American Idol : The Final Three

Tonight the contestants will sing three songs each: one of the judges choosing, one of the producers choosing, and one of their own choosing.

first is jordin singing 'wishing on a star' a boring song that simon chose and nobody has ever heard before, but jordin again proves that she could make just about anything sound good. not a bad start but it was almost as though simon chose that song to slow jordin down, all sabotage like. i think he wants goodtwoshoes doolittle to win, just so he can tap into the christian record market.

paula abdul chooses the first song for blake, and its 'roxanne' - an absolutley brutal choice. it is at this point i realize that the contestants are surely cursing the judges for their indulgent and 'expert' picks. all season long we hear about how important song choice is and this is what the judges choose for the final three?! roxanne is a classic song and all, but there is just not much that can be done with a song that everyone has heard a million times and is probably a little annoyed by. nontheless blake does all he can to make it interesting and mercifully he does not attempt to sing it all high and crazy sting etyle, or to add crazy vocal turntablisms.

melinda doolittle gets a whitney houston song from randy jackson, but its one that no one is familiar with and of course its a snoozer. she sang it well, but its like, so what? randy compliments her on it but i think he just wants to make it sound like he picked a winning song. all about the judges egos this round i guess.

will the 'producers choice' round be as much of a failure as the judges round?

jordin gets 'she works hard for the money' and all signs point to yes, it will be at least as bad as the first round. what kind of choice is this for a sweet innocent 17 year old girl? she looks like she is not very interested in singing this particular song but will do so anyway, because she has to. it was ok, but simply not jordin's style. rough.

blake gets to sing maroon 5's first smash hit 'this love' which is probably the best thing he could have hoped for from the producers. it fits his style and he rocks a song that doesnt rock. he could totally have a number one single with this kind of bland pop stuff, even tho hopefully he will come up with something much cooler when he stars recording.

melinda gets 'nutbush city limits', an ike and tina turner joint, and it may well be her best performance ever. its as though she watched some old videos of tina turner after being compared to the legend several times this season and took some pointers from her. she seems more confident onstage, moves around with more ease and clearly knows that she can get down with this song. the second solid performance from melinda tonight but i think shes gonna have to up the ante for the last song if she wants to make it to the finale next week.

contestants choice round, and this may be the most important song choice of the season, for it will be te last thing people remember when they cast their votes after the show.

jordin picks 'i who have nothing', a song she did earlier in the season that blew everyone away. a safe choice, something she could be sure would amaze everyone. she was right about that, but it would have been nice to see someting new and shocking from her.

blake goes for something more adventueous and different, no surprise there, and good for him. robin thickes 'when i get you alone'. a fantastic choice for blake, as it provides ample beatboxing opportunities in appropriate places within the song and he gets to showcase his vocals too. this was an impressive song that reminded the audience how innovative and stylish blake is. just what he needed to do.

melinda goes back to the old and trusty 'i am a woman' that she did earlier in the season. its also a great song to show off her vocals, but it seemed tired, and all i can think is 'we've heard this before, what else u got??' not bad but it certainly didnt blow me away.

so considering all three songs from each contestant,
jordin had two duds and one spectacular performance

blake did excellent on the last two songs, while the first one sucked,

melinda had, of course, three solid, good performances. she is consistently good, but in my opinion never all that great or entertaining, and that is why i think we will say goodbye to melinda this week. then again, anything can happen, and she may even take home the trophy. i sure hope not tho.