Hey, guest American Idol blogger Randy Salas here. The final three singers don’t perform until tonight on the top-rated TV show, but word has already gotten out on some of the songs we’ll hear. Each singer must perform a song chosen by one of the judges, by the producers and by him- or herself. According to Internet scuttlebutt, here are some of the songs on tap:

 David Archuleta: Dan Fogelberg’s “Longer” (producers’ choice), Billy Joel’s “And So It Goes” (Paula Abdul’s choice) and Chris Brown’s “With You” (his choice).

My thoughts: Wow, if that’s really Paula’s choice, it’s brilliant. Little Archie’s smoky-toned voice is just right for the Billy Joel song. “Longer” also is a cool choice, and “With You” will finally give us a glimpse of how he’ll do with something contemporary. Unfortunately, all three sings emphasize that Archie can only do a ballad salad — not much stylistic range.

David Cook: Roberta Flack’s “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face” (Simon Cowell’s choice), Collective Soul’s “The World I Know” (his choice) and an as-yet-unknown producers’ choice.

My thoughts: What an odd choice for Simon to make for the rocker: a musty, slow ballad. I thought at first that he’d be better off doing the earlier folk version by Gordon Lightfoot, but that would probably misfire from being too unfamiliar to viewers. Here’s hoping for another reinvention as he did with the version he covered of Lionel Richie’s “Hello.” “The World I Know” is a down-tempo, fairly unmelodic number, so we could really use an all-out rock choice from the producers.

Syesha Mercado: Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” (Randy Jackson’s choice) and two unknown numbers (her choice and the producers’).

My thoughts: Eye roll. Mercado performed the same song on the ABC reality show “The One.” Did Randy Jackson know that when he made his choice? She acted it well. 

I have to say that I’m seriously pulling for David Cook at this point. David Archuleta has worn on me, largely because he has no stylistic range and I tire of his “making songs his own” by simply changing every original melody. Syesha has been touted as “coming on strong” in the past few weeks, but has any contestant ever been among the bottom vote-getters so many times and made it to this point? I’m over her shrill high notes and “it’s all about me” stage presence, such as equating her Idol journey to the civil rights movement. I hope we shall overcome her this week and have a finals pitting David vs. David.

What say you? And come back later tonight for my thoughts on tonight’s show.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13th, 2008 at 1:49 pm and is filed under American Idol. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.