The Final Week of American Idol

If you were feeling the déjà vu last night, that's because Idol finale week has brought us right back to the Rocky place where we started in January-complete with a flurry of boxing metaphors, the Davids making their "Gonna Fly Now" entrances in silly gloves and silk robes, and Michael Buffer actually standing on the stage at L.A.'s Nokia Theatre, getting us ready to rumble. I can't help thinking that this would not have happened if Syesha were in the top two; a lady would never let Michael announce her weight like that. (Poor, tiny David A.!)

But we're down to two Davids. Each sang three songs last night: one assigned by Clive Davis, one personal pick out of the top 10 submissions to the songwriting competition, and one number each singer considered a favorite. Davis ' selections were superb-U2 for David C. and Elton John for David A.-and both came out swinging (trying my hand at the boxing analogy there!). The two personal choices were very different. David C.'s emotional Collective Soul cover was compelling enough but seemed somewhat self-indulgent, while David A. instead settled on exactly what his voting audience was expecting ("Imagine"). I'm just happy we didn't end up with an encore of his preposterous version of "With You"; I suppose little David singing "I need you, boo" is the price you pay when you ban stage dads with no regard for clearance fees.

We'll hear Regie Hamm's winning "Time of My Life" tonight, but this season's songwriting competition apparently delivered so many entries on the lofty level of last year's schmaltz-fest "This Is My Now" that we got to hear two more on Tuesday. It actually wasn't a bad idea, having the finalists choose their favorites. Both singers performed numbers that fit comfortably within their individual styles instead of competing on the same song, thus avoiding the uneven footing last year's power-ballad set between ballad queen Jordin Sparks and quirky "beat boxer" Blake Lewis. But the material both Davids had to choose from was as predictable as the double-David showdown at which we've now arrived. America sure loves songs glorifying Dreams and songs about defending Moments (no one can take it away from me! hands off my Moment!), songs about holding onto your just-short-of-overtly-Christian Faith, and songs telling us it's Time for Change . oops, David C., wrong election!

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