I can't belive this is my first post about American Idol, considering I've been watching it religiously since year one. The funny thing is I still don't understand why I'm addicted to it. I mean I'm not even really into regular pop music, top 40 kind of stuff, yet each year I watch. I did end up really liking Kelly and now she's huge and I get tired of hearing her all the time (which is probably the 1 reason why I don't like top 40, they take a song you might like and then play it every five minutes until you want to shoot yourself everytime you hear it). Anyways as I was telling catscratchziggy, we were a split household this year so we didn't vote (bad us!). My husband likes Jordin and I like Blake. Personally I don't think it matters too much who wins. At least the top 3 (probably 4) are going to get signed by someone. Having the crown doesn't really even entitle you to be 1. Yeah it worked for Kelly and Carrie (and I guess Fantasia now that I think about it, but that year was crap and I don't care for her really), but Reuben who? Not to mention Daughtry who came in 3rd last year and is wiping the floor with everyone. Anyways, back to the point in question, I think I like Blake first and foremost because I pretty much like anyone who comes on idol and instead of singing the same old boring 12 songs everyone picks from, has the balls to do something different. And the best part of it was he didn't even have to go all out and be the token "rocker" like it usually takes to be considered different, he managed to do it while still staying within the boundaries of what would be considered marketable to a pop audience. I didn't always like the fact that he felt like he needed to beat-box EVERYTHING. Sometimes I wouldn't have minded if he just put a new spin or twist on something without having to listen to all that noise. "You Give Love a Bad Name" was a perfect example I hated that whole bit with the record player, I wish he would have reprised "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane instead, which IMHO was his best performance (with "All Mixed Up" by 311 coming in a close second), but I think he sold out to the judges there, because they didn't dig the Keane song too much (I think Paula hadn't even ever heard the original if I remember her comments), which is also why I think he ended up doing Maroon 5 for his second song (having been told about ten times by Randy the week before that that was the style he should go for). I think if I were allowed to pick for him I would have chosen "Crazy" by Gnarls Barkley. I think it would have sounded awesome if he beat-boxed the dance groove and he has the voice that I think he could hit the higher parts if he falsettoed a little bit. As far the final "fan written" song, I was most disappointed here, I realize it wasn't his "genre" but I find it hard to belive they make you sing it exactly as it was written. I kept wanting him to do something with it, but instead he just delivered it note for note like a robot, and I think that's ultimately what's going to lose him the crown tonight. It will be a bummer, but as I previously said it's not going to matter, he will have an album and as of now I am planning on buying it (we'll see when it actually comes out if I still like the idea of it by then). He'd prbably get signed regardless of talent just because he's easy on the eyes (though personally I liked him best with the black and red hair he had for Bon Jovi week better than the usualk blonde or white highlights), but the kid definately has something and if you don't belive me then you obviously haven't seen this YouTube clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zV32sNC97qc