**American Idol The Top 3
 

From MJ's blog:

Judges picks:

Randy Jackson chose for Taylor Hicks: "You are so Beautiful" by Joe Cocker
Paula Abdul chose for Elliott Yamin: "What You Won't Do For Love" by Bobby Caldwell
Simon Cowell chose for Katharine McPhee: "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland and many others.

Entertainment Tonight has announced Clive Davis's song choices for the Top 3:

Elliott Yamin: "Open Arms" by Journey
Taylor Hicks: "Dancing in the Dark" by Bruce Springsteen
Katharine McPhee: "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly

The third songs are not confirmed, although Taylor's personal choice is rumored to be "Try a Little Tenderness", which he wanted to perform for love song week but wasn't allowed by the producers.

I'm loving Taylor's choices, Elliott's aren't so great.

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As far as I'm concerned, if those are the songs, Taylor is now a lock and Katherine is finished.

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I am really happy with Taylor's songs as well. I am hoping for a nice bump in his price, so I can break even and freeroll with the rest of my shares.

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As far as I'm concerned, if those are the songs, Taylor is now a lock and Katherine is finished.

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Agreed, could they have picked worse songs for Kat?

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From MJ's blog:

Judges picks:

Simon Cowell chose for Katharine McPhee: "Over the Rainbow" by Judy Garland and many others.


Clive Davis's song choices for the Top 3:

Katharine McPhee: "I Believe I Can Fly" by R. Kelly



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this is very unfortunate

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I'm loving Taylor's choices, Elliott's aren't so great.

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I had high hopes for Elliot, but Paula's choice for him makes me very uneasy.

AI should really replace Paula with someone who is a bit more stable and not as stupid. Maybe Flavor Flav?

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Agreed, could they have picked worse songs for Kat?

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I disagree. Simon's song is perfect for her. She will absolutely nail a broadway-type song. I also like the other choice as long as she does not go over the top with it. She has a beautiful voice and these songs should be perfect for her.

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Agreed, could they have picked worse songs for Kat?

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I disagree. Simon's song is perfect for her. She will absolutely nail a broadway-type song. I also like the other choice as long as she does not go over the top with it. She has a beautiful voice and these songs should be perfect for her.

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"Over the Rainbow" is such a great song that it defies anybody's ability to get tired of it. You want to be sick of it, but you can't. Anybody competent who sings it sounds great.

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I disagree. Simon's song is perfect for her. She will absolutely nail a broadway-type song. I also like the other choice as long as she does not go over the top with it. She has a beautiful voice and these songs should be perfect for her.


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I agree that "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" is a good choice. It's the type of cabaret song that suits Kat.

But I disagree that she has a beautiful voice. She is college glee-club average on her best nights, and painfully shrill on her bad nights. And she's had more bad nights than good. She should've been gone right after Mandisa.

Elliott's choices, I think, are worse than Kat's. I hope he pulls out a showstopper as his personal choice, because I'm rooting for him to make the final.

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I don't know about Paula's choice for Elliot, but he could nail Open Arms, IMO. That Joe Cocker song looks perfect for Taylor. Hoping those two make final two.

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So, what do you guys think is the good pre-show bet? I picked up a decent amount of Kat to leave at 35 which I'm happy about, as she has trended up slightly through the week.

Jesse

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Taylor is a cert to win IMO. Get your money on now if you haven't already.

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Taylor is a cert to win IMO. Get your money on now if you haven't already.

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I'm not sure there is such a thing.

I would not be surprised at all to see both of the final two idols trading at 60 or higher at different times before the final results show.

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The song choices are a lot less important than everyone seems to be giving them credit for IMO. Anything can happen and no one is a "lock" to win or go home at this point.

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Elliot.

ARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

Not goot enough there. Strike one.

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Elliott took a rock song I don't like and made me like it. I thought it was on the border between just ok and pretty helpful.

