* American Idol S06E40

A suspense-free penultimate show.

So Blake Lewis wins the coin flip and lets Jordin Sparks sing last. Either he’s being a true gentleman or he’s conceding the competition to her. You have to know that more people view the finale (part one) than any other show of the season, and many of them will be able to tell who is the more talented singer. Here, for the final time are my AI stock picks (explained here) for tonight’s episode. For these multi-song episodes, I’ve been giving +1 for a “buy,” zero for a hold, and -1 for a “sell.”

First Song

1. Blake Lewis – hold. Blake reprised “You Give Love A Bad Name” complete with beat-boxing. I think he sang it better the first time. Listening at home (as the majority of the millions of voters are doing), I thought the sound was mixed odd. Perhaps it was the larger theatre or the larger band. It also seemed gimmicky to me this time.
2. Jordin Sparks – hold. Jordin sang the Xtina song “Fighter,” probably in an attempt to please Simon by singing something more contemporary. Again, the sound mixing was odd. It was a rocking song sung well, but it was short of a home run.

Second Song

1. Blake Lewis – hold. Blake sang “She Will Be Loved” by Maroon Five. It was very good, very much like the original. But it was not great, and it was not memorable.
2. Jordin Sparks – buy. At this point, all Jordin has to do is not fall flat on her face and she will win American Idol. She reprises “A Broken Wing” from country night and nails it. When she sings the chorus, it sends shivers down my spine. The judges all love it.

Third Song

I would argue that the third song does not matter, because it is the sappy (or insert your rhyming word here) coronation song, “This Is My Now.” The only difference between this year’s song and last year’s song is that this year’s was written by an amateur as part of the AI song writing contest. It still stinks.

1. Blake Lewis – hold. Yuck part one.
2. Jordin Sparks – hold. Yuck part two, only slightly less so. When I was in the Air Force, we joked around that the only way that you would not get promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant is if you shot your boss. Similarly, all Jordin has do do is not shoot the judges and she’ll win this. Well, she didn’t, and along the way, she song the song quite well. She got very emotional at the end of the song, and you’ve got to love the “Jordin! Jordin!” chants from the audience. Jordin Sparks has a long successful recording career ahead of her.

Weighted Scores

1. Jordin Sparks = +1
2. Blake Lewis = 0

Get used to hearing “This Is My Now” on the radio, because Jordin Sparks is your next American Idol.