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May 8, 2008
Analyzing 'American Idol'
By Nicholas Rader
Richwood High School

This week, the final four took on any musician who has a spot in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Last week, Jason was in fifth place - last place - in my book, and this week, he was in fourth place - last again. His performance of Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff" was so bad that I laughed at it. He greatly improved on Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man," but he still just wasn't up to par with the others.

There really isn't much to say about Jason. If you compare the show to restaurants, he's a Taco Bell (my least favorite restaurant) in a competition full of O'Charleys' (my favorite).

Moving on, David Cook was my favorite last week, but he dropped down to next to last this week. Should he have been in the bottom two? Maybe not, but two people have to go there, so I guess I would have put him there - especially over Syesha.

He performed Duran Duran's "Hungry Like the Wolf" first, and he did fine. However, it was very unoriginal. His next song, The Who's "Baba O'Reilly," though, was very good. But it just wasn't enough to put him in my top two this week.

David A. moved from my third favorite last week up to my second favorite this week. He sang the well-known songs "Stand By Me" and "Love Me Tender."

I quite enjoyed his version of "Stand By Me," and I liked that he added in a line from Sean Kingston's "Beautiful Girls." I also enjoyed his version of "Love Me Tender," which reminded me of the version by Jessica Simpson, who I love.

For the past two weeks, Syesha has show why she still deserves to be in the competition, and this week was no different. She was my favorite this week. I absolutely loved her performances of Tina Turner's "Proud Mary" and Sam Cooke's "A Change is Gonna Come."

I think Syesha should definitely make it to the final two with one of the Davids - I don't really care which one. Syesha has been in the bottom two or three for all but two weeks of the competition, and this proves that she is a trooper.  

So all in all this week, we saw one horrible performance, two amazing ones and five that were somewhere in between. It was a good week, but somebody had to leave and justice was finally served as Jason was sent packing. However, before all this happened, Bo Bice and Maroon 5 performed.

Next week, the final three perform. In my opinion, I think this always turns out to be the best show of every season, so be sure to tune it. It should be especially good this season with a top three that's second only to the group from season 4 (Carrie Underwood's season).

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