American Idol: The Three Amigos
Ellen

There are only three contestants left on American Idol: Danny Gokey, Kris Allen and Adam Lambert.  But one question remains: who will make it to the final two?  Truth be told, if the judges had their way, the question would be: Who is going to face Adam in the finals?  But no one did horribly last night; on the contrary, everyone was really good!  So it’s hard to predict who’s going home this week.

Last night, each contestant sang two songs: one was a judges pick and the other they got to choose.

Danny Gokey kicked things off with a song I’ve never heard before.  Apparently he drew the wrong straw and got paired up with Paula who chose “Dance Little Sister” for him to perform as his first song.  The only real criticism the judges had for Gokey was that his dancing was a bit desperate and bad, but they all agreed that Danny can “really really sing” as Randy enjoys repeating over and over again.

His second song was “You are so Beautiful.”  The judges gushed over this performance: “mad vocals baby, mad vocals” from Randy; “stunning” from Kara; “you left us breathless” from Paula; “a vocal master class” from Simon.  I think Danny is a better technical singer than Kris, but I wasn’t as impressed with him after these two performances as I have been in past weeks.  Check out Gokey singing “You are so Beautiful” below:

Kris Allen was the second to grace the Idol stage, as Seacrest would put it, and Kara and Randy chose “Apologize” by One Republic for him to sing first.  I really love that song, and he did well singing it, but the judges liked the original better.  Kara criticized his “artistry” again, which Simon in turn called a cop out.  He told her “you can’t chose a song for him and then blame him for doing that song.”  Well said Simey Boy.  Kara would have rather seen him on the acoustic guitar, but that didn’t come till later.

For his second song, Kris chose “Heartless” by Kanye West.  I know what you’re thinking – what, is he going to try to do a knock off version of the Frey’s cover that has made its way on the radio recently?  But he didn’t AT ALL.  It was actually better than The Frey’s version, I thought.  (Check out The Frey’s version right here and see if you agree!)  He stripped it way down to just an acoustic guitar and his voice and changed up the melody and what not.  It was my favorite performance of the night!  Check it out here:

Adam Lambert was up last.  Simon chose U2′s “One” for him to sing.  It went well, which was expected.  Simon called him brilliant for the millionth time.  But my favorite song from him was “Cryin” by Aerosmith.  First of all, major brownie points for choosing that song.  Love it!  It really fit his voice and style, and we both think Steven Tyler is “the man.”  All the judges sang his praises during both judging rounds, and he did what he does best in both: pretty much everything, plus hitting those high notes he’s become famous for.  The judges all agreed that if he didn’t make the final, it would be “one of the biggest upsets in Idol history.”  Check out his performance of “Cryin” here:

If I had to make a guess as to who’s going to advance tonight, I’d say it’s going to be Adam and Kris.  I chose Kris because he sang two songs that are relevant today – One Republic’s song was a huge hit not too long ago and is still alive on the radio, and you can’t go anywhere without hearing “Heartless.”  Most importantly, I think he gave the most memorable performance of the night switching up that Kanye song to make it his own.  Plus he’s got that whole baby face thing going on that the girls just love.  I think Danny did really well too but he got an awkward song choice from Paula and I think that’s going to hurt him.  Adam, well, I think it’s safe to say he’s going to the finals, don’t you?  Simon sure does – at least, that’s what he told Oprah.

Who do you want to be in the final?

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Make sure to tune in tonight to find out who makes it and which amigo is going home!  9pm on FOX.