The Results - Martina McBride

The Lucky 7 finalists gathered on stage to perform a campfire sing-along that Jo Dee Messina released in 1998. It's called I'm Alright, but we know one of these finalists isn't going to be alright by the end of the hour. Yes, that's right, another hour long results show. Until the decision is revealed, they fumbled their way through this country ditty. Since once again, Blake is the only one who can dance, they sang the whole song while sitting in chairs. It wasn't very interesting.

Fergie was invited to fill some of the hour to perform her latest single. After spending the last five years as the front-woman for the Black Eyed Peas, she released her first solo album in 2006 and made it a huge success. Both London Bridge and Glamorous hit #1 on the chart while Fergalicious stalled at #2. The song she performed tonight is likely to be just as big. This time it was a rare solo vocal performance for her with no rap collaboration. She showed off some unexpected singing talent in honor of being on the American Idol stage, I guess.

Now to the results. Ryan split the finalists into two groups. One is the highest vote-getters and the other is the bottom three.

Group One:

Sanjaya
LaKisha
Blake

Group Two:

Chris
Jordin
Phil

Ryan left Melinda out and told her that she is safe. He then pressured her to choose which group she thought was the top vote getters and go join them. Melinda sat and the floor and refused to make a choice. Ryan gave in and revealed that Group Two is safe. Turns out tonight was the night for the BIG Surprise. Two of the best finalists have ended up in the bottom three. Blake and LaKisha are facing elimination along with Sanjaya.

Martina McBride just released a new album last week and she performed the lovely vocal showcase Anyway. Martina is a very classy and talented artist and she demonstrated that with her subtle and tasteful interpretation. While her voice is wonderful and soothing, it was still hard to sit through the song while my stomach was tied in knots worried about Blake and LaKisha, though.

I breathed a huge sigh of relief when Ryan allowed Blake to go back to safety. Then there was poor LaKisha stuck standing next to Sanjaya waiting for Ryan to reveal the news. And it was GREAT news! LaKisha is coming back next week and Sanjaya is FINALLY going home. He weeped a few tears from his allegedly beautiful eyes and butchered Something To Talk About for the last time. He tried to be funny and changed the lyrics to "let's talk about something other than hair", but we were too busy rejoicing to see the humor.

This week the bottom three should have been a no-brainer, but music fans have to pick up the phone and actually vote. I only got one of my predictions right. Thankfully it was the most important one. I correctly predicted that Sanjaya would be in the bottom three and that he would be going home. I have no idea why people are still calling in for Phil and Chris. Both of them have stumbled through the competition so far and have failed to impress. So this week must be a wake-up call and motivate people to keep Blake and LaKisha in the running. I think this could be one of the best final four American Idol has ever produced if we are left with Blake, LaKisha, Jordin and Melinda. Can't wait to see what happens next....