American Idol 5/20 (Delayblogged!)
May 20, 2008 Brainwaves
Finally caught up! I’ll have this one done in time to vote.
- Michael Buffer to announce the beginning of the show… cute.
- “Sugarfoot” Cook?
- Yeah, “Babyface” I can see.
- Huuuuuuuuge stage for the finale at the Nokia theater.
- Earlier contestants in the audience, along with Luke Perry and kiddies…
- Crowd sounds pretty even, though slightly in Archuleta’s favor.
- Simon’s dressed up a little more than normal.
- FOUR hours of voting time tonight.
- Clive Davis and Andrew Lloyd Weber mentor the two this week.
- Archuleta won a coin toss following the results show last week, and will perform last.
- The Davids talk each other up.
- Round one will feature songs picked by Clive Davis. Boxing match metaphors continue to abound.
- David Cook – “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” – This could be released as a single today. Awesome beyond words. The bar is starting HIGH.
- David Archuleta – “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” – This is one of my favorite songs. I’m not sure he’s doing all he can with it — he’s moving some notes around, but it sounds a lot like the Elton John original. Great job with it, but he can do more… which he does at the end. I think he’s redeemed himself a little from the beginning.
- I score round one, slightly, in Cook’s favor. Simon disagrees.
- Round two consists of the contestants’ choices from among the top ten submissions of new songs written for the show.
- David Cook – “Dream Big” (Emily Shackleton) – Perfect song and arrangement for Cook’s style, as he plays along on guitar. Hopefully that last long high note doesn’t blow out his voice, ’cause it sounded great.
- I’m not sure what song Simon was listening to, this was rockin’.
- David Archuleta – “In This Moment” (Ryan Gilmore) – He sings a decent song very well, but it sounds a lot like previous Idol winners’ winning songs. That’s one of the things I liked about the “Dream Big” performance, that it was different.
- Simon keeps calling it for Archuleta, but he’s been sounding like the same old Idol finalist. I like different, and I like the rocking-er music. (Yes, I’m making up words. Shut up. )
- Final round: contestants’ choice.
- David Cook – “The World I Know” – Cook’s never performed this song before, but he does it smashingly. Same as the first two, I’d buy all three as singles.
- Cook’s starting to break down now that’s he’s done performing for competition.
- Simon’s obviously got his favorite. In the words of Tony Stark… “I respectfully disagree.”
- Nice comment from David: “Why do something I’ve already done?” Probably as close as he’s going to get to snarking at Archuleta.
- David Archuleta – “Imagine” – David is reusing a song he’s done previously. I’d have preferred something new instead of a retread. Not to say he does a bad job with it, absolutely the opposite. But We’ve seen this performance once already this season.
- Ruben Studdard sings out the finale with “Celebrate Me Home.”
The judges appear to have their favorites, and I have mine…
My vote and my favorite to win: David Cook.
See ya tomorrow night for the grand finale!
