American Idol 9: Finals Week 9 Performances, Tuesday May 11, 2010

As promised, this week's theme is songs from the movies, and Jamie Foxx came back as a guest mentor to coach the four finalists with their song choices.  Jamie came armed with two T-shirts, "Contestant" and "Artist," which he said he was going to present to each finalist based on his or her performance.  Cute gimmick which amounted to nothing.  With fewer contestants and an hour to fill, the producers brought back last year's idea of the contestants being paired off to sing duets.  The duets are ostensibly just for fun and do not have the phone numbers shown during the performances, but what the heck – we'll grade them anyway.

(1) Lee DeWyze sang "Kiss from a Rose" from the film Batman Forever by Seal (1995).  Lee's voice was all wrong for this song, and that was demonstrated about 2 seconds into his performance.  It was scratchy and off-pitch from the get-go, and he couldn't get anywhere near the high notes that Seal scaled so effortlessly.  We don't know what the judges and the studio audience heard because the judges' comments were way too lenient given what a disaster this was.  Grade: D

(2) Michael Lynche sang "Will You Be There" from the film Free WIlly by Michael Jackson (1993).  Michael did an okay, but not great job with this Michael Jackson track.  He captured the underlying gospel flavor, but didn't really push himself or take the song to the soaring heights of the original.  Grade: B-

(3) Lee DeWyze and Crystal Bowersox sang "Falling Slowly" from the film Once (2007).  Kris Allen sang this last year, and despite praise from the judges, we weren't knocked out by his version.  This song was originally done as a duet, so it worked better for us this year.  Still, Crystal clearly outshone Lee although both were good.  Grade: B+

(4) Casey James sang "Mrs. Robinson" from the film The Graduate (1967).  Low-key effort from Casey, who sang the song competently enough, but didn't do anything interesting with it.  The harmonies of Simon and Garfunkel on the original made it a classic, but absent that, the song just laid there and felt almost phoned in.  Grade: B-

(5) Crystal Bowersox sang "I'm Alright" from the film Caddyshack (1980).  Crystal took to the stage and immediately showed everyone why she's the odds-on favorite to win the season.  She took an almost-forgotten Kenny Loggins hit and made it fresh and exciting.  Clearly the best performance of the night.  Grade: B+

(6) Casey James and Michael Lynche sang "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" from the film Don Juan DeMarco (1995).  Bryan Adams hit nicely performed by Casey and Michael.  Casey somewhat redeemed himself, but Michael was clearly the star of this duet.  Grade: B

The duets tonight were instructive because the weak links of the season became more obvious.  For us, Michael and Crystal were demonstrably better than their singing partners, Casey and Lee.  As of this writing, if the finale consisted of Crystal and Michael, we wouldn't be either shocked or disappointed.  Of course, things can change on a dime given the craziness of this season.  We'll be very interested to get the results tomorrow.  Will Michael Lynche achieve his near-term goal and make it into the final 3?

American Idol 9: Finals Week 9 Results, Wednesday May 12, 2010

Based on last night's performances, we don't think that Michael Lynche should have gone home tonight, but we acknowledge that established fanbases play a lot into who goes through each week no matter how well each contestant actually performed.  Also, although we felt that Lee should have been the one to go home tonight after last night's horrendous performance, he did redeem himself with his duet with Crystal Bowersox and may have been able to piggyback on her popularity to skate by another week. 

The top 3 will return to his or her hometown for a hero's welcome and a parade in his or her honor.   If the rules from prior seasons still apply, the contestants will each have to sing two songs next week with one of them being a judge's choice.

Who will be joining Crystal in the top 2?  Find out next week.