The judges of American Idol selected all of the songs that the remaining three Idol contestants sang tonight.  Paula seemed to get drunker as the night went on.  The judges chose the songs in round 1.  The contestants chose their second song.  And the producers of the show selected their 3rd song.

David Archuleta - “And So It Goes” “With You” “Longer” - The more I hear ‘Tiny Tim David’ the more he reminds me of Josh Groban. He is like too good and all that jazz once again. It is like the other two contestants are playing against him on the original Nintendo Entertainment Center and Archuleta is the impossible to beat computer…much like ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson on Mike Tyson’s Punchout, except that he looks a lot like ‘Lil’ Mac’. First song was originally by Billy Joel.  The second song is from Chris Brown.  David really showed a bit of life with the second song.  However, he seemed to forget some words and mumble through more than half of the song.  Perhaps David was missing his daddy helping him backstage this week.  “Longer” is by Dan Fogelberg.  This was easily David’s best performance of the night.  He magnified everything that is sweet and pure about his voice.   Grade B+

Syesha Mercado - “If I Ain’t Got You” “Fever” “Hit Me Up” - Sy is for sure the underdog against David, Inc. and for that very reason I think I am pulling for her.  That increases her odds of winning to .000045% so watch out.  The first song is one from Alicia Keys and I thought she did a smash up job with it.  She picked a Peggy Lee song for her second song.  She is sexy, very sexy, and perhaps the most seductive contestant in Idol history.  I think she gave me a fever.  I had a hard time paying attention to the lyrics honestly.  She is going to have a very good career post Idol.  Syesha has a bit of Beyonce in her.  Grade B+

David Cook - “First Time I Ever Saw Your Face” “Dare You To Move” “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing”- Simon chose to challenge David with the Roberta Flack song ‘First Time……Face’.  Wow the first home run of the night for sure.  He really made that song his little doggy.  That performance alone might have been enough to win the competition.  I thought he had a weak start with the Switchfoot song but got stronger as the performance progressed.  I like Aerosmith but the last song selection by the show’s producers is so over-the-top cheesy.  It is almost like they selected it to sabotage Cook’s chances of winning.  As you can probably tell I didn’t like this song or the performance of it that much.  Cook made it even more cheesy than the Aerosmith version. Grade A

Round 1 Winner: David Cook

Round 2 Winner: Syesha Mercado

Round 3 Winner: David Archuleta

Overall Winner: Syesha Mercado (barely over Cook with Archuleta in a very close third)