My two favorites have made it to the finals. Blake and Jordin have impressed us all season and tonight is their last chance to win us over and choose just one to wear the crown. Here's what they decided to do:
Blake Lewis won the coin toss and being the charming gentleman that he is, he allowed Jordin to select the order. She wanted to go second, so he graciously agreed to sing first. What a sweetheart! He decided to serve up his beat-box Bon Jovi anthem, You Give Love A Bad Name. This song allowed him to showcase everything that brought him here. He's got the moves baby, he's got the motion and when left to his own devices, he causes a commotion. He takes a 20 year old heavy metal jam and it sounds fresh and fun in Blakes hands. He can belt out the big notes and get the crowd clapping on their feet and then effortlessly segue into super hot beats and have them dancing along.
Jordin Sparks chose a song from Christina Aquilera's "Dirrty Era" when the 1999 Grammy winner for Best New Artist wanted to prove herself as a diva with an edge. The song Fighter is a declaration of strength and survival and Jordin used it to display the limitless potential of her youthful range. It was vibrant and energetic - vocally, but the performance style was straightforward and simple. She looked and sounded great.
Maroon 5 is the clearly the American Idol band of the year as Blake decided to perform their top 5 hit from 2004, She Will Be Loved. For those of you who are still counting, this was yet another in the very long list of songs that Blake has performed with absolutely no beat boxing at all. He showcased that pure smooth tenor that effortless glides from his full voice to a light as air falsetto that elevates you to a higher plane. He reaches out and touches the audience and simply makes a connection with his vocals, his rhythmic dance moves, his eyes and his smile.
Jordin already sang her greatest hit last week with I Who Have Nothing, so here in the finals she chose another one of her very good performances, Broken Wing. Once again, the style was standing center stage and letting her wonderful voice command all of the attention. She opens her mouth and the sky is filled with beautiful butterflies fluttering with angels - not a single broken wing among them.
The original song of the evening is called This Is My Now. Two guys from Seattle wrote it and won a competition to have the finalists sing it tonight. It's quite clear that they didn't write it with a dynamic performer like Blake Lewis in mind. It was a standard inspirational and uplifting ballad about how this is the night to believe and be proud to have a moment like this inside your heaven. For the past three months we've seen Blake work wonders with all different genres and take risks at reinventing songs with hip and cool arrangements. Tonight, he played it safe. He didn't make the song his own, so it was simply a basic, run of the mill song. Even with his bright smile, you could tell his heart wasn't in it, as though he wanted to take some risks and re-arrange the song, but he was told it wasn't allowed. So he got up there and made the best of it, clearly having so much of his talent restrained from getting out.
It's hard to believe that it was the same song. Jordin Sparks took her turn to sing This Is My Now and it was quite evident that she is exactly the wonderful voice the song was written for. She started out soft and sweet and then belted out the dramatics notes at the end. But even more than the vocals, it was so heartwarming to see the meaning of the lyrics written all over her face. Standing at the edge of the stage with the huge audience in front of her and the spotlight shining on her, she became overwhelmed with emotion and she genuinely experienced her "now".
As far as I am concerned this is a win-win situation. The two best, most talented contestants made it to the finals and tonight they were both very successful at showing off their strengths. If American Idol is just a singing competition, Jordin wins. Her voice is powerful, with a dramatic range. If American Idol is an all-around performance competition, Blake wins. He can dance, entertain, and sound great through it all. I am not going to make a prediction, though. At this point I am clearly an open book and I will be calling in and voting for Blake. That said, I will be very happy for either one if they get to be named the Season Six Miss American Idol.
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