Rather than go to the reader feedback, which basically wasn’t that good this week, we’re going right into the show. After tonight’s write-up, I’ll be back tomorrow night with the American Idol 3 Season finale.

As far as singing goes, tonight is the important show. They will also sing tomorrow night, but only tonight’s performances will be voted on. Word is that both singers will sing a Tamyra Gray penned tune tonight and it will be the winner’s first single. Also, word on the street is that Jennifer Love Hewitt, Clay Aiken, and Chrstina Chrstian will be on the show tomorrow night in some capacity.

Here’s the eleventh edition of the Love List.

1. Fantasia Barrino- Even though people say Diana is the favorite, there’s no question in my mind, Barrino is best.
2. Diana DeGarmo- Great comeback, but the immaturity is killing me

The Homesick

1. Leah LaBelle
2. Matthew Rogers
3. Amy Adams
4. Camille Velasco
5. Jon Peter Lewis
6. Jennifer Hudson
7. John Stevens
8. George Huff
9. LaToya London
10. Jasmine Trias

Tonight, Ryno Seacrest is wearing a white suit with a black shirt. Kind of looks like a reverse penguin. The singers will perform three songs, and just so we won’t have to hear so many busy signals while voting, each singer has three phone numbers in which you can call. Also, you will be able to vote up to four hours after the show ends.

Looks like they put a corset on poor Diana DeGarmo. Either that or she’s sucking that stomach in something fierce. Diana also says she’s going to give 500 percent, which is impossible, but I guess it’s more hardcore than just saying 100 percent. Because of the coin toss last week, which Fantasia won, Diana will sing first. Diana will sing Gray’s song I Believe first. She will get to pick her next two songs. Fantasia will also have to sing I Believe. Diana does what Diana usually does. She starts off really slowly, and then picks up the pace. It’s basically a Mariah Carey like spiritual ballad, and Diana shows that she can do that song decently. What this also shows me is that she’s not the great wailer that Kelly Clarkson was in Season 1. Clarkson would’ve probably killed this song. In the words of Randy Jackson if he were writing this, for me for her, she’s going to have to do much better on her next two songs. Randall says she worked it out tonight even though it was a big song. Paula says she feels like a proud parent. And she should. She really is old enough to be Diana’s mom. And speaking of Paula, she’s one of the few women who actually looks better after her prime. When she was singing Forever Your Girl and Rush, Rush she was a pretty lady. But during the first two seasons of American Idol, she was a fox. Or as Lionel Ritchie would say, she was “outrageous!” But in the last year, she’s aged so much. But still, most guys wouldn’t kick her out of bed for leaving crumbs. After that tangeant, Simon says his only problem with the song is that Diana hasn’t done all the things the song says, such as swimming lakes and climbing mountains. I hope he has the same complaint for Fantasia since she’s hasn’t done it either.

I read somewhere (*cough San Jose Mercury News cough*) that Fantasia didn’t have the personality that would vibe with the rest of America and that would be a reason she wouldn’t win the vote. I’m not sure what show the writer was watching because Fantasia’s goofy personality is only topped by her stage performance. She’s singing All My Life. This is actually my song with my wife. When K-Ci and JoJo broke away from Jodeci, I bought their CD, entitled Love Always and found this gem of a song. I played it for my wife when we were actually still dating and it became our song. People would scoff at the song because of how slow and lovey dovey it was, but 5 months later when it was the number one song in America, they were singing right along. By that time, I just laughed because I told my wife that if they ever released the song as a single, it would go number one. Fantasia’s performance was a scream fest, but she showed more emotion in that performance, than Diana has the entire competition. It does make me want to bust out the original though. Randall says that Fantasia made the best of what was a bad instrumental arrangement. Paula says she stands out because she takes a mediocre arrangement and she puts the audience in a chokehold and tells them to listen up. Simon says that she’s lucky that she’s singing more than one song because it was a complete mess. By the way, the wife didn’t love the performance.

Diana is singing No More Tears by Donna Summers. Right from the top, she sounds great. She changed clothes so the corset is off. Why do I have the feeling that she sang this before? Shouldn’t she get docked points for that? Why doesn’t Fantasia just sing Summertime again? I checked and she did sing this on the disco show. Damn, she gets docked by me for lack of originality. Randy and Paula really liked it. Simon says the song was great, but the dancing was hideous.

Ok, Fantasia IS singing Summertime again. Now what did I miss? Do they have to choose one of their best performances to re-sing? Ok, I take back my critisicm of Diana. Her original performance of this song was my favorite performance of all time for American Idol. While nothing is going to top that performance, she still does a great job. It’s pretty tough to top the original because she brought such a dramatic twist to it the first time, and she’s basically duplicating her first performance. Both performances are probably equal here. Randall says Fantasia is back and it was unbelievable. Paula says she reinvented herself and will never bore the audience. Simon says Fantasia is the best contestant in the history of not only American Idol, but the history of the Idol series. Wow, I wonder who he wants to win?

Diana is singing Don’t Cry Out Loud. I’m trying to figure out when she sang this before. But I liked it.  Randy and Paula both say that she lost it in the middle of the song. Simon says the last time she did that song, it was sensational, but she missed this time. After Simon’s glowing recommendation of Fantasia, I think Diana feels that she’s already lost.

Fantasia is next with I Believe. I think they better pick a different single, because both girls didn’t sing this song all that well. Tamyra did a better job last week on the Wednesday show than both did tonight. Fantasia definitely brought more energy and drama to the performance, but Diana probably did a better vocal performance. Randall says it was brilliant. Paula says that it was her night. Simon says that it was her acceptance speech.

The judges were very interesting to me tonight. It was if Diana could do no right, and Fantasia could do no wrong in their eyes kind of night. I thought Fantasia did do the better job, but she didn’t smoke Diana’s big behind by as much as the judges would want us to believe. I guess, the performance is really a bigger part of this than I originally thought. Simon and Randy always say it’s about the singing, but it was more than that tonight. Vocally, Diana is right on par, but it’s the dramatics, the emotion, and all the stage presense that doomed Diana. But Diana is not totally out of the running. For much of the year, the voting has been surprising. It would not surprise me to see it happen again. In the end, it’s the year of LaToya and Fantasia anyway. It might actually help the Idol brand to have Diana win because without the win, she’s not as big of a star. Fantasia and LaToya are already stars. After all that, I’ll take Fantasia to win.

If you want to be like Jesus M. or B2, you can send me an email. Let me know your thoughts on the show, and who should win. Or, you can just use the new comments feature that good old Blogger has supplied at the bottom of this post.

Like gout, I’m Seacrest out!

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