AI 7 - 5/20/08 - The Battle of the David's

Before I get to my comments about last night’s show let us first deal with my television crisis at the hotel. I made it to Nashville relatively on time and to the hotel. The clerk at the front desk was an American Idol fan as well. I was assured they had the Fox network.

Arriving at my hotel room I checked the guide and Fox was to be on channel 10. There was no signal on channel 10 on either of the television sets in the room. I immediately called the front desk who stated they would send someone up. I got a call a few minutes later indicating they had moved Fox to channel 34. I could not get channel 34 to even come up on either television.

I had to call the front desk again and finally a maintenance person came up. Apparently last week there were multiple complaints that Fox was not clear and people couldn’t watch American Idol. Someone from the cable company came and they tried to fix it but couldn’t so finally this past Sunday they switched which where the signal came into. Allegedly they had gone to all the rooms to reconfigure the television sets and the maintenance guy said the inventory list verified my room had been done but it hadn’t. He had to go get a piece of equipment and come back. Finally at 6:45 p.m. central I had my Fox channel working, lucky for them because I would have gone ballistic if I couldn’t have watched the show.

Enough about my dramas and let’s get on with my comments about American Idol last night. First of all I totally hated the whole fight theme it was stupid. Please, David “Sugar foot” Cook vs. David “Baby Face” Archuleta; give me a %$^& break!

Interesting they brought Andrew Lloyd Weber back to help with arrangements given the backlash from that episode but he is a musical genius and I thought he had some very good things to say.

David A won the coin toss and decided to go second. I bet his Dad advised him on that one.

Round 1 – Songs Selected by Clive Davis

David Cook

Clive chose “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Lookin For”. I thought David totally rocked this song. This was just a brilliant performance. He was comfortable, confident and his voice was crisp and clear. I got chills while he was performing. How can you top that ending note, WOW! It was just a great opening to the show.

Randy – DC it was a great way to start, it was a nice song choice, that sliding note at the end was hot.

Paula – You may not have found what you were looking for but we have found DC, amazing great voice

Simon – Phenomenal

David Archuleta

Clive went with “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me”. It was a good choice of song and David performed it well but he was definitely having problems with keeping his eyes opened and he just cannot move gracefully on stage. When he was upfront he was doing some Fantasia like bending (at least he didn’t fall to the floor) which just turns me off. I also thought the background singers were over powering him quite a bit making it hard to hear him.

Randy – your best performance ever, flawless, molten hot

Paula – I got chills up and down my arms, the sun will never go down on you, it was a beautiful stunning performance

Simon – last week you were okay tonight was arguably the best you have done, Round 1 to David A

I totally disagree with Simon on that call. I thought David C was much better.

Round 2 – Contestant got to pick from the top 10 of the song writing competition (not the winning song which I thought was an interesting twist this year)

David Cook

David chose “Dream Big”. There have only been a couple of these songs which I have really liked because most of them are usually so sickening sweet and cheesy they are hard to take. I totally loved what David did with the song in making it is own. He made me like a song I had not heard before and somehow he made it less cheesy. David was totally able to sale the song. He kept my attention. I would actually buy this version if he recorded it.

Randy – The song was okay but you sang your face off, nice nice

Paula – your guitar and you singing, mesmerizing, congratulations

Simon – the end was okay, you made the most of what you had, didn’t feel like there was a winning moment

David Archuleta

David went with “In This Moment” and what a horrid song this was. Technically David sang it well but I think he lost some of the lyrics at the beginning (although he covered well) but he didn’t bring anything to it. I also thought the band was way too loud and drowned him out a lot.
Randy – I didn’t like the song, you were so in your zone, hot

Paula – heartfelt performance, magic

Simon – I love that egoistical lyric, better choice of song, Round 2 to David A.

Once again I totally disagree with that statement.

Round 3 – Contestant’s Choice

David Cook

David chose “The World I Know”. I totally love this song and David’s performance brought me to tears, it was so emotional and he sold this number. I thought it was a flawless performance. I actually stood up in my hotel room and gave him a standing ovation.

Randy – it is cool that you are showing different sides of yourself, this was your sensitive side, this would be a great record for you to make, very nice job

Paula – you are standing in your truth, unbelievable and original, I applaud you

Simon – you are one of the nicest most sincere contestants we have had, it was a beautiful song but it was the wrong song choice for you, you should have gone with Billie Jean or Hello. (Simon was totally wrong).

David Archuleta

David went with “Imagine”. I do not think it is a good idea to try and recreate a moment. Lightening doesn’t strike twice and it didn’t for me last night. I don’t believe this performance rise to the level of how good the first one was. He sang it well but there was nothing special about it.

Randy – I am happy and proud the two David’s are in the finals, dude you were so good, this is what this show is about, finding a great singer, you are the best singer

Paula – you left me speechless, stunning

Simon – this show is about finding a start, this will be one of the great finals, David you came out to win, this was a knockout.


I found last night’s show very irritating, the producers were doing everything they could to promote David A, and it was shameless.

I have to vent once again about the mosh pit girls, we are in the Nokia theater and they couldn’t get rid of those damn waving arms and screaming, give me a &*^% break!

There is no doubt in my mind that David A will be crowned the next American Idol which is actually better for David C who will definitely come out with the greater career.

I don’t think David A did the best job last night and all my votes when to David C. I managed to get in 5,482 votes for my favorite.

Until tomorrow…

P.S. I was chastised by several people because I did not comment last week on Fantasia’s performance so I am including it now. Fantasia gave the absolute worst performance of an Idol winner ever in the history of the show. That was a total train wreck, what was she thinking. There was no purpose or plan to the performance; it was like watching a totally drunk and stoned person clamoring for attention. I actually had to mute the sound because it was so horrible.