Another season of American Idol is coming to an end kiddies, so get ready to start dialing and sending your parents phone bill into the stratosphere. Now we all know what happened last season; the most interesting, talented, entertaining and hardest working contestant (Adam Lambert) fell at the last hurdle… To a rival (Kris Allen) who was lucky to even make the top 5 in most people’s opinion. Well folks, it could happen again if you don’t get dialing and sms’ing. Of course, that’s easy for me to say when I live thousands of miles away and am ineligible to vote. 

The last couple of weeks of action have seen series favorite Crystal Bowersox come back to the pack a little. Yet, I actually think that her performances – while not being as memorable as on earlier weeks – have better shown her versatility as an artist. She has taken some risks and, while she has yet to hit the home run that would have sewn the series up, Crystal has proven that she could actually make an album where she didn’t just play the same song over and over again.

Since Siobhan’s ridiculous elimination (allegedly not helped by facebook not having the correct number next to her name), the last fortnight has seen both little Aaron & big Mike eliminated. Neither were real chances to win, but Aaron can definitely count himself unlucky since he was shown the door on the night where each contestant had to sing Frank Sinatra songs (under the entertaining tutelage of Harry Connick Jr.) and Casey James was clearly the worst singer of the night. Seriously, it wasn’t even close… And simply continues to suggest that Casey still exists on his potential to be a male stripper!

Our 3^rd remaining contestant is Lee DeWyze, who has always been the wild card in this seasons pack, and still is. Like previous winner David Cook, he has just enough of a distinctive voice to appeal, while his ability to twist songs to suit that voice is also advantageous. This past Tuesday night, it was Lee who picked best with regards to the choice of ‘Songs from Movies’, since nailing Seal’s ‘Kiss From A Rose’ could have been a season-defining moment. Unfortunately for him, he did not. However, with help from Crystal, the two provided what I believe to be the best moment of this series thus far, when they performed a fantastic version of ‘Falling Slowly’ from ‘Once’. Seriously, check it out if you missed it, as these two clicked like seasoned professionals.

It gets down to the nitty-gritty of the contest next week as each singer will perform two songs. The first will be a choice by the judges, where we finally get to not hear the words “poor song choice” come from their repetitive mouths. This will be followed up by a song of the contestant’s choice, which can often be the make-or-break moment which determines the winner of Idol. Each contestant will have to find that difficult-to-locate balance of a popular (if not predictable) song that best shows off their voice, while also paving the way ahead for what kind of artist they will be. Best of luck to the three of them, but if I had my way; this should be a contest in two between Crystal and Lee, with whoever standing up to the pressure on the concluding night to emerge victorious.