Last night American Idol finalists David Cook, David Archuleta and Syesha Mercado were given a unique choice of songs for their performance. All three contestants had three songs to perform. Out of the three songs, one was judge's choice, other was the show's producers choice and finally the last song was what the contestant wanted to sing.

As usual, promoting the show Ryan Searcrest said, “ It is a pivotal moment in the lives of our three finalists. The way they perform and the way you respond could truly affect the closest race this show has ever seen."  As anticipated, David Cook and David Archuleta came one step closer to making it a David v/s David finale. At the same time, Syesha Mercado seemed to be growing her vocal talents with her experience from American Idol.

David Archuleta:

• 1st Song: And So It Goes" by Billy Joel (Paula's choice)
• 2nd Song: "With You" by Chris Brown (David's choice)
• 3rd Song: "Longer" by Dan Fogelberg (Producer's pick)

The performance was an all out outstanding one, which kept the critics at bay. However, it just wasn't enough to keep Simon Cowell from passing sarcastic judgments. As Randy Jackson said, “You know what I'm really happy about for you with this one is that Paula chose a dope song for you. You can sing anything. The Billy Joel thing works well on you. I would have loved to see you playing the piano like him, singing it. It don't even matter dude. You are in the zone — in it to win it baby!"

Paula Abdul said. "David I think this is perfect — right in the right tone of your voice. I think that you should be singing songs like this. I think you're so used to singing ballads, but this is another part of who you are. I would just work on not extending the phrases and shortening it up a little bit. I think you did a great job." Simon Cowell commented, "David, I applaud you that you didn't do a ballad — which I would have expected. However it was a little like a Chihuahua trying to be a tiger. In so much as it's not really you. I thought it was all a bit awkward, the dancing."

David Cook:

• 1st Song: "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Roberta Flack (Simon's choice)
• 2nd Song: "Dare You to Move" by Switchfoot (David's choice)
• 3rd  Song: "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith (Producer's pick)

David's performance was appreciated by all the judges and was presented with nothing but glory. Simon commenting on song choice said, "Well David, this may sound a little bias but I actually thought it was one of your best performances to date. This is what makes you brilliant. You take risks. It's original. Round 1 goes to Cook and Cowell." Paula remarked, "As an artist, I know how hard it is to get a three-and-a-half minute song into like a minute-thirty. The challenge is to get the audience to feel like they got the beginning, middle and end. And I feel like you just got to the beginning when it hit the end of the song. I wanted more." For the last song, Randy said, “For me, I loved the song. It was okay  for me. Very predictable. Very predictable for me."

Syesha Mercado:

• 1st Song: If I Ain't Got You" by Alicia Keys (Randy's choice)
• 2nd Song: "Fever" by Peggy Lee (Syesha's choice)
• 3rd Song: "Hit Me Up" by Gia Farrell (Producer's pick)

For the first song, which was Randy's choice, he said. "I thought that would work really well for you. You did an amazing job on it. I could see your heart beaming and smiling all the way down here. Syesha I've got to say one thing to you, I'm so happy you are peaking at the right time in this competition, that's why you're standing there at No. 3." Paula commented on the second song and said, “You look lovely tonight Syesha. Out of all the songs you could have chosen to sing, I'm surprised you picked this song. I just feel like it's an interesting choice, but I'm not sure that it shows me who Syesha is as an artist."  Randy was the last one to remark on her third song that was the producer's choice and said, "You know… Yeah, I could kind of seeing you doing a song like that — kind of Rihanna-esque. It was just okay for me. It was just alright for me."

Tomorrow is the elimination night and all eyes are now on Syesha Mercado, as she is the one contestant, who is already deemed as terminated in numerous forums and chat circles. Just 24 hours, and we'll know whether or not we will witness a David v/s David showdown.

Gerry Grant

Reporter
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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 2:44 am and is filed under American Idol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.