Idol-Talk: Season 9 Top 3 [& Top 4 Results]

American Idol Season 9: Top 4 Results Show
Airdate: Wednesday, May 12, 2010 [9-10pm]

• 37 million votes were cast [wow! they actually went up quite a bit]
• Fantasia performs "Bittersweet"
• Ford Music Video: "Put the Message in the Box"
• Video: Top 3 homecoming - A look back over the years
• Casey James - Top 3
• Daughtry performs "September"
• Lee Dewyze - Top 3
• Bon Jovi performs "Superman Tonight"
• Crystal Bowersox - Top 3
• Michael Lynche - Eliminated [Prediction: 0/1]
• The show ends about 30 seconds before scheduled end time. Wow!

American Idol Season 9: Top 3

Airdate: Tuesday, May 18, 2010 [8-9pm]

Themes: Contestants' Choice / Judges' Choice

1. Casey James [It's Alright With Me]: We're looking tonight to see who is good enough for the finale, and this was just "alright." There wasn't anything necessarily wrong with his voice, but it sounded so generic and not unique. And he is once again completely stiff while he is playing his guitar, which is so off-putting.
2. Crystal Bowersox [Come To My Window]: I am so happy that she sang a Melissa Etheridge song, because they are both so unique and still similar in a way. It wasn't as bad as what the judges said (in terms of arrangement). Once the song picked up, her voice was as great as always. I'm sure this will be a great studio recording.
3. Lee Dewyze [Lynyrd Skynyrd's Simple Man]: This is a great Lynyrd Skynyrd song, and Lee pulled off the best performance of this first round. The style meshed perfectly with Lee's voice. He was completely with the song at all times, and you could tell he enjoyed that one. I loved the gravel in his voice. Let's see if he can keep it up later in the night.
4. Casey James [John Mayer's Daughters]: Once again, he didn't deliver. The first song was forgettable, and this was extremely boring; it almost put me to sleep. I hope the judges' positive comments here cause his fans to think he's safe, resulting in his long-awaited eliminated, because he didn't perform to win tonight.
5. Crystal Bowersox [Maybe I'm Amazed]: Ellen chose the perfect song for Crystal to push herself even further with what she can do with her voice. She didn't hold back at all (which caused some off notes), but she did what she needed to do to make it to next week.
6. Lee Dewyze [Hallelujah]: It was so obvious that Simon chose this song to purposefully create a moment for Lee. And the producers pumped that up even more with that dramatic entrance of the background singers to the stage. Now, while overall it was amazing, you can't overlook his vocals, which were off quite a bit. They tried to force him to create a moment, but it wasn't quite there yet.

Favorite Performances: Crystal Bowersox's "Maybe I'm Amazed;" Lee Dewyze's "Simple Man"

My Votes: Crystal Bowersox [100 votes]

Eliminated Prediction: Casey James

Top 2 Prediction: Crystal Bowersox / Lee Dewyze

My Season 9 Vote Tracker:

Crystal Bowersox: 534 votes

Lee Dewyze: 65 votes

Siobhan Magnus: 30 votes

Michael Lynche: 15 votes

Total: 645 votes cast so far this season

I don't really feel like I have to comment on what's going to happen tonight, because it seems pretty obvious that it will be a Crystal/Lee Finale next week. But, this is American Idol after all, so anything could happen, even at the Top 3 (remember Melinda Doolittle?). But if Casey were to somehow squeeze his way into the Top 2, then it's only going to make it oh-so-easy to crown the other contestant as the winner. As I've said in my performance comments above, it was pretty obvious both the producers and the judges are pimping Lee to win at this point, mainly evident by Simon's choice of "Hallelujah" for him. But just because they are pushing their favorite down our throats doesn't mean that person will win; that push could cause a backlash like it did with David Archuleta in season 7. At this point, if both Crystal and Lee make it to the finale, in a way I won't mind either one winning, but I'm still going to do whatever I can to make sure Crystal wins.

Okay, I guess I had more to say than I thought...

End Time: 9:00 - on time

If you want to buy any of the audio or video performances, head on over to TV Watch Online's American Idol on iTunes page. If you don't see this week's links up when viewing that page, they may not have been released on iTunes yet. If that is the case, keep checking back.

Tonight, Justin Bieber will perform. I might leave the room for that (but to his credit, he can actually sing unlike all the Disney stars today). Plus, after about four long months, we will finally find out which two contestants (or artists, to flash back to Jamie Foxx last week) will sing for the title of American Idol at the Nokia L.A. Live next Tuesday. See ya then...

PS-Adam Lambert recently tweeted that he has not been invited to perform at the Idol finale. I think we need to try to change that; I'm sure they've booked some guest performers that aren't as good as Adam. Come on, Glambert fans, let's force the Idol producers to book him next Wednesday night.