'Idol' Speculation

Chance are that if your reading Idol Speculation right now, you know who won  the season 7 crown — if you are even a moderate fan of “AI,” you tuned in tonight for the star-studded two hour finale that gave us our latest “American Idol.”

For those who missed it, here is a brief rundown on the highlights of the finale:

Host Ryan Seacrest announced that 97 1/2  million votes came in(!) after the final two contestants, David Cook and David Archuleta, performed their alotted three tunes last night, and one contestant scored 56% of the vote, a surprisingly confortable margin considering both of the contestants made a legitimate case for being the winner last night.

Appearing on the show were the “Idol” season 7 Top 12 (including our hometown girl, Mesa’s Brooke White), who performed a few group numbers and there were a few duets (Syesha Mercado and Seal, Brooke and Graham Nash singing CSN’s “Teach Your Children” were th highlights); teen sensations the Jonas Brothers performed, as did One Republic, Donna Summer and George Michael; last year’s “Idol,” Glendale’s Jordin Sparks sang, as did season 4 champ and current country superstar Carrie Underwood.

Mike “Austin Powers” Myers was on hand as “The Love Guru” (his new film character) to give the Davids ”advice,” Jimmy Kimmel was his usual hilarious self and a funny bit with Ben Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black.

Whew! So  much for the “brief” rundown — it was a two hour show!

So, we finally got down to business and Ryan Seacrest announced that DAVID COOK is the new “American Idol.”

Idol Speculation predicted a Cook win a few weeks ago but thought that after last night, when the judges lathered heaps of praise on David Archuleta (Cowell proclaimed Archie the winner of the night by “knockout”), that the Utah teen might pull it out on the scorecards, but the kid came up short.

Over 6 “Idol” seasons, there have been winners who have gone on to music stardom (Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood) and winners who have faded from the spotlight (Ruben Studdard, Taylor Hicks) and plenty of contenders who failed to win on the show but who have carved out  nice careers for themselves (Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, Clay Aiken and Bucky Covington).

Only time will tell which of the season 7 contenders will go on to a successful musical career, but Cook and Archuleta will at least get to make a few records, and we “Idol” watchers will be watching their rise (or fall).

So long everybody!

So here we go!

The “American Idol” performance finale was tonight, and if you’re a fan of the show, you were glued to the tube just like Idol Speculation, watching David Cook and David Archuleta — the rocker and the teen heartthrob — battle it out (the show featured a corny boxing motif, with the Davids robed up and wearing boxing gloves (Archuleta at left in blue, Cook at right in orange,  COURTESY FOX) — if they were to actually fight, would anybody bet on the spindly Archuleta?!!?) for the season 7 “American Idol” crown.

If you missed the show tonight, here is a recap:

The two singers performed three songs apiece tonight: music honcho Clive Davis’ choice, a choice of one of the 10 “AI” songwriting competition finalists and the singers’ own choice of song.

David Cook was up first singing U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and the singer pulled off one of his patented “slow burn,” post-grunge rock performances. It was to be the singer’s finest moment of the evening, and the judges loved it. Randy Jackson called the performance “hot,” Paula Abdul said to the singer he had “arrived” and Simon Cowell said the performance was “phenomenal.”

David Archuleta followed with Elton John’s “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” a tune that showcased the young singer’s talent for singing ballads. Jackson said the performance was “molten hot” (the judge should spend the “Idol” offseason reading a thesaurus), Abdul said the singer was “stunning” and Cowell said the performance was the best the singer had done “so far” on season 7.

Next up was Cook performing an “AI” songwriting competition contender called “Dream Big.” The song was supposed to be an inspirational rocker but ended up sounding like a cheesy hair metal tune from the ’80s, something that Night Ranger might have concocted. Cook did the best he could with the tune, and judges Jackson and Cowell didn’t like the tune, but they tried not to hold it against the singer. Cowell gave the singer a “6 1/2 out of 10″ and Jackson said Cook “made it work.”

Next up was Archuleta with another songwriting competition hopeful called “In this Moment.” It was a (shocker!) ballad, and Archuleta performed the tune well, and although Jackson didn’t like this song either, he conceded that Archuleta could “sing the phonebook,” and Cowell told the singer he chose the better of the two songs and gave Round 2 to the Utah teenager.

The final song was a tune the singer got to choose, and Cook performed 90s alt-rockers Collective Soul’s “The World I Know.” Jackson said the singer did a “very nice job” and Cowell said the song was “beautiful” but that “it was the wrong song choice” for an extravagant “American Idol” finale.

