American Idol: The Battle of the Two David's

Last night on American Idol, the contestants graced us with three performances each. Finally, they were allowed to pick contemporary songs. The other two choices were picked by the Idol judges and by the Idol producers. I will give you my review of what I thought about each performance.

The judges' picks:

David Archuleta: "And So It Goes" by Billy Joel. Paula Abdul picked the song because of "the level of difficulty in the melody" and also to exploit David's "beautiful voice". For once, Paula was actually on the same planet as the rest of us. David's voice was beautiful. Of course, there is no surprise there. This is one very talented kid. As Randy is always saying, David can sing anything, even the phone book.

Syesha Mercado: "If I'm Not You" by Alicia Keys. First of all, Syesha looked stunning in a floor length gold dress. She was every bit of the image of a soulful,old school diva like Aretha Franklin. Randy Jackson said that this is the kind of record Syesha should make and she will be successful at it. I completely agree with the "dawg". Although, I have been critical of her "copying" songs by artists with big voices and diva status, such as Whitney Houston and Fantasia, I think that Randy's choice was fine. Simon was not at all impressed, he would've picked something more "unoriginal". But, hey, Randy picked the song this time, so I am not mad at Syesha at all. I think she sang it well.

David Cook "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" picked by Simon Cowell. When I first heard about this choice, I thought, Wow, what a stretch! How would a rocker sing a song by R & B legend, Roberta Flack? Yet, once again, David flipped this song and made it original. Randy was completely wrong to say that David's performance was "predictable" when he actually owned this song. This is the reason that David has lasted throughout this competition. And this is also the reason he will also become our next American Idol.

Overall Review of Round One: As Simon said, "Round One, goes to Cook and Cowell"!

Finally, the contestants sing contemporary songs: