American Idol Season 7

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Wednesday night’s 2-hour season finale has been talked about everywhere - except here - so let’s go over what went down and more importantly - who won American Idol!

And now a quick recap of the night’s events:

The top 12 come out singing and dancing to “Get Ready” with the So You Think You Can Dance dancers.  Both David’s sang a duet on “Hero” (Archie sings backup and Cook nails the vocals). Mike Myers came out and wasted everybody’s time with plugging The Love Guru.  Syesha gets to perform with Seal.  This was really cool but Syesha’s lower range isn’t all that great.  She looked like she was starstruck and having a blast though.  Then Jason Castro performs “Hallelujah”, one of his best performances of the season.  Both David’s find out they’re getting hybrid cars courtesy of Ford.  The top 6 girls do a Donna Summer medly (Amanda Overmeyer couldn’t look any less out of touch with the show at this point.  She looks totally confused the whole time.)  Donna Summer sings.  Carly and Michael Johns sing “My Baby Wrote Me A Letter”.  Jimmy Kimmel wastes our time with some show filler - errr - jokes.

David Cook performs “Sharp Dressed Man” with ZZ Top.  Awesome.  Brooke White and Grahm Nash take the stage for a duet that didn’t sound too impressive in my opinion.

On commercial, an ad for Guitar Hero comes on starring David Cook doing the Risky Business dance in his undies ala Tom Cruise.

Show comes back with a showcase of crappy audition footage.  That “Let My People Go” guy and wait… Renaldo, the “I am your brother” dude… Oh no, Ryan Seacrest introduces him to the audience and he comes out in his pimp suit with cheerleaders to sing the song and ruin the show.  What a waste!

Archie joins One Republic on “Apologize” which some would say is a little outdated now but I thought it was pretty stellar.  Jordin Sparks sings for us. Then we are shown footage of Gladys Knight and some of her original pips (consisting of Jack Black, Ben Stiller and Robert Downy Jr.) doing “Midnight Train to Georgia”.  Pretty funny stuff.  Carrie Underwood comes out and rocks the house down.

Archuleta gets his own Guitar Hero commercial - same as David Cook except little Archie’s got his boxers on and doesn’t pull it off as well as Cook did.

The top 12 do a George Michael medly followed by George Michael singing a breathtaking song about God’s children.

And then we make it to the final results where, in a shocking turn of events, David Cook is announced the winner of American Idol.  He doubles over, is totally speechless and cries. It was a truly amazing moment in television history.  I think this finale was just as suspenseful as season 2’s Ruben VS. Clay and no other finale’s have compared.  David’s family is pulled up on stage, he blames his brother Andrew for all of it and sings the winning song (not sure what the name was but it was a million times better than the songs they had sang on Tuesday night’s show).

So there you have it.  That’s the extremely shortened version of what took place during the finale.  I think that all of America was truly shocked by the results.  Seemed like everybody was rooting Cook but knew Archuleta had it in the bag.  Kudos to both contestants and to all of you who have been reading this blog.  It’s been fun!

Share This

I just wanted to update briefly (a more in depth recap of tonight’s show will be up soon) and say Congratulations to David Cook on his big win on American Idol tonight!  It was a truly amazing moment when the results were revealed.  More on the 2-hour finale coming later, but for right now - have fun celebrating, Mr. Cook!

Share This

Now it’s time for Archie’s songchoice. His pick was a song called “In This Moment” which already sounds like a winning song title (think back to season one’s “A Moment Like This”). He comes out on stage and folks, let’s just get this out there - what kind of jacket was he wearing? It was gray with an anchor on it. Is that some sort of subliminal symbolism that’s he’s “strong”? Oh well. He really knew how to pull this song off and sound like a champ (see, the annoying boxing references are rubbing off on me now). My only pet peeve? Not the suit jacket…. the chorus of the song. Can we say SHANIA TWAIN RIPOFF!!!! Anybody else notice how this song’s melody during the “in this moment” lyric is exactly the same as Shania’s Twain’s “From This Moment On”?? I guess nobody seems to care but me. Randy said, “you are so in the zone that you can sing the phonebook” - Quick - Somebody get this kid a phonebook - STAT! Simon told Archie, “you definitely chose the better song there.” And round 2 goes to Archuleta.

