David Cook, Archuleta Continue to Rule on "American Idol" on May 13th

By Connie Wilson, published May 13, 2008
Published Content: 106  Total Views: 38,702  Favorited By: 27 CPs
Rating: 4.4 of 5
David Archuleta started off the evening on "American Idol" on May 13th with "And So It Goes," a Billy Joel song that Paula Abdul had selected for him to sing. It was the perfect choice and my favorite song of the evening.

Syesha Mercado went next, with an Alicia Keys song that Randy Jackson picked for her. She looked gorgeous (Simon's exact adjective) in a gold and silver beaded dress and sang like an angel. Paul agreed that Syesha looked "absolutely stunning," but Simon was the wet blanket who said that Syesha's singing was "not enough, in my opinion" to put her through to the Final Two.

David Cook was handed "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" by Simon Cowell. Odd. (It was just ok for me, dog.)

David Archuleta tried to change it up by singing a more contemporary piece, "With You" by Chris Brown. It drew faint praise from Simon, but he did comment that he thought the younger David had done enough to go through to the Finals.

Syesha tried an old Peggy Lee favorite, "Fever," and used a chair as a prop during her performance. Randy commented, "Again, a great performance." Paula didn't really seem to like it and Simon said, "I think you will probably regret that performance tomorrow," dubbing it "a lame cabaret performance." In this, her second song, Syesha was clad in a short silver-y dress and looked beautiful.

David Cook sang something entitled "Switchfoot." Enough said.

Back came David Archuleta with the Dan Fogelberg song "Longer Than With You," which is right up his balladeer alley. Simon said, "The song and the lyrics are absolutely gooey."

That left the night's closer to David Cook with the Aerosmith theme from "Armageddon," penned by Dianne Warren, as he crooned, "I don't want to miss a thing."

For me, David Archuleta and Syesha were the best of the evening. I did not enjoy "Switchfoot" and the end of the final (best) piece was screechy, as Cook went up for a high note.

That said, I expect Syesha to be voted off. She was in the bottom three too many times to escape now.

David Cook, Archuleta Continue to Rule on "American Idol" on May 13th
Date: May 13, 2008
Location:
Los Angeles, CA  USA
Takeaways
  • David Cook and David Archuleta garner more praise, but Syesha Mercado actually deserves to best Cook
Resources
  • Fox's "American Idol" of May 13th, 2008
Comments
Showing Comments 1 - 4 of 4
 
 
Correction: Switchfoot is the band, indeed. The Music Business daughter-in-college informs me of the rest-of-the-story (as mentioned above). Hopefully, a very smart song for David Cook's fan base. Lately, the listeners (but not, necessarily, voters) are skwing older and older, and, for us: not a song to which we could relate. Since it is the youngsters who need to vote, hopefully they are huge Switchfoot fans. Pamela makes some very good points above, and I fear that David Archuleta's overbearing father has not lost the competition for him. I read that 4 million "Archies" have a fan web-site for little David, so it should be an interesting Final Two.

Posted on 05/14/2008 at 1:05:23 PM

 
I still think David Cook is the best overall. It's true that David Archuleta has an amazingly beautiful voice and I certainly expect him to have a big career, but David A. does not interview well. He looks frightened out of his skin most of the time. He still has somewhat of a little boy's body. David Cook on the other hand is a man and a very attractive man with a terrific voice. I was not familiar with the song by Switchfoot, but I am old, so that is not surprising. I was surprised by Syesha's song. I did not think it was a wise choice. Most of the people voting are probably very young people and I bet a lot of them have never heard of that song. They probably have no connection and connection is important. I hadn't heard the Switchfoot song and I didn't connect with it. Syesha has survied time after time and she has improved. I don't know who is going to go.

Posted on 05/14/2008 at 10:05:52 AM

 
David Cook was the best of the night by a mile. His first and third songs were in a league by themselves. The second song was really good too. Simon gave him one of the toughest song of the night to sing and he did an amazing job.

Posted on 05/14/2008 at 5:05:44 AM

 
Hello? David Cook's song was BY the band, Switchfoot. The title of the song was "Dare you to move." It was was a huge hit.

Posted on 05/13/2008 at 11:05:37 PM

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