And the next ” American Idol” is David. But David who? Not everyone agrees on which David will win Wednesday night.
The winner: David Archuleta. There’s no question David Cook is a far more original and versatile performer than his young opponent, but as Randy has told “Archie” so often, “Dude, you can sing the phone book.” Add to that Archie’s devoted legion of prepubescent and postmenopausal fans. And then there’s this year’s coronation song, which is bound to be more syrupy than a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth’s. No one serves up syrup sweeter than Archuleta. We can already imagine his dad saying, “Pour it on.” - Daniel Bubbeo
The winner: David Cook. “Idol” missed its shot with Chris Daughtry two years ago. Sure, 19 Entertainment still makes money off him, but it would have been so much sweeter if the “American Idol,” not the fourth-place finisher, had been the biggest-selling artist in 2007. Cook’s potential CD sales could even overtake Daughtry’s. He’s über-talented and can sing “Phantom of the Opera” with as much ease as Phantom Planet. The stylists have exposed his raw sexuality and - surprise! - he’s also a nice guy. The perfect “Idol” package. Make no mistake, it’ll be Cook singing the assuredly icky “coronation” song Wednesday night. - Ronnie Gill
David Archuleta is a nice, seventeen year old kid with an overbearing father. He has a good singing voice with which, it could be argued, he adds too many runs and vocal gymnastics then need be. He is innocent, naïve, modest to a fault and, as a result of these things, lacks a distinct personality. He is a blank slate, which may actually be a reason for his season long success on American Idol. With no clearly defined persona, David Archuleta can be anything for anyone who watches American Idol. Perhaps you, teenage girls, see him as the perfect boy – talented, cute and pliable. Perhaps you, grandmothers, see him as the boy you wish your grandkids were. Perhaps you, 30 year old hipster, see him as a talented and un-ironic foil to your typical likes. David Archuleta, blessed with a distinctive voice and cursed/blessed with a father who systematically constructed him a path to stardom, is one night of voting away from winning American Idol. These are the reasons why he will emerge triumphant on Wednesday night:
Inevitability
You don’t always need reasoned, logical explanations for things: it just seems right that David Archuleta will win American Idol. It may not be just in your mind, but the sweet air of inevitability is clearly in Archuleta’s corner. For the entire American Idol season, Archuleta has acted and been judged like the golden boy destined to win. It’s felt like this since the Top 12 began, and that feeling has not gone away.
Voting Fanatics
Stories have floated along on the internet tubes for the last couple months regarding David Archuleta’s fans. How the rabid fanatics have had “voting parties” where they text or call in as many times as humanly possible within the voting window. It’s possible that Archuleta has less fans that the voting results might dictate, simply because his fans vote more than any other group of fans. If this is the case, then expect their efforts to peak on the night it matters most next week.
The Judges
If you keep saying something over and over and over and over again, eventually people start to believe it. The American Idol judges anointed Archie the prohibitive favorite early in the season and their enthusiasm continued throughout. Although Simon has taken his foot off the Archuleta praise pedal oh-so slightly, Randy and Paula still blindly sing David’s praises. If I have to hear Randy say “he could sing the phone book” one more time I will puke in my soup. Nonetheless, the judges have conditioned the audience to like all of David’s performances whether they were actually good or not.
He’s Cuter than David Cook
If you don’t think a significant portion of the voting audience doesn’t just vote for who they think is the cutest, you are kidding yourself.
Listen to David Archuleta’s Top 03 studio version of “Longer” in the audio player.
Watch and listen to David Archuleta singing “And So It Goes,” “With You,” and “Longer” performed during The Top 03 Performances (Choices Week).
Proceed to the downloads on the forum.
View the episodic stills and screen captures in the gallery.
It’s official. David Archuleta is coming home on Friday. The Murray teen will be greeted by classmates, politicians and, oh, maybe 20,000 of his new best friends. He’ll sing the national anthem at the Utah Jazz game.
And “American Idol” cameras will be following him the whole time, capturing footage for next week’s episodes of the top-rated Fox show.
Because, as expected, Archuleta advanced to the “Idol” top three after almost 51 million votes were cast by viewers.
Which means it’s homecoming at Murray High for Archuleta on Friday. He’ll be greeted by Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., Salt Lake County Mayor Peter Corroon and Murray Mayor Dan Snarr at an elaborate pep rally that begins at 4:15 p.m. in the school’s football stadium. He’ll sing two or three songs.
He’s also planning to sing when he appears at 7 a.m. on local Fox station KSTU-Channel 13’s “Good Day Utah,” and maybe when he goes from there to radio station KZHT-FM 97.1.
Now that Fox, “Idol” producers and the NBA have worked out issues over rights, Archuleta will indeed be singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” before the Jazz take on the Los Angeles Lakers in Game No. 3 of their playoff series at EnergySolutions Arena.
If you just can’t get enough of Archuleta, KSTU’s myfoxutah.com will be streaming hourly updates. And both the Web site and Channel 13 will cover the pep rally from 4 to 5:30 p.m.
It’s not exactly a surprise that Archuleta was in the top three of the voting this week. After all, “Idol” judge Simon Cowell told the Murray teen that he’d “crushed” the competition on Tuesday night.
But strange things have happened on “American Idol” before. And there’s a bit of a curse associated with the week the final four perform — finalists thought to be safe went home instead of less-talented competitors.
The pattern was set in Season 1 when Tamyra Gray made a shocking exit. That was followed by Josh Gracin in Season 2, LaToya London in Season 3 and Anthony Federov in Season 4, all thought to be at least relatively safe until they were sent home.
Then there was Chris Daughtry’s absolutely astonishing elimination in Season 5. And Lakisha Jones’ exit last season was at least mildly surprising.
Archuleta admitted on Wednesday night that he felt “nervous.”
“No matter how well you do, there’s always a chance” of being voted out,” he told “Idol” host Ryan Seacrest.
“American Idol” doesn’t reveal vote totals and, until it is just a two-person competition, doesn’t reveal who finishes first. But Seacrest said this week’s top three — Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado — were all within 1 million votes of each other.
After a pair of horrible performances on Tuesday — including one in which he forgot the lyrics — Jason Castro was sent home — only without the big celebration that awaits Archuleta, Cook and Mercado in their hometowns.
After the quick trip back to Utah, Archuleta returns to Los Angeles when he, Cook and Mercado will sing on Tuesday and await the votes on Wednesday.
