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

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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Entertainment Weekly, one of my very favorite weekly magazines, put odds on the American Idol Top 12 finalists with David Archuleta leading and Kristy Lee Cook bringing up the rear.

EW’s panel of Idol experts got the list pretty right, with a few adjustments here and there, which is one of the many reasons why I’m such a big fan of the print magazine.

1. David Archuleta (2-1)

2. Jason Castro (7-2)

3. Carly Smithson (5-1)

4. Brooke White (8-1)

5. David Cook (10-1)

6. David Hernandez

(12-1)

7. Michael Johns (15-1)

8. Ramiele Malubay (20-1)

9. Syesha Mercado

(25-1)

10. Amanda Overmyer (100-1)

11. Chikezie (250-1)

12. Kristy Lee Cook (500-1)

If I was to make any adjustments, I’d probably flip-flop David Cook and Brooke White at the 4 and 5 spots. I’d do the same for Chikezie and Amanda Overmyer in the 10 and 11 spots. Other than that, the list is pretty spot on! I think that Ramiele is a wonderful singer, but she might be a little too sweet to make it as far as Jasmine Trias did in Season 3.

Is anyone confident enough to take David Archuleta on those odds? He’s one of the few contestants left with an absolutely fanatic fan base, but we’ve seen in the past that this doesn’t always translate to the most votes (see last year’s Blaker Girls or Season 2’s Claymates) in the finale.

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By the way, I saw that my Top 16 results photo recap got posted on AmericanIdol.com, which you should definitely check out to relive the drama that was my not-so-secret crush Kady Malloy leaving the show, along with Danny Noriega, Asia’h Epperson, and Luke Menard.