American Idol: Archuleta vs Cook

The finale is here and everyone knew David Archuleta would be one of the final two. He’s been treated like the Golden Child from the beginning. And as a result, this season has lacked a sense of immediacy or competition.

The show started off as a parody of professional boxing, and it was done fairly well, even if we knew what the end result would be. If you ask me, David Cook is a better entertainer. Better singer? Maybe not. But if I was to pay to see a concert and only had those two to chose from, Cook would get my money.

They billed this show as a competition, but it’s really more of a clash of styles. You have a rock singer in Cook and a Pop Singer, of the show boat variety in Mr A. It’s like putting Bruce Springsteen against Celine Dion. Not really a valid contest.

Cook started off the night well with U2’s “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”. A very solid performance that showed he’s ready to record,

Archuleta followed with “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down on Me”. A very nice performance that the judges ate up.

Then came the original tunes meant to be “winning songs”. Both were bland, but I liked Cook’s better. The judges threw it to Archueta in an obsequious manner. It’s obvious they were handing victory to little David. So the final songs were almost unimportant.

Cook did a soulful version of Collective Soul’s “The World I Know”. It was not a show stopper kind of song. Instead it was personal and introspective. I really liked what he did, but I knew Simon would trash his choice and he did. But Cook must have known it was futile to worry about who was going to win. So he went his own personal way.

Archuleta decided to reprise his version of John Lennon’s trite paean to world Communism “Imagine”. I have to confess, I was bored and my mind was wandering during his performance. But, of course, the judges said Archuleta won by a knockout. Somewhere Homer Simpson was yelling: “Boooorrrring”

Ruben Studdard closed out the show with a performance of celebrate me home to scenes from this season of Idol. all those images of people who never had a chance, even though many were good.

We all know who gets the beauty crown tomorrow. I’ll watch the season’s finale because they are usually good shows, but this season has not really been that much of a thrill. Teh most entertaining thing will probably be seeing the hopeless contestants remind us again why they were more interesting in their own way than the hand picked winner. 

I agree with your appraisal. I actually really like Cook and will buy his music. Archuleta is the teen pick....that’s OK for him. I hope his father won’t ruin his life/career. He’ll get to sing the lame AI song. I’ll bet Cook isn’t too disappointed with the outcome. I’m sure he intentionally picked songs that he knew wouldn’t WOW the judges. He wants to go his own way, forming his own career. Good for him.....everybody’s happy!

Posted by  on  05/21  at  02:41 AM

Totally true. It was pretty obvious that Cook doesn’t really care if he wins - he knows he’ll be recording without it, and have much more choice over what he does and when. It’ll be another one of those seasons where the biggest winner from the show isn’t the winner of the AI title, much like Daughtry.

Posted by  on  05/21  at  07:04 AM

I think Little David will win simply because it means more to his fanbase to have him win. I think Cook’s fans are more mature and realise how superficial the title actually is. They already know who they will spend their money on and the crown itself is of little consequence. Cook has already won the battle for their dollar. IMO.
I also think they (A.I.) are in for a lot of headaches as they are forced to deal with David A’s father on future projects...we’ll have to wait and see.

Posted by  on  05/21  at  09:29 AM

woohoo..congrats to cook...i’ve never been so happy to be wrong.

Posted by  on  05/21  at  06:10 PM

I saw some online polls that showed people favored Cook by a wide margin. Cook is someone more people can relate to than David A, who is like a character from an Archie comic.

Posted by  on  05/21  at  10:38 PM
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