off what I believe to be the hottest Krumping routine ever on the show, their second routine was lacking the enthusiasm that made up for some synching problems in their high energy Krumping performance.

While the couple’s second routine is simply just “ok,” definitely look out for their Little C choreographed Krump that will have you rewinding your DVR a couple times just to watch how BUCK Kherington can get on stage (not to mention hot). Starting from Twitch’s HUGE leap on stage to kick things off, there is no doubt that Twitch’s energy helped Kherington pull off a Krump that would have looked ridiculous from any other couple, but Kherington’s commitment to “getting buck” during the dance is going to win over a lot more fans this week. Like Chelsie H., Kherington has proved a versatile talent on stage and she’s doing the impossible – not getting overshadowed by Twitch.

Katee and Joshua continued to perform at a high level with a Viennese Waltz and believe it or not, the show’s first-ever Bollywood routine. While nearly impossible in theory, Katee and Joshua’s ballroom routine (to Goo Goo Dolls’ “Iris”) followed up Twitchington’s high energy Krump routine, but still held its own with the audience.

What everyone will be talking about this week, however, is the show’s first ever Bollywood routine by the couple. Interestingly, the performance is done with traditional Indian music, not popular music or any sort of remix to try and Americanize the style. Honestly, I thought it was going to be a trainwreck, but the only couple that I think could have pulled off this routine does so in a very big way. Bollywood will be a pleasant surprise to most, but I think it’s a genre that is not meant to be the next regular genre like Salsa or Hip-Hop on the show, and it should only be used sparingly because it could go very, very wrong with the wrong couple.

Something to look out for this week is the emergence of Courtney G. and Gev as a couple to be reckoned with. Unlike Twitchington, Chelsie/Mark, and Katee/Joshua, couples that started good and continue to be good, this couple has been forced to really step up to stay in the competition. Starting with their hip-hop routine a few routines back (anyone else not surprised that New York Knicks’ dancer Courtney got down in this performance?), the shortest couple in the competition proved that they have the potential to hang in for a big longer than anyone would have thought. Perhaps most of all, they’re likable, “MESSAGE!” will become part of your vocabulary after you watch their first promo this week.

In Mia Michaels’ words, the couple has “a great night” with two strong performances that will have you wondering if they could be one of the top couples left on the show at this point. 

While they might find themselves in the Bottom 3 again this week, simply because the Top 3 couples are so strong in the competition I can’t see Courtney or Gev being sent home by the judges this week on the sole basis of their improvement and ability to find chemistry with one another. Whether they find chemistry with new partners after reaching the Top 10, no one can really predict, but there is absolutely no reason why either of these two should go home this week.

Going home this week: Comfort/Thayne/Jessica – Toss up between the girls, any guy other than Thayne going home this week would feel like highway robbery.

In my opinion, here’s how the current couples stand after this Top 12 Week

1) Chelsie H. and Mark

2) Katee and Joshua

3) Kherington and Twitch

4) Courtney and Gev

5) Jessica and Will (solid performances from Will again, along with one good one from Jessica)

6) Comfort and Thayne (who struggled throughout this week)

Overall, here’s how I’d rank the Top 5 overall contestants

1) Chelsie H.

2) Will

3) Kherington

4) Katee

5) Twitch   

In this summer of movie sequels (see Indiana Jones) and redos (The Incredible Hulk), the American Idol finale also saw George Michael take the Idol stage for the first time to sing “Praying for Time,” which Carrie Underwood performed earlier this year at Idol Gives Back.

I realize that George Michael made the song a hit, but at least on the Idol stage, I feel like Carrie was the one to take it to a new, higher, better level. Am I wrong?

George Michael: Praying for Time

Carrie Underwood: Praying for Time

After a day of covering red carpet arrivals for American Idol and seeing David Cook leave most of us in stunned, yet pleasant disbelief after being named Season 7’s winner over David Archuleta, I headed off to the American Idol finale after party with memories of David Cook’s “Time of My Life” playing on repeat in my head.

I’ve been fortunate enough to attend both this year’s and last year’s finale parties. While the parties get extremely crowded, they always have good food, free drinks, and you end up running into some familiar faces, former Idols, and a bunch of other people who you’d otherwise never expect to see.

This year, a pleasant surprise was getting to meet much of the crew from last season’s So You Think You Can Dance, which premiered tonight on FOX, who were hanging out at a table together for much of the night.

While I saw the whole crew on the red carpet, I was working and wasn’t able to snap a picture of the side of their faces, let alone get a picture with them. As soon as I saw Lacey, who I believe to be the hottest dancer that I’ve ever seen, I couldn’t have been more excited and she was really cool about standing and smiling through some camera malfunctions.