For round 3, David Cook chose “The World I Know” by Collective Soul and stripped it down to it’s core. That song is awesome and while Simon seemed to have a problem with David’s choice, I still think it was a good move. After finishing the song, Cook begins to cry as Randy tells him, “very nice job, dude”. Paula says she truly applauds him and Simon (who already announced a few days ago that he was publicly endorsing Cook as his choice for American Idol) said, “I just want to say publicly that you are one of the nicest, most sincere contestants we’ve had”. Then he got on him about how he totally picked the wrong song and asked why he didn’t do something from prior in the season. Cook’s response? “Why would I do something that I’ve already done?” - take that, Archie. You got burned!

For the final performance of the night, David Archuleta played it safe and went with “Imagine” again which seemed like a really pansy move. He changed it up a little bit and added in that tiny falsetto part that wasn’t in the first version he sang on idol months ago. It was beautifully done but I’m more partial to his other performance. Plus I thought he should’ve gone with something else. What do I know? Randy could not stop pimping the kid, “you are so good tonight. You are exactly what this show is about.” Then Paula, “you’ve left me speechless. You were stunning tonight.” And finally, Simon Cowell’s thoughts? He tells Archie, “in my opinion, you came out here tonight to win and what we have witnessed is a knockout.”

Tonight’s show is a 2-hour finale to crown the winner. I heard that George Michael is supposed to be there. Goody. Who will win? First I leaned toward David Cook… then when I heard Archie was closing out the show I changed to him… but as of right now I’m going to say….. David Cook.

Share This

Many things can be said about American Idol, but if there is one thing the Fox producers can’t seem to get enough of it’s feeding the American people a steaming pile of corny crapola. Take for instance, last night’s opening. The show begins as the “let’s get ready to rumble” guy introduces the two contestants (who are decked out in Red and Blue boxing garb) like it’s some sort of cage match we’re about to witness. The whole idea of these two guys “duking it out” is really silly considering Archuleta’s oh-so-niceness and Cook’s humble graces.

That’s right… for everybody who bitched at me for poking at David Cook, well, I can’t really apologize because it was all in good fun and that’s what I’m here to do. But I will say that whatever the outcome of this competition, David Cook will outsell Archie’s record sales any day. You all know I love the little guy, but it’s time to think about who is ACTUALLY going to make it in the radio world and it’s definitely in Cook’s favor.

Back to last night’s ‘fight to the death’! Cook comes out with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” by U2. He sang it with total conviction and seemed determined to make it memorable. I’d love to make a snappy joke here but the dude was excellent. Randy said it was a “great way to start off this duel of 2007″ (apparently Randy doesn’t know what year it is). Paula said “we have found David Cook” which isn’t really saying much of anything. And Simon said it was “very tense, very emotional. I thought it was phenomenal.”

Archuleta’s up next with “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me”. He starts off sitting on the stairs which automatically makes it memorable. The kid nailed it and really shocked me here. He sang in this tone that he hasn’t even shown on the show before. He gave it all he had so there is much praise for him ahead. Randy goes absolutely wild over it. Tells him he’s got the “crazy hot vocals” which gets Archie all choked up. Paula tells him he brings the sunshine. And Simon said, “I thought last week you were okay. I thought tonight’s performance was the best you’ve done so far.” Simon declares that round one goes to Archuleta.

Can we STOP it with the boxing analogies?? This isn’t that serious!

Round two was a bit different this year as the producers decided that instead of making both contestants sing a really corny, poorly written song submitted by the viewers, the contestants got to choose from a batch of 10 really corny, poorly written songs submitted by the viewers.

David Cook went with “Dream Big” which almost could have been really good if it weren’t for the overly cheesy chorus. It was very Christian-rock-radio which I’m not knocking, but it seemed a little lame for David Cook. Plus there was nothing outstanding about it. It was as generic as they come. Randy said “you sang your face off”, Paula thought it was great and Simon said “the end was okay, you made the most of what you had”. But he didn’t feel like it was a winning moment.

Let’s continue this in the next post, shall we?

Share This

Just kidding.

