For a while on Tuesday night (well, only after one song), it looked like the last girl standing on "American Idol" might give the two "Davids" a run for the finale.
But then Syesha Mercado's own song choice and the one picked for her by the show's producers fell flat, likely setting up next week's season ender with David Archuleta singing against David Cook for the confetti drop and Season 7 "Idol" title.
No great shocks, right?
Well, at least song selectiion was not entirely the fault of the contestants. They performed three songs - each judge picked one, the three contestants each picked one, and then those pesky producers got involved with certainly two of the worst choices this season.
Here's how it broke down:
* David A. got his judge's pick from Paula Abdul, who chose Billy Joel's " And So It Goes" for the teen. It always gets a little tricky when the other judges do their critiques. Randy Jackson and Simon Cowell thought it was very good. "Predictable, no surprises," Simon said.
* Syesha's song came from Randy - Alicia Keys' "If I Ain't Got You." Great choice and definitely her best performance of the night, though Simon wished the "Dawg" had chosen "something so you wouldn't sound like the original."
* David C. received a text message from Simon with his song, which was a stunner: Roberta Flack's "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face." And, as usual, David's arrangement, especially the high note at the end, was amazing. Round 1? Cook and Cowell take it.
The contestants' own choices were odd at best, leaving the middle round "just OK" in Simon's opinion.
David A. sang Chris Brown's "With You." Syesha did a chair dance to Peggy Lee's "Fever," and David C. rocked "Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot.
But the final round - the producers' picks - was, in my opinion, a big, fat flop.
David A. sang a wishy-washy version of Dan Fogelberg's wishy-washy "Longer." I didn't like that song 20 years ago. (No disrespect to Dan.) Simon agreed, calling the performance "gooey."
Syesha got stuck with "Hit Me Up" from the "Happy Feet" soundtrack. She would have been better off with penguins as back-up singers. And it was sweet Paula who delivered the bad news: "I'm not sure it's good enough to get you into the finals."
David C. closed it out with Aerosmith's "I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing," an uber-predictable performance that likely will get him into the finals. Simon declared he definitely had "won the night."
Dialidol.com put the red-light prediction on Syesha. Of the two Davids, Archuleta certainly would be the most vulnerable. But don't count on it.
@Nyx.CommentBody@