How ironic that Seattle was dubbed as the worst city ever for talent on American Idol auditions but the two remaining finalist, Jordin and Blake, the phenomenal Sanjaya Malakar, and the winners of the songwriting competition came out of Seattle.
Just like last year, the two finalists each performed 1 favorite song they've never sung before, 1 selected song from their previous performance (rerun) and the winning song in the American Idol songwriting competition which will eventually be released as their first single.
Simon Cowell has given round 1 to Blake Lewis for his "You Give Love A Bad Name" rerun. But i like Jordin Spark's take on Christina Aguilera's "Fighter". Although it lacks some grooves and a little "girl rocker" choreography but the vocal has enough "gymnastics" going on which is needed in order to do a Christina Aguilera song some justice. I guess Jordin has focused more on the outcome of her voice rather than get shrieky when moving too much. The "shrieky" comment from Simon was unfair because Jordin was very careful not to sound as such.
Of course, Blake's "You Give Love a Bad Name" performance was a sure hit on the first round because the Bon Jovi song is one of his best performances this season.
Second round goes to Jordin for another sure hit - Martina McBride's Broken Wing which she performed on country week. I thought she's going to pick the more challenging "Heartbreaker" but i guess "Broken Wing" was enough for her to conquer round 2. On the other hand, Blake's take on Maroon 5's She Will Be Loved didn't surpassed any of his performances last week.
Round 3 is when the final 2 performs the same song. I'm glad they brought it back as it used to be because the judges and the people can now compare easily who sang the song better. Last year, Taylor Hicks and Katharine McPhee have different songs that served as their finale. It was Destiny to McPhee and Do I Make You Proud to Hicks. Hicks won because his song is better than McPhee, as simple as that. It has more recall and it's more cheesy and compeling and so the public voted for him. They've learned that it's a bad idea so they brought the one-song-for-two-finalists back. The title of the song, btw, is This is My Now.
And who's "now" is better? Of course, the belter's version. You cannot groove to that song or do some beatbox tricks so it's definitely not Blake's genre. It's tailor made for Jordin specially the high notes in the end, kinda like Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This" or Carrie Underwood's "Inside Your Heaven". Definitely, the right song at the right time for the right singer. If Jordin's teary-eyed ending didn't compel America to vote for her, then i guess the dark horse reached photo-finish. But the odds for Blake to win the title is 1/100 while for Jordin, i think it's only 1/10.
Who Should Win Tomorrow: Jordin Sparks
Who Will Win Tomorrow: Jordin Sparks
Watch Chris Daughtry's "Home" - live performance after the jump...
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