Part III

Okay, this is the last one.

Melinda Doolittle
Clearly, my fave. I have already said how I didn't even care that she sang one of Kelly Clarkson's Idol songs, and it is still true. She killed it! She is amazing to watch perform. I can't even tell you. One of my favorite parts, though, was at the end of the first act, when they all came out with Blake at the end of "You Give Love a Bad Name," and she banged on the cymbal with their awesome drummer. That was fantastic. She was clearly having the time of her life, and I really hope she goes on to be, like, the next Tina Turner, because she is amazing like that. I just hope she doesn't turn to be the next Tamyra Gray, awesome on the show, but totally fading into obscurity soon after.















Blake Lewis
Clearly, the audience fave. This guy--and every guy who has ever been on American Idol, actually--never did anything for me. He's just...not my cup of tea, I guess. I suppose he's talented, and the beeping I suppose is...interesting if you're into that sort of thing. But he sang Maroon 5. I did like "You Give Love a Bad Name," though--I think that was definitely his best performance on the show. He did this five-minute-long "song" of nothing but the beeping, and it was overkill. He didn't really appear to be on stage a lot--he did a duet with Richardson and was in the boys' "band," but that was, like, it. I guess he got the special second-place treatment by not having to perform with the riffrafff so often?

Jordin Sparks













Okay, this girl's winning the show was clearly destiny. I mean, look at her. She's a more real Carrie Underwood. Maybe there's some kind of depth to Jordin, but to me she just seems like your regular goofy teenager. Which is fine. I kind of love her for being like that. But she's just not all that interesting. I mean, her singing is fantastic, and she even made me pay attention to "This Is My Now," which I think is even worse than "A Moment Like This" (but better than "Before Your Love"--poor Kelly and Justin got saddled with two hideous songs. Did that happen to anyone else?) Anyway, Jordin was good, and I had a lot of fun watching her, and that Jewel cover totally killed me, it was so cute, but...Melinda was the more compelling performer, I think. I mean, even when she made herself cry during "I Who Have Nothing," I was, like, "Well, we've already seen this, Sparks." That performance on the show was amazing, at least for me, because I was not expecting something like that to come from her. She still sounded beautiful, but it was less amazing, you know? But! The other best thing (besides "You Were Meant for Me") was that she did "Livin' on a Prayer," which was totally her worst performance on the show. But she fixed it somehow, because it was rockin' and awesome, and I may have just screamed along with the chorus like no one could hear me.

Final verdict: Jordin Sparks is certainly no Kelly Clarkson, but she just may be the second-best winner. (Suck on that, Underwood).

(The rest of the pictures are here.)