Shmuel's Soapbox: American Idol Annex

Final 2: Performances

I got home with the show in progress, and decided to wait until it finished before watching the tape from the start.

Given my prediction that Diana was going to take the thing, I had a sinking feeling when she led off with her rendition of this year's American Idol single... because it was obvious that the song had been written for Fantasia. Not literally, I hasten to add; I'm not big on the conspiracy theories. But it was totally in Fantasia's style, and not so much in Diana's, and Fantasia was going to use it for the finale, and that just might conceivably swing the thing. I wish they'd followed last year's practice of having separate potential (or actual) singles for the top two. Oh, well.

Anyway. Diana's performance wasn't bad, just not great. Just a bit hoarse, just a bit shrill... oversinging just a bit.

And then Fantasia came out and handed the game right back to Diana. Say this for Fantasia: she takes risks. I respect that. Which in no way alters the fact that this rendition of "All My Life" totally blew up in her face.

And then it was on to the Greatest Hits, with "No More Tears" by Diana and "Summertime" by Fantasia reminding the nice viewers at home why -- contrary to the continued flood of "the sky is falling and Idol is falling apart" articles -- either of these singers would really and truly be worthy of the title.

Followed by Diana doing a reasonably good version of "Don't Cry Out Loud," except the bit in the middle where she got pitchy, followed by Fantasia nailing the single, as expected.

...and, oh, good God. I can't believe they did the "My Way" shtick again. Although it was actually cuter than it had any right to be.

Anyway.

Who should win: By a narrow margin, confining ourselves to this week's performances... Fan... Fantasi... Fa...

...please don't make me say it.

Who will win: This is a tougher call than I expected it to be, in large part because Diana was off tonight, kinda hoarse through the whole thing. On the other hand, that didn't stop Ruben from winning last year. And she's gonna get most of the remaining portion of the triple-J (John/Jon/Jasmine) vote, in addition to a decent portion of the good-singer vote on the strength of the season as a whole. And I still think there are less people who find her annoying than the competition. Add it all up, and I stand by my previous prediction: Diana.

Who I voted for: [sigh] I gritted my teeth and voted against my best interests in the pool. And then I heard Fantasia's message in place of the usual neutral "You have voted for contestant number whatever" (presumably to be sure that, with all the added numbers, people were getting the contestants they'd expected to be voting for), and had to hear Diana's, so I gave her a vote too. Then I decided that I liked her message so much more that I was almost willing to ditch my plan of being fair, but then gritted my teeth more heavily and gave one more to the competition. And then Fantasia's message reminded me that, no, I really didn't want her to win, so I gave one more to Diana and left it at a dead heat.

I feel so dirty.

Anyway, predictions go in the comments. Good luck, y'all.