I can’t decide whether I liked or hated Alex Lambert singing “Trouble”. Is it all wrong, or so wrong it’s right? No jumping up and down for Randy on this one. Ellen thought he was a mushy banana– take that for what it’s worth. I kind of don’t get what the judges love so much about him. I’m always borderline over whether I even like him.

I really like Tim Urban. And he definitely seemed a bit more relaxed tonight. And he definitely seems more confident when he plays the guitar. “Hallelujah” could have been a disaster. It wasn’t. It wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard. But it was okay. Ellen actually got up and ran over to give him a hug. All of the judges were okay with this performance.

What’s up with Andrew Garcia singing “girl” songs. Tonight it was “Genie in a Bottle”. Maybe singing a song by a woman just frees him up to pursue his own thing. Randy may have a point with the song sounding kind of limited. I’m kind of ready for them to shut up about “Straight Up”.

Casey James is kind of the opposite of Lee Dewyze. Whereas Lee delivers consistent performances, and you always kind of know what kind of song he’s going to sing, Casey sings a different genre every week it seems. So, what would an album of his sound like? Granted, he’s still plenty pretty. The judges were pretty underwhelmed by this performance.

Ouch. That’s all I can say about Aaron Kelly singing “I’m Already There”. Please, America, please put me out of my misery. The judges were all over the place with their feedback.

Todrick Hall decided to tackle Queen’s “Somebody to Love”. I was a little afraid for him tonight. I really still like Todrick. I’m not sure I’d still put him in my top three, overall. However, he was SO much better than so many others tonight. He certainly doesn’t deserve to go home. The judges thought the performance was a bit inconsistent but good.

Okay, the judges flipped out and cried over Big Mike singing “This Woman’s Work”… I, on the other hand, just truly didn’t like seeing a man sing this song. I can’t hear anyone other than Kate Bush singing this song. Whatever, judges. I reserve the right to disagree with your namby pamby crying selves.

Alright, that’s it for tonight. You may have noticed I didn’t review the girls top 8. That’s because my dvr didn’t record. Don’t you hate that? I’ll catch up on Fox later tonight.

Lee– safe
Aaron– safe
Alex– safe

That brought it down to Andrew and Jermaine.

Andrew was safe!! Yea!! I like Jermaine, but I wasn’t crazy about his singing. I thought his attitude was GREAT, though.

Danny Gokey sang. Of course, now he’s a country singer. Who knew?

Lilly– safe
Paige– safe
Katie– safe

It came down to Didi and Michelle.

Didi– safe
Michelle– going home

Katelyn– safe
Crystal– safe
Siobahn– safe

Which meant Haeley and Lacey were up for elimination and that I wouldn’t really care which goes home. I really thought Lacey would probably go home. But, no…

Haeley went home. She seems like an incredibly sweet girl, but she was a little grating.

But who I am to say… they’re the ones running the best rated show on tv. I just hope they find a way to use Ellen’s comic talent in a way that doesn’t take away from the music. I felt like “So you think you can dance” didn’t do that when she guest hosted it. Time will tell…

Kris Allen!

Well, just as I predicted (I don’t usually get these right), Kris Allen won the 2009 edition of American Idol.

I think that a combination of Kris Allen fans and Adam Lambert haters put Kris over the top. I am not sure Kris could have won if it weren’t for the fact that there are about as many people who absolutely HATE Adam as there are who like him. That actually should mean really good things for Adam’s music career.

This was the first year that I can remember not caring who won. Every year prior to this year I had a clear cut favorite, but this year I thought both finalists were good singers and neither of them really moved me like some of the past contestants.

So what do you think? Should Kris Allen have won or was Adam Lambert ripped off?

Will it be Adam Lambert or Kris Allen?

I am personally leaning towards Kris, but I think it’s going to be very close. It really depends on whether or not the Kris Allen fans and the Adam Lambert haters have bigger numbers than the Adam Lambert fans.

Both of them are very talented. So who do you think will be the 8th winner of American Idol?

Good luck to both of them… it should be a close final.

Much like my wife, I would never have pegged Kris as my favorite contestant come final 3 time, but right now he is definitely my favorite, followed by Adam Lambert and Danny Gokey. Early on my favorites were Danny and Allison. I still wish Allison were in it, because she was my favorite contestant watch.

So, who do you think is going home? I think it’s a close call because all of them are pretty evenly matched talent wise. If I had to bet on it I would say Danny is going home, but I wouldn’t be surprised by Kris or even Adam going home. We will know soon enough…

So who will be the final 2? I am thinking it will be Danny and Adam, but it could easily be Kris and Danny or Kris and Adam. Time will tell…

Who do you think is going home tomorrow?

I like all four of them, but I didn’t agree with the judges tonight. I thought that Kris had the best performance of the night. That said, I expect Kris to be the one going home.

My personal favorite of the final 4 contestants is Allison. She is pretty amazing for a 17 year old.

So who do you think will go home?

DAVID COOK!!

I’ll try to write more on the finale tomorrow night, assuming I don’t have a baby tonight.

The coin flip last week went to David Archuleta, who chose to sing second (smart call). Both singers’ first songs were chosen by Clive Davis. David Cook was given “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”, and David Archuleta was given “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. I thought both did a decent job. David Cook added in a little flair, but you really don’t want to mess with the U2 classic too much. Clive Davis really did right by David Archuleta, choosing a song that already has a lot of the runs and drawn out notes that he likes. Because they were already written into the song, David didn’t feel the need to overdo the song.