I didn't like the fact that it seemed like he said the words "Open Arms" out of tempo, a little ahead of where it belonged. He did it twice so I guess it was intentional.

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Elliott kinda missed on that one.

He will have to do better to move on with Taylor. Taylor's song choices fit his vocal style perfectly...

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Guys,

Keep the updates flowing. And promise me if that the unthinkable happens and Taylor seems to be in grave danger of not making the final (touch wood!), that you will all vote 50 times. Thanks!

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Kat's first song was all over the place. She started strong when she was just singing it, but the end was a mess. Hard to really rate that as anything but average. For once, Randy didn't like, Simon did. Usually other way around.

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So I think its safe to say this the last time Bruce will ever let AI do his song.

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Taylor's 'Dancing in the Dark' by Springsteen is a real snorer. C'mon. Performance piece, "fun song". Blah. Dancing with Paula was a nice touch though.

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So I think its safe to say this the last time Bruce will ever let AI do his song.

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Kat -- That was so up and down. She was great showing personality in the beginning but why didn't she go for the big note in the middle? Arguing with the judges is such a terrible move it was unbelieveable. She doesn't need to give people a reason to dislike her personality. Simon saved her.

Taylor -- I'm a big Bruce Springsteen fan, and that was terrible. It's too hard on the AI stage to duplicate the tone of the lyrics. But the song is so good, and Bruce's lyrics are so good, that I don't think America will find it as bad as it was.

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I thought Elliot was the best of the first 3 songs... I haven't seen the show in about 3-4 weeks, and Elliot's look has changed a lot to me. He is kinda reminding me of Clay Akins right now.

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i think elliot's first performance was better than his second, but still not bad. GO ELLIOT, BEAT TAYLOR

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Hmmm. I think that was actually a good song choice from Paula for Elliot. He was pretty decent there. Didn't knock it out of the park, but pretty consistent throughout the piece.

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btw, the judges and ryan's feuds with each other are starting to get a little out of control, good entertainment though.

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Why is Simon being so easy on Elliot? He's going out of his way to be nice after 2 lackluster at best performances.

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very good 2nd performance by kat, she is so hot
definitely best of the night so far

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Crap. Kat gave her performance of the season right when she needed it. Simon was spot on with that choice for her. (Over the Rainbow)

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Agreed, could they have picked worse songs for Kat?

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I disagree. Simon's song is perfect for her.

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exactly. first thing i thought of when i heard that was simon's choice for her was, "wow, he really tossed her a softball with that," and indeed she knocked it out of the park.

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Ugh.

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Elliott -- meh. Same old same old.

Kat -- It is just not fair giving only one of the three performers "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Given that song, I didn't think she was especially great, but like I said earlier in the thread, what competent singer isn't going to sound absolutely amazing with that song? I also think that song will sound a little better live than on TV.

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Kat pwns Taylor. She killed it.

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damn. taylor did well with that. GO KAT/ELLIOT

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Taylor re-pwns with Joe Cocker.

Elliot better have something real real real special in store, or he goes home, unless Kat is a complete dufus in her final song.

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Wow great song choice by Randy. That's the first time I can remember liking Taylor in a song that was understated, as opposed to over-the-top. Best of the night so far, I think.

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Anything you can do.......

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Nice recovery by Taylor.

Elliott better nail it if he wants to make final two.

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Nice recovery by Taylor.

Elliott better nail it if he wants to make final two.

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I wouldn't think many votes are swinging tonight. The main vote-swinger was Kat's snapping at the judges.

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Tonight was rigged for Taylor and against Elliott (with Katharine in the middle somewhere).

Taylor had this show handed to him on a plate with those first two song choices. While I felt his first song was the same old schtick, most people love that stuff.

Elliot's first song choice was ok, but nobody was going to care about the second one, even if he sang it great.

Taylor and Katharine (for her second song) had choices people could get into. Elliot didn't. It seemed like the other two sang longer than he did, too.

Strange.