Syesha went home.  That’s today “big” news that really isn’t all that big.  As a matter of fact, we could have predicted this weeks ago.  Last night’s show was even more draggy than the night before.  If you were wondering whether it really takes a full HOUR to eliminate one of three contestants, you got your answer last night.  And that would be that yes, yes it does.

We got to sit through all three contestant’s journey’s back home and oh, what a blast that was.  We got to see Archie cry, say “gosh” 50 million times in all his awkward glory and soak up all the cheers from his adoring teenybopper fans.

Syesha’s visit back home in Florida allowed us to see her high school where she gave all the kids some words of wisdom about how it’s always possible to fulfill your dreams.  Call me a cynic but I think it’s easy to fulfill your dreams when you’re:

1.  Incredibly attractive

2.  Born with talent to sing well

3.  On the most popular tv show in history

This isn’t to say that people can’t live their dreams but let’s get real here, Syesha!  Not everybody is born a star.  The rest of Syesha’s visit home consisted of crazy ladies shoving their babies in her arms and demanding autographs and an emotional limo ride.

David Cook’s brother got called on stage to help give us all the ‘real story’ behind David’s American Idol audition.  Apparently David just went to give his brother moral support and wound up being asked to audition by some big shot producer.  I guess we’ll all just have to buy that story, won’t we?  Either way, David made it and his brother Andrew must be waking up to the sweet smell of failure every morning.  Ouch.

After all the filler, Ryan Seacrest finally got down to business and booted Syesha off the show.  He acted as if it was some big surprise but even Syesha herself knew that her time on Idol was over.

Next week is the FINALE!  The David’s will duke it out.  Who is going to win?  Originally I felt like David Archuleta had this thing in the bag but here lately I’m actually starting to think that David Cook is going straight to the top.  It’s definitely going to be a show worth watching.

Share This

This week’s Idol was a bit of a drag overall, but I guess that’s what this show is all about.  Here’s the thing - we all know that Syesha has no chance whatsoever so I can’t be the only one who felt guilty watching her pour all her energy into 3 performances which still weren’t going to edge her into the finale.  It’s unfortunate that she has to be the third wheel in all this David man-love.

I’m not going to rehash every detail in this post.  Instead, let’s just get to the point.  I’m growing a bit impatient with Idol (as I usually do by the end of the season).  By this point everybody’s got their favorites, they’re all going to get signed and it’s basically just a popularity contest rather than a show about talent.  Like, vote for who you think ought to be this year’s prom King.  Lame.  Anyway.

David Archuleta aka “Archie” had a whole lot of drama this week in the news when his annoying dad got banned from being backstage.  Apparently the guy is an a-hole.  All this buzz about Archie pretty much sealed the deal for him in the finale though.  It didn’t matter if he got up and burped the alphabet, his fans have done enough work to get him through to the end.  The kid wasn’t even good this week.  Paula picked a crappy song with no melody, Archie himself picked Chris Brown’s “With You” which got totally butchered.  As Randy put it, he really looks weird singing about his “boo”.  And the producers picked some other ballad that was slow as molasses and more boring than watching paint dry.

Syesha had to sing an Alecia Keys song given to her by Randy.  She really didn’t do too much to change it up.  A few changes in notes here and there but ultimately, Alicia sings that song so much better.  Then she picked “Fever” which has already been done a million different times by a million other artists.  She looked sexy dancing with a chair, but eh, even sex appeal couldn’t get her in the top 2.  Her last song was picked by the producers… can’t remember the name of it but it was really upbeat and didn’t feel at all like something Syesha could pull off.  She tried.  She really tried.

Finally, David Cook’s performances consisted of a freakin’ Roberta Flack song (picked by Simon - what was he thinking??) that didn’t turn out very well.  David’s own songchoice, Switchfoot’s “Dare You To Move” which could have been good if it weren’t drastically cut down to fit a ridiculously small time slot.  And then Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” which had an interesting arrangement but seriously?  It wasn’t earth-shattering.

The judges weigh in and let Syesha know that she needs to pack her bags up because all her efforts were in vain.  Nice, huh?  That’s showbusiness for ya!