The second songs were from the song writing competition. Unlike previous years when both singers have been saddled with singing the same song, no matter whether it suits them both or not, this year the Davids were allowed to choose their own songs from the top ten vote getters. David C. chose an upbeat number that I thought was a little “pop” for him but still at least entertaining. David A. chose a sappy ballad– exactly the kind of song that the producers would usually choose for the finalists to sing. Exactly the kind of song I really don’t enjoy. Simon thought it was more in keeping with the tone of the night. Really? Given the boxing them, wouldn’t that be “Eye of the Tiger”?

The final song of the evening was contestants’ choice. David C. chose to tackle a new song– Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was good, more of a sensitive low-key performance from him. Simon thought he should have returned to “Hello” or “Billie Jean”, but he said he preferred to show progression by singing a new song, rather than something he’d sung before. David A. chose to sing my favorite song of the year (not really) “Imagine”. Frankly, I was talking on the phone during the performance, so I’m not absolutely sure whether it was better or worse, but I think it was about the same. Since I thought it was hideously oversung to begin with, his comments about giving it more sent shivers down my spine.

So, that was it. As expected, the judges favored David Archuleta. Randy said he was exactly what “American Idol” is about. And he’s right. American Idol is about turning out a very mainstream pop singer. David Archuleta will be perfect for that. I had to keep reminding myself, though, that I don’t want David Cook to win because it’s in his best interest to come in second. Still, part of me can’t help but wish…

What about you? Who was your favorite tonight?

Fantasia performed, and her red hair and wild dancing were about the most exciting part of the evening. We could sure have used some of her energy and animation this season.

There were home visits. David Archuleta visited Murray City, Utah and was overwhelmed by the response. Syesha returned home to Sarasota, Florida and was overwhelmed by the response. David Cook visited Kansas City and Blue Springs Missouri and was overwhelmd by the response. We did find out that David Cook originally didn’t even plan to audition– he just went to the auditions to support his younger brother.

Finally, the final two were revealed. Again, it was no surprise. The finale next week will be between the two Davids, as has been expected for weeks. It could be an interesting show. Or it could be another fairly predictable, somewhat boring week.

What do you think of the final two?

David Archuleta started the night with “And So It Goes”, chosen by Paula. It was definitely his best song of the night. I think it was helped by the fact that I didn’t know the song, so I couldn’t be annoyed by his drawing out of the song. Randy gave the usual, predictable “dope, in it to win it” critique. Simon said it was very good but predictable. Next, he departed completely from his usual song style and chose to sing Chris Brown’s “With You”. Yeah, that was pretty horrible. Randy was right on when he said it was not believable hearing David sing to “Boo”. It was really just bizarre. Simon’s imagery was pretty good when he said it was like “a chihuahua trying to be a tiger”. It was the high school talent show performance of the song. I don’t know what he was thinking with that song choice. I guess it was a slightly more appropriate song choice than “Brick House”, but it’s a toss up. His final song was chosen by the producers. They chose “Longer”, which was certainly a more appropriate song choice. However, he reverted to the squinty eyed sincere look, but he sounded okay. He hit all the notes, and it was okay, although not remarkable.

Randy chose Syesha Mercado’s first song, “If I Ain’t Got You”. It sounded good, but I don’t really have anything super positive or horribly negative tosay about it. There was nothing wrong with it. It just wasn’t wonderful. For her second song, Syesha chose to sing “Fever”. The judges panned this choice, but I thought it was a good choice for her. It reminded me of a Broadway audition, which is pretty much how I think Syesha should view her time on American Idol. Paula, who had just defended David A’s choice of “With You” chose to say it didn’t really show who she was. Really, Paula? Whereas David A’s choice showed exactly who he is? Seriously? The producers’ song choice seemed to definitely indicate who they want to see in the finale. They chose “Hit Me Up”, which was a fun, upbeat song but didn’t do anything for Syesha. It did, however, allow the judges to engage in a 5 minute discussion about Happy Feet– odd, since the show was put out by competing studio Warner Brothers. Maybe Warner Brothers paid for it.

David Cook was the last singer of the night. Simon chose for him to sing “First Time Ever I Saw Your Face”. I really thought Simon would have chosen something more upbeat. I do think he was looking to see what David would do with the song. He did an interesting marriage of the original with a bit of originality towards the end. His voice sounded great. Randy wanted a rock song, so he was disappointed (maybe Randy should have chosen David C’s song). Simon thought it was one of his best performances (not that he’s biased). When it came time to choose his own song, David chose something that sounded more like what I would expect him to sing, “Dare You To Move”. I was afraid he would choose something really bizarre, but this was a good song choice. It showed his range, allowed him to sing something unknown but wasn’t so far out there that it would wig out the American Idol viewers. Finally, the producers gave David “Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. It was an okay song choice, allowing him to show the rock side and ballad side simultaneously. The last note was a bit sketchy, though. It was enough to encourage Simon to declare him the winner of the night, though.

So, it looks like a Davids finale, as it has looked for weeks. Hopefully, David Archuleta will pull of the finale and allow David Cook to come in second and pursue his own contract negotiations and to make his own album. David A. is perfectly suited to reign as American Idol winner.

Brooke White singing “I’m a Believer”:

Having said that, let’s talk results. There wasn’t much to tonight’s show. No real drama. I mean, you know who went home, right? Without even seeing the show.

Thats’ right. Jason Castro.

I really like Jason. I wish him all the best in the future, but I don’t think or anyone else was surprised that his time had run out. I think he may have been ready to go a couple of weeks ago. If there’s one thing he needs to do, in my opinion, it’s to expand his musical knowledge. I was dismayed at how few songs he actually knew. But with a bit more experience and a lot of hard work, I think he could really be a fine performer.

Next week the top 3 do their home visits and sing songs custom picked for them.