Lacey, along with Ryan Seacrest, Lauren Conrad, and Eminem, is one of the few celebrities that I was still hoping to one day meet in real life. Somehow, I’ve been fortunate to literally have met most every celebrity that I’ve really dreamed of meeting, so getting to meet Lacey was an enormous thrill. I couldn’t be a bigger fan of hers!

Lauren Gottlieb and Sara Von Gillern hung out with one another for a good portion of the night. It was pretty cool seeing them just hang out and be regular, yet recognizable people.

The two went around taking pictures at the various sponsored photo booths and were really nice about snapping pictures with anyone who asked. I caught Sara’s mohawk on the red carpet earlier in the day and it definitely gives her a whole different look compared to what we were used to seeing! Both Lauren and Sara looked beautiful and took my admission that I lost all of last weekend to watching SYTYCD reruns on MTV in stride.

Lauren was actually a lot taller in real life than I expected! Not like she was a towering giant, but when she was always dancing with a male partner, it was oftentimes tough to tell that she’s actually pretty tall compared to the other girls in the competition.

Of course, Lauren is one of those girls who is so incredibly good looking that it’s almost hard to look her straight in the face because you know that you’ll pretty much just forget whatever you were about to say. So yes, I had nothing insightful to say to “Misha Chan,” but it was still pretty sweet to meet her!

Hanging out with Lacey, Pasha, and Anya for much of the night was hip-hop/breakdancer Hok Konishi. With his trademark ‘do, Hok is clearly impossible to miss. On the red carpet, he definitely looked happy to be hanging out with SYTYCD’s Dominic, who did some flares and halos on the red carpet right behind one of the TV Guide booths where Justin Guarini was taping a segment.

Ballroom partners Pasha and Anya were hanging out with the SYTYCD crew as well and I was hoping that they would bust out a few moves on the dance floor, but they didn’t as far as I know. I was outside with my co-workers for most of the night, so I might have missed out on a bunch of action.

I know that there will come a point in life when my luck runs out and moments like this won’t come up every couple months, so I really just tried to take it all in this year with less wide-eyed “oooooh Idol!!”-ness this time around.

Much of the Top 12 showed up to the party, but they were getting so mobbed with fans that it made it tough for any of them to really hang around. A bunch of them (Kristy Lee Cook, Jason Castro, maybe some others that I didn’t see) could only come in for a second, take a few pictures, then were quickly escorted away (to another party, I’d assume).

From this year, Michael Johns, Ramiele Malubay , Jason Yeager, Amy Davis, the night’s biggest celebrity Renaldo Lapuz (who took pictures all night long), along with Idol alumni Jasmine Trias, Sanjaya Malakar, and AJ Tabaldo braved the crowds, which actually weren’t nearly as bad as they would have been last year in the much more crowded venue next to the Kodak Theatre.

Amy Davis gave both Lacey and Lauren some competition for the title of “hottest SYTYCD/AI Alumna” at the afterparty. She had on a really pretty and glamorously short (if there is such thing?) white dress that made her impossible to miss all night. Amy was one of this year’s prettiest contestants. After meeting her, TV did not even get close to showing how beautiful the model and Idol semi-finalist is in real life!

The Idols all took the attention in stride and actually got to have some pretty normal nights, though Michael Johns was so instantly recognizable that a crowd seemed to follow him everywhere, but he was totally gracious about it. He made some half-jokes about how the second he stood still, everyone managed to find him, but if he kept moving, it was pretty normal.

I know a lot of people always wonder what the Idols are like in real life. While I didn’t spend an overwhelming amount of time with any of them, all of my run in’s with the Idols this year have all been beyond pleasant and it has been a joy to meet them.

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They never seem bothered to exchange a few words and it would be tough for anyone to be dealing with the fanaticism and huge crowds that follow them everywhere that they go. They are constantly doing press, rehearsing, and nonstop interviews, while running on little sleep. I have no doubt that it gets exhausting, which is what makes it that much better that they are always as nice as they are.

Before I left, I got to meet Jasmine Trias, who came in third place during Season 3 (Fantasia’s year). Jasmine was spending a bunch of time with Ramiele Malubay and AJ Tabaldo at the party, but she made a point to take pictures with any fans who wanted to meet her. I was a huge Jasmine fan during Season 3 and lost a lot of sleep voting for her, so it was very cool to actually meet her in real life.

All in all, it was a hectic, but unforgettable night. Meeting Lacey Schwimmer was one of those once in a lifetime moments that I’ll never ever forget, along with having the chance to microblog the red carpet arrivals on the site’s biggest traffic night of the whole year.

Seeing as So You Think You Can Dance and American Idol are by far two of my very favorite TV shows, having them come together in one place for the perfect storm of perfect finale party made for a really great night.

And of course, congratulations to David Cook, our American Idol!

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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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?

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 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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