David Archuleta chose John Lennon’s “Imagine,” a song he performed with great success earlier in season 7. If anything, Archuleta performed the tune even better Tuesday, with Jackson telling the singer he is what “American Idol” is “all about.”Abdul said she was “speechless” and “stunning” and Cowell effused “you came out here trying to win” and that Archuleta scored a “knockout.”

So it’s all over but the voting and Wednesday night’s results show.

Idol Speculation has previously predicted a Cook win, but if the judges’ comments mean anything (and they do) and Archuleta’s screaming teenage fans stay up all night voting, the kid should be crowned the winner tomorrow night.

And he’ll deserve it.

Tune in to “Amercan Idol” tomorrow night to see which David wins the whole shebang, then check in with Idol Speculation as we’ll be posting our final season 7 blog.

After months of watching the tryouts, then the Hollywood round, the the Top 24, 20, 16 and finally the top 12, “American Idol” is now finally down to its final two contestants.

We here at Idol Speculation won’t recap all the action tonight, because chances are you watched the show and saw everything for yourself, so we’ll handicap the final two contestants and try to figure out who should, and will, win the season 7 “American Idol” crown.

We’ll start be saying that tonight’s resut was somewhat anticlamactic, as Syesha Mercado was ousted — for several weeks now it has looked more and more like it was going to be a David Cook and David Archulta final, and now we’ve got it.

So  what we have in Tuesday’s showdown is the rocker (Cook) vs. the teen idol (Archuleta). Here is a look at the breakdown

Cook
Strengths: Willing to take chances (often changes the arrangements of well known songs to suit his style), plays guitar (shows he’s not just a singer, but a musician), and is a versatile vocal stylist (can sing a slow burning post-grunge-style version of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby,” then pull off a close to the cuff version of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s ”The Music of the Night”).
Weaknesses:  Can tend to sound like he went to the Eddie Vedder/Scott Stapp school of singing, tends to stand in one place and doesn’t use the whole stage.

Archuleta
Strengths: At 17 is remarkably poised performer, has arguably the prettiest voice of all the season 7 contestants, has a huge teen voting fanbase and a likable “aw shucks” personality.
Weaknesses: Can be rattled (he forgot the lyrics to The  Beatles’ ”We Can Work it Out”) and reportedly has a ”stage dad” who may be putting too much pressure on the teenager (his father Jeff has been banned from “American Idol” rehearsals).

Idol Speculation predicted a few weeks ago that David Cook will be the winner, but there is no way to guess, barring Cook or Archuleta completely melting down on Tuesday, how America will vote.

Both will have good careers, but here is why we at Idol Speculation think Cook, whether he wins “American Idol” next Wednesday or not, will have the bigger career: broader appeal.

We can see Cook making a rock record a la ”Idol” alum Chris Daughtry that will appeal to the wide-ranging “Idol”  demographic as well as fans of hard rock and alt-rock.

Archuleta’s fanbase may be relegated to the wide-ranging “Idol”  demographic and, if he’s marketed that way, to teens and “tweens” into “High School Musical.” He’ll sell a lot of records, but it’s hard to see the sweet-natured good kid from Utah pulling in the over-25 rock demographic that Cook will.

So, all that’s left to do now is tune in on Tuesday for the final performances from Cook and Archuleta, then visit the Idol Speculation blog to get the analysis of what went down.   

So here we are, the Top 3 “American Idol” contestants blowing it out in the penultimate performance of the season, and all we can think about here at Idol Speculation is the revelation that contestant David Archuleta’s dad Jeff has been banned from backstage and rehearsals for some unsettling histrionics on the “AI” set.

This isn’t the first time that Jeff (we’ll nickname him “Big Poppa Archuleta”) has been called out for some bad behavior on a show in which his son is competing, as ”Big Poppa Archuleta” was said to be by ”Star Search” (on which David performed a few years ago) judge Naomi Judd the “worst stage dad ever.”

“Stage Dad?!!?” Hmmmmm.

We at Idol Speculation will NOT be the judge of that —  we’ll go by the performances on Tuesday, and here’s how it all went down .

Each of the Top 3 “American Idol” finalists, Archuleta, David Cook and Syesha Mercado, performed three songs tonight (to pad out the hour for commercial revenue– uh, we mean, give us voters at home chance to be SURE about our votes).

First up was Archuleta, who rolled out Billy Joel’s “And So it Goes” and impressed judges Jackson (”you are in the zone!”) and Abdul (”a beautiful performance”), but Cowell tempered the love fest by saying that the performance “wasn’t outstanding.”

Next was Syesha Mercado, a fave of the Idol Speculation bog but who always seems to be on the elimination bubble. Syesha sang contemporary R&B queen Alicia Keys’ “If I Ain’t Got You” and it was, according to us, nothing short of awesome. Judge Jacskon called the performance “amazing,” and Cowell said that Mercado performed the tune “very well.”

