American Idol Season 7: Part 1 of the Finals
Tonight’s final of American Idol began with music from Rocky and the famous boxing ring announcer telling the live audience at the Nokia Theater “let’s get ready to rumble.” Both the Davids come out with their bathrobes on to simulate being prize fighters, a theme carried through this evening. My question is this – just who is playing the part of Apollo Creed and who is playing the part of Rocky Balboa.
Part 1 of the final had the two contestants singing three songs. Last week David A. won the coin toss and decided to perform second. The first round was songs picked by music industry legend Clive Davis. He picked the U2 song “I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” for David Cook and I thought he really did an amazing job. It’s such a powerful song and a favorite of mine and I thought he did it justice. All three judges said he did a good job, but Randy didn’t think he did as much with it as he could have. David A. sang the Elton John song “Don’t let the sun go down on me” and at times during his performance he reminded me of George Michael and his version of the song. All three of the judges were floored by his performance – Randy and Simon both said it was his best one to date. Simon gave round 1 to David A. Personally I would have given it to David Cook.
Round 2 had the contestants picking their song from the top 10 of the America’s songwriting contest. I guess this is to be their “winning” song and David Cook picked a song called “Dream Big” and rocked it out with his guitar. I loved it. I thought it could be on the radio today as is. The performance was very different from his first one, but very similar in the fact that he just commanded the stage. Randy and Simon weren’t thrilled with the song and Simon said it was a bit of a lightweight. Paula said it was mesmerizing and a way to make her and everyone fall in love with a song they didn’t already know. David A. sang a song called “In this moment” and it was a big ballad. Another ballad. Even though he didn’t pick the first song he picked this one and it was another ballad. David Cook did something different. Randy and Paula loved it. Simon said that round 2 went to him as well because he made the better song choice. I don’t agree with that at all.
Round 3 was the contestant’s choice. They could pick any song to perform, including one they did already in the competition. David Cook decided to do a song he hand not performed before, “The world I know” by Collective Soul and I thought it was amazing. Randy said that tonight he showed the audience all these different sides of David Cook and I totally got that. Paula gave him a standing ovation. Simon said that while he was one of the nicest and most sincere contestants they’ve ever had on the show it was a bad performance in terms of it being the wrong song choice for him tonight. He said that David C. should have performed “Billie Jean” or “Hello” instead. David tells Simon that he looked at this show as a progression and as such didn’t want to perform a song he had already done on the show. David A. on the other hand decides to perform “Imagine” again. Yet another ballad. This is the only side of David A. we saw all night and is it the only side of David A. that exists in terms of his musical performance and ability? And to make matters worse I hated, yes hated, his arrangement of the song. It’s such a well known song that I think many people want to hear it the way it was originally performed. Of course the judges loved it. They are all set to just hand it to him as Randy said he was the best singer of Season 7. Simon called his performance (David A. that is) a knockout tonight. I disagree – I think David Cook is a much better performer overall.
I think overall the judges have made up their minds that David A. is the next Idol, even though Paula and Randy were saying early on in the show that it was too close to call. Bull. They are so in favor of David A. tonight that it isn’t even funny.
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