Jordin’s vocals overshadow Blake
By Melissa Gentry
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/23/07 – “American Idol” finalists Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks sang their hearts out last night for thousands of supporting fans at the Kodak Theatre, giving their final performances and bringing this year’s season to an end. Two contestants – three songs each – and after millions of votes America will be left with only one idol. So will it be beat-boxing Blake or singing sweetheart Sparks? America must wait until tonight for the final tallies to find out who will be the next “American Idol”. Blake and Jordin seem to be head to head in these final hours of this competition but for different reasons, according to the judges. Blake appears very comfortable on stage and makes songs original with his unique beat boxing twist and to judge Randy Jackson, these qualities are what have kept him in the competition this long and make him the better entertainer. However, he went on to remind Blake that this is a “singing competition,” and made very evident that the real singer is Jordin when he said, ”This is the best singing competition ever in the history of television … and Jordin — you were the best singer tonight, you deserve it all, baby.”
Singing performances were broken up into three rounds, and in each round the audience got to hear a song from both contestants. Blake went first since he won last week’s coin toss, choosing his Bon Jovi week success, “You Give Love a Bad Name.”
Once again the song seemed to be a hit with both the judges and the crowd, who went wild after his performance and didn’t stop clapping even after Randy started to give his commentary. Randy gave Blake a ten out of ten on his beat boxing talents, but thought the singing was “just alright.” Paula on the other hand thought Blake outdid himself and said she wished she could have given him more than a ten. Simon once again reiterated his opinion that Blake is not the best singer, calling his singing “a bit flat,” and went on to say that what Blake lacks in singing he makes up for in performance.
Jordin chose “Fighter,” by Christina Aguilera for her round one performance and received a great audience response as well. Poor Randy could hardly be heard over the cheering crowd, but managed to express how impressed he was with Jordin’s vocals, throwing many positive adjectives out to describe them including “stellar, brilliant, and amazing.” Paula agreed, but like always Simon had to be the black sheep of the bunch and disagree. Although he thought it was great that she had chosen a younger song this week, he said he found the vocals to be “shrieky in the middle,” and this made the crowd boo his remarks. Simon gave round one to Blake, Paula went fifty-fifty, and Randy got picky giving the performance to Blake and the vocals to Jordin leaving the competition riding the fence to round two.
Blake kept his second performance beat-box free singing the hit “She Will Be Loved,” by Maroon 5. Randy thought that it was a great song for him and liked hearing his vocals without all the beat-boxing. Paula unsurprisingly said, “You sounded great.” Simon thought it was a good, safe choice, but not the best choice as he went on to say, “I actually wouldn’t have chosen that song in the final because I don’t think it makes that much of an impact.”
Opponent Jordin brought back her victory from country week, singing “Broken Wing,” by Martina McBride. Once again she nailed the tune with her powerful pipes. Randy doted on her, saying, “You are the most talented 17-year-old I know,” and even called her performance “flawless…and better than the original.” Paula told Jordin that her voice was great and Simon said simply, “Now that was good.” For the pivotal round three both Blake and Jordin sang the song that won the songwriting competition for this year, “This is My Now,” written by two young men from Seattle.
Blake seemed to be a little out of his element with this number as he’s not one for ballads really, and at one point during his performance he jumped up and down, which Simon said he thought was done out of frustration. Randy said, “You did a pretty good job with it,” but didn’t think it was great. Unsurprisingly, Paula thought he did a great job with the song. Jordin took the plate last and blew the song out of the water, receiving nothing but positive remarks from the judges. Paula joyfully said, “You freaking make me proud, you have a lot to be proud of, you’re an angel.” Simon went on to make an apology to Sparks stating that last week he didn’t think she was good enough to make it to the finals, and said “I want to say to you publicly now, ‘I was wrong.’ It is a singing competition and you just wiped the floor with Blake on that song.” This comment triggered the crowd as they started to chant her name. Final evaluations from the judges were then given starting with Randy who thought Jordin won the night. Simon gave the best individual performance of the night to Blake’s first song, but said for best overall singing, “Jordin wins.” Positive Paula said, “They all end up as winners as you will see; the next thing that you’re gonna see tells you the story why,” referring to former “American Idol” contestant Chris Daughtry who came out and closed the show with his hit song, “Home.” Regardless of last night, the judges are not the ones who make the final decision, America is, and so until tonight we are left to ponder, “Who will be the next ‘American Idol?’”