Frontrunner David Cook, who Idol Speculation predicts will be crowned the season 7 “Idol” champ, did not disappoint the judges with his rendering of Roberta Flack’s soul classic “The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.”

Cowell, who picked the tune for Cook to sing, was not disappointed in the performance, saying that Cook was “brilliant.”

It was.

Archuleta took his second turn with contemporary R&B star Chris Brown’s “With You.” Idol Speculation thought it was pretty good, better than his first tune, but what did the judges think?

Jackson said he “couldn’t believe” the performance (meaning the singer didn’t sell the tune), Abdul gave her patented “you look beautiful” response (okay, not really — she said “great job” or whatever) and Cowell called the performance “awkward.”  
Can the 17 year old kid with the “stage dad” be feeling the pressure?

Then Syesha was up again for round number two with the sultry Peggy Lee R&B classic “Fever,” and the singer may have blown it right here. Jackson loved it, calling the version an “amazing performance,” but even placid judge Abdul was surprised by the song choice (and not in a good way) and Cowell said the performance was “lame” (ouch!). 

David Cook was up again and sealed the deal with a version of Christian alt-rockers Switchfoot’s “Dare You to Move.” Host Ryan Seacrest should just walk out and give this kid the championship now (it ain’t even close!), but heck, we have the finale next week, and can you imagine how much a 30 second commercial is going for? $$$$$! We gotta keep up the suspense (hey, it’s a TV show, right?), so the judges were kind of lukewarm on Cook.

Judge Jackson called the performance a little (insert predictable Jackson quote here) ”pitchy,” and Cowell called the middle rounds by all three singers just “okay.’

Round Three (snore!)!

Archuleta rolls out late singer/songwriter Dan Fogleberg’s ’70s tearjerker “Longer” and judges Jackson and Abdul dug it (Jackson calls it “hot” — for a ballad?!!?) but Cowell hates the song (c’mon, Simon, you’ve heard this one before!) although the judge concedes that Archuleta should make the finals next week.

Syesha was up next, singing pop tart Gia Farrell’s 2006 hit “Hit Me Up.” Another bomb with the judges (a David vs. David finale, anyone?). Jackson said (and haven’t we heard THIS before) “it was just okay for me,” Abdul didn’t dig the song choice and Cowell said that the singer’s best moment was last week (read between the lines: “It’s been nice knowing you, Syesha.”).

Finally David Cook came out out and sang the cheesy (it IS “American Idol” after all) Dianne Warren-penned Aerosmith/Mark Chesnutt pop-rock/country smash “I Don’t Want To Miss a Thing” (also sung by previous “Idol” contestants Josh Gracin on season two and singer/internet pinup Antonella Barba on season 6).

The whole thing was pretty anti-climactic because Cook is (undoubtedly) already in the finale next week, but the judges had to render a veredict and Jackson called the performance (justifiably!) “predictable,” Abdul told the singer he was in the finals (duh!) and Cowell told Cook he was the best performer of the night.

So, tune into the elimination round tomorrow night to find out who’s going home (will Archuleta’s dad and all that bad press turn off ”AI” voters and send Mercado into the finals next Tuesday?), then visit the Idol Speculation blog to get the analysis on why it all went down the way it did.

First of all, why is the “American Idol” results show still an hour long with only four contestants left? These results shows are packed with more filler than a goose-down pillow — all fluff and very little substance.

Can’t we cut this down to a half hour? Does anybody really enjoy watching the group numbers — this week it was a corny (is there any other way on “Idol?”) version of Steely Dan’s “Reelin’ in the Years” — or a watching a spot on the top 4’s trip to Vegas to take in a show? Or watching the contestants take insipid phone call questions from the “Idol” fanbase watching at home? Or taking in a performance from Maroon 5, who have nothing to do with “American Idol” save for they can fill up another four minutes with one of their songs? Or taking in a Bo Bice (remember him from season 4?) performance?

We at Idol Speculation want the results show to be five minutes long. Here is how it would go: Host Ryan Seacrest comes out and introduces the contestants and the judges. Two minutes of commericals (to make some money). We come back and Seacrest/Executioner looks at one of the Idols and says “(INSERT NAME HERE), you are going home tonight.” Cue the music, get a tight close up on the tearful face of the loser, then fade to black so the viewing public can gratefully turn the channel to something entertaining, like a “Mama’s Family” rerun.

But instead we viewers at home get a full hour of pomp, circumstance and banality just to get down to the final few minutes, when we finally learn the grim fate of one of the contestants.

Fortunately, we like to cut to the chase here on Idol Speculation, so here is brief recap of what happened tonight.

David Archuleta? Safe.

David Cook? Safe.

