Suz and I have been occasional American Idol fans. We watched most of the first season, but we’ve been fairly indifferent since then. The horrible singers in the beginning stages are really the best part, IMHO.

For whatever reason, we started watching it more this year. I gotta say, I love Blake. After the performance on Bon Jovi night of You Give Love a Bad Name, I have to give him huge props. Definitely the most original Idol arrangement I’ve ever seen, and he did it when he needed to to stand out from the other five left at the time. He really knocked it out of the park (make sure to check the last clip in this post, too, for this final beatbox performance):

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The only other performance that night that was close was from LaKisha, singing Ain’t a Love Song. Damn amazing… she’s a great singer, but just not as consistently good as some of the other performers this year. This night, however, even Simon was convinced:

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Of course, Melinda was the consummate professional throughout the entire competition. She never turned in a performance that wasn’t either the best of the night, or damn close. It was a real upset when she was knocked out with three people left. I expect a lot of people thought she was safe, so didn’t vote for her that night. It would have been nice to see her in the final, and based on her performances throughout the season, she deserved to win.

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This last clip is from the final show of the season… it’s Blake Lewis with Doug E. Fresh, doing their beatbox thing. While I’ve enjoyed the competitions, I’ve never seen an Idol contestant who has been interesting enough to make me interested in actually buying an album. I look forward to what we see from him in the future. This is a great performance:

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