As for last night’s results?  Join me in the next post to find out all the surprises.  Hint - there are no surprises

Share This

Well the time finally came on Wednesday night when Jason Castro got the boot at last.  It’s not like he was terrible all along but let’s be honest here folks, he really seemed to stop caring in the past couple of weeks.  Either the kid was so stoned he just didn’t know he was performing in front of all of America OR he realized he had absolutely no chance at winning with the David’s being the clear favorites to win.

I think all of  America breathed a big sigh of relief when Ryan Seacrest announced the news.  Now it’s time for the competition to get really serious.  All the “iffy” performers have gone and if my predictions are right then it’s definitely going to boil down to a battle between the two David’s.

Share This

The second half of Idol’s show this week started with David Cook singing The Who’s “Baba O’Reily”.  He did a really nice job of it.  Randy told David to shake whatever off and just be himself.  Paula told him, “I’m really humbled to sit here and watch your soul.  Thanks for sharing it with everyone.”  And Simon said, “Welcome back David Cook.”

Syesha Mercado came out in yet another stunning dress and sang, “A Change is Gonna Come.”  Randy said it felt a little disconnected.  He felt that she was pushing for things that she couldn’t quite pull off.  Paula gave Syesha a standing ovation and so much praise that it brought Syesha to tears.  And Simon?  He said “I have to be fair and I have to agree with… Paula.  I thought you sang that really, really well.”

Jason Castro went with Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tamborine Man” and forgot some lyrics in the beginning.  He looked like he was having fun but eh… Randy asks him, “how do you think that was?” then laughs and says that Jason’s just not in the zone.  Simon uttered, “Jason… I’d pack your suitcase.”

David Archuleta sang Elvis’ “Love Me Tender” and it was absolutely beautiful.  Randy called it “another great performance.”  Paula said, “that was one of my favorite performances from you” and Simon said, “you didn’t beat the competition tonight, you crushed the competition.”

Share This

This week’s Idol performances were both really good and really bad.

Of all the songs available, David Cook went with Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” - interesting choice of song.  Despite the weirdness, he was definitely in his element on this one.  It seems like the producers are pushing to get David into the finale now with this week’s rocker-oriented show.  Randy said it was an okay choice and an okay job. Paula hit on David yet again and Simon called it a bit “copycat”.

Next up - Syesha Mercado singing Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary”.  Immediately I cringed and thought the judges would just compare her to the legendary Miss Turner, but to my surprise they didn’t.  The beginning is real thrown back and then it picks up.  But while she does a good job performing, her vocals just aren’t quite big enough to cut it.  Randy said it was the 3rd week in a row that she has done amazing.  Paula actually critiqued the song instead of sounding like she’s on drugs.  And Simon called it a “bad shrieky version”.  It appeared as though Simon was purposely trying to bump up her votes.  Clever.

And then there was Jason Castro… that’s right folks, he’s singing Bob Marley’s “I Shot The Sheriff”.  He basically admitted on national tv that he’s a giant pothead but that’s beside the point.  He let his hair down and tried to get into it but god, it was a train wreck.  Randy called it super karaoke.  Paula said she didn’t like it but he played to the audience so that was nice.  And Simon said, and I quote, it was “utterly atrocious”.

David Archuleta closed out the first round with “Stand By Me”.  The “feel good” songs are a bit annoying after a while but wow was he amazing!  Randy said he brings the hot vocals every time.  Paula said she loves that he has taken everybody’s advice.  Simon said, “the truth is you could have whistled the song and it would’ve been better than the last performance.”  Then he called it the “best performance of the night”.

On to Round 2…

Share This

Wednesday night’s idol started off on an awkward foot when Ryan Seacrest pointed the finger at America and condemned us all for believing the rumors that have been flying around about Paula Abdul.  The Neil Diamond night fiasco (as I like to call it) had a lot of people wondering just what kind of drugs Paula must’ve been on.  Ryan was quick to tell us that none of these rumors are true, that American Idol loves Paula because she is a member of their family.  So shove it, America!

This week’s bottom two?  Syesha Mercado and Brooke White.  Did Syesha deserve to be there?  Nope.  Jason Castro managed to slither out of the bottom two in a magical stroke of luck.

Brooke got the boot and while I’m a bit sad to see her go, it was definitely her time.  She had a good run.  Maybe she’ll remember to never perform “I’m a Believer” in shiny silver pants again.  Stick to your piano, Brooke.

Share This