That left Syesha Mercado and Jason Castro as the bottom two.

Mercado is good, although not as good as Cook and Archuleta, and she performed well last night.

Castro flubbed some lyrics on Tuesday, picked some dull tunes (”I Shot the Sheriff” and “Mr. Tambourine Man”) that failed to showcase his voice and basically seemed disinterested in the whole thing last night.

Castro was predicted by most to be heading home (Cowell even told the singer last night to “pack your suitcase”), and there were no surprises in store tonight as Castro was canned.

We’ll miss Castro’s cool dreads and affable personality here at Idol Speculation, but it was his time to go.

Two weeks left now until we find out who is the season 7 winner of “American Idol.” Tune in to “Idol” Tuesday to watch the top 3 perform, then check out the Idol Speculation blog to get the rundown on how the two Davids and Syesha did.

Tonight on “American Idol” the show opened with a history lesson on the origins of rock ‘n’ roll, complete with shots of the Hall of Fame in Cleveland, then the Top 4 remaining contestants performed selections from the Hall’s 500 songs that shaped rock.

Insert bad joke here: that’s as close as any of these contestants will ever get to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Ho!

But we digress here at Idol Speculation, and here is who performed what and how they did.

David Cook: Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf;” The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly”

Syesha Mercado: Ike and Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary;” “Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come”

Jason Castro: Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff;” Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man”

David Archuleta: Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me;” Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender”

Here’s how it went down:

David Cook, who we predicited after our hometown girl Brooke White was eliminated last week would win the season 7 crown, was up first and performed Duran Duran’s “Hungry Like the Wolf” (seriously, this is a song that help shape rock ‘n’ roll?) which judge Simon Cowell called “a little bit copy cat.”

Then Syesha Mercado, who for some reason is always on the bubble for elimination despite a great voice (Idol Speculation just can’t figure that one out), performed Ike and Tina Turner’s version of Creedence Clearwater’s “Proud Mary,” which propmted Jackson to tell the singer she was “great…in the zone,” but Cowell said the performance a “bad impersonation of Tina Turner.”

Up next was Jason Castro, who performed Bob Marley’s “I Shot the Sheriff,” and all three judges agreed that Castro shot himself in the foot, with Cowell telling the dreadlocked singer that the version was “utterly atrocious” and likened the performance to “a first round audition massacre.”

Teenager David Archuleta’s “Stand By Me,” despite Idol Speculation feeling that the singer oversang the tune Whitney Houston style, with swoops in and out of the melody, was popular with the judges, with Jackson telling the singer that he “brought the hot vocals” and Cowell calling it “the best performance so far” of the night.

Then it was back to Cook, who did a gospel take on The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly” (or, for younger viewers, the “CSI” theme), which the judges decided went over better than the Duran Duran tune. Randy Jackson said the performance was “great,” Abdul

Mercado’s second tune was a rendition of Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come,” which Jackson didn’t like as well as “Proud Mary,” saying the performance “fell flat for me” and calling the tune “disconnected,” but judge Paula Abdul and Cowell both disagreed with Jackson, with Abdul calling the version a “superstar performance” and Cowell agreed with Abdul.

Then Castro was back singing (but forgetting some words) and playing Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine,” and he was again savaged by the judges, with Jackson telling the singer he was not “in the zone” tonight, Abdul lamenting that the tune “didn’t blow us away” and Cowell was even more frank, saying “Jason, I’d pack your suitcase.”

Fianlly Archuleta wrapped things up with Elvis’ “Love Me Tender,” and the judges were again effusive in their praise for the kid from Murray, Utah, with Cowell bluntly stating that Archuleta “crushed the competiton” Tuesday night.

Tune into “American Idol” tomorrow evening to see Castro eliminated…uh, to see who gets eliminated, then tune into Idol Speculation to find out how it all went down.

Three more weeks to go, gang!

Due to popular demand, our Idol Speculation blog is back!

Much like Michelangelo finished the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel after four years, Beach Boy Brian Wilson saw his pop masterpiece “Smile” through to the finish after 37 years and the Egyptians never gave up on building the pyraminds, Idol Speculation will see “American Idol” through to the finale even though out hometown girl, Brooke White of Mesa, was eliminated last week.

So, discount our farewell post of last week (we stand by our predicitons, however) and tune in to Idol Speculation tonight after “American Idol” where we’ll recap the performances of the final four contenders, David Cook, Jason Castro, Syesha Mercado and David Archuleta.

There’s only three weeks of “Idol” left, so come along with Idol Speculation for the ride!  

Hello Everybody

As all of you know, the Idol Speculation blog has been rooting on our hometown girl, Brooke White, as she has attempted to become the second straight Arizona winner — after Glendale’s Jordