American Idol Final 7, Double Elimination

Thanks to Matt Giraud’s save last week, tonight’s American Idol on Fox came complete with two eliminations and David Archuleta. After over 45 million votes, here’s how it played out.

Tonight’s filler material started out with a video that showed Paula Abdul choreographing the contestants for their group song. I actually found this a little more interesting that I thought I would. It was nice to see Paula actually do something other than stutter and stammer through a critique. Anyone who’s familiar with her work in the 80s probably saw many of the same moves she’d use in her own music videos and work she did with other artists like Janet Jackson as they danced to their version of Michael Jackson’s “Shake Your Body (Down to the Ground).” I say “danced” because I’m pretty sure they were just lip-synching to a previously recorded track.

The first batch of results revealed to us quickly that Lil Rounds is not only in the bottom three, but is actually one of the two being eliminated tonight. Big surprise that they revealed it so soon and I’m actually surprised that she really was eliminated. I really thought it would be Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai tonight. I think she used the emotion and energy from her elimination to do a really good version of her song from last night, “I’m Every Woman,” by Chaka Kahn.

Next up was a medley of Disco songs sung by the original artists which included “Band of Gold” sung by Freda Payne, “Don't Leave Me This Way” by Thelma Houston and “Get Down Tonight” sung by K.C of K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Of these three performances, I enjoyed Thelma Houston the most. K.C. and Freda seemed a little out of breath during their songs.

Back in voting results-ville, we learned that Kris Allen, Adam Lambert, and Danny Gokey were all safe from elimination tonight. Anoop Desai and Allison Iraheta however were in the bottom three as Matt Giraud was declared safe for one more week. I’m disappointed that Allison is in the bottom, but at this point after Anoop goes home, it really could be just about anyone who goes home at any time, really.

To break up what we really want to see we got to watch David Archuleta come out and sing his new song, “Touch My Hand.” It never fails that no matter how exciting these contestants’ performances are while they're contestants on American Idol, I’ve never heard a song from one of their follow-up albums that are as interesting as anything they sang while they were on the show. This song was OK, but nothing special.

Down to the second person being eliminated tonight was, no surprise to me, Anoop Desai. Generally, I like him but I don’t think he measures up to the other powerhouses left in the competition.

I’m thinking that the final three contestants are going to be Adam, Danny and Kris. I’d like to see Allison in there somewhere, but with her being in the bottom three so much, it’s probably not meant to be. Next week will probably be a toss-up between Matt and Allison for elimination, but we’ll see… Adam, Danny or Kris might slip on some soap, or something.