The Blake and Jordin Show

So, bigger stage, bigger audience, bigger advertising budget--this is the American Idol finale!

RANDOM THOUGHTS: Whoever wins, I'm fine with that. They both deserve to be in the finals and both came off well tonight. Why was Simon the only one dressed for the Big Show? Paula gets a free pass since she had the canine incident. Randy does not, even if he is sporting something straight from the "I played with Journey for a short time in the 70s" collection. "This is My Now" is not the song I chose, and I listened to all 20 entries (and cried since mine wasn't there). America complained about A.I. finale songs and then promptly selected a song just like the others. Kudos to the writers for giving the people what they (secretly) wanted. Why do the sound guys have such a hard time moving from the CBS Theater (didn't realize Fox filmed anything there) to the Kodak Theater? Here's my quick fix: turn up the background mics. Turn up the singers' mics more. Seems simple, right? I don't think either finalist was at his or her best tonight, but it was still a great show. In fact, one of the more truly entertaining finals so far. Plus, Constantine was there giving his nods of approval. What's not to like?!

BLAKE LEWIS ("You Give Love a Bad Name," "She Will Be Loved," "This is My Now"): Blake's appearance in the finale hearkens back to the Bo/Carrie finale. Blake's style is just not conducive to this type of show. Remember Bo singing "I Wanna Be Inside Your Heaven?" Not great. Blake's first choice was obvious, and definitely a crowd-pleaser. He gave a great performance with serviceable vocals. We all know Blake's not the best singer, but he's pretty darn good. And his second choice, while maybe not "exciting" like the typical finale fare, was the perfect type of song for his style. He has that alternative/current flair and picked the right song for him. Which brings me to the final selection for the night . . . There is no way Blake could pull off this song. Wrong style. Wrong lyrics. Wrong everything for Blake. Now, there were half a dozen other songs among the 20 finalists that would have been much better for Blake, and quite frankly, a refreshing change from the usual A.I. nonsense. Most of the finale songs get released, overplayed after the finale hype, and then disappear into relative obscurity where they belong. This one will, too, no matter who wins. Anyway, at least Simon gave Blake a bit of credit and directed the audience to not shoot the messenger on this song. And Blake kindly held his tongue, even though he was thinking, "I wrote 15 songs on my computer that kick 'This is My Now's' a--!"

JORDIN SPARKS ("Fighter," "Broken Wing," "This is My Now"): Jordin can sing. I'm not sure if anyone mentioned that little tidbit tonight, so I'm saying it now. She made good song choices and did a great job. I did think her voice was a bit off for her tonight, and it sounded like the weeks of strain caught up with her, but nothing to get too uptight about. Choosing a Christina song was a blessing and a curse. It was young and hip, and she was up to the challenge overall, but I thought the song got away from her somewhere in the middle, almost like, "Oh crap! I chose a Christina Aguillera song!" Her second selection was great. I'm not ready to declare it "better than the original" like Randy did, but she did a great job. As far as her final selection, her voice was definitely better-suited to the song than Blake's. That's just the luck of the draw. She was off a bit, probably tired and emotionally drained, but let's just say that she did everything she could to win this competition. Hats off to Jordin.

In the end, both Jordin and Blake did a great job tonight, representing their respective genres perfectly. Ultimately fans will do what they always do: vote for their favorites. Really, one of the finalists would have had to fall over mid-song, and then scream racial epithets while gyrating and making lewd gestures to even make a dent in their voting blocks, and unless I missed that part tonight I wouldn't worry. Granted, I did step out right after the wrap-up and just before Daughtry. The Chinese place was closing in 10 minutes and I still needed cash to pick up our won-ton soup!

This was probably the most balanced and entertaining finale since Clay/Ruben and I'm glad two nice and genuine people made it to the end. I'm pretty sure Jordin will win tonight as she seems to appeal to a broader audience, but surprises do happen. Tomorrow should be a good one, as long as I don't have to see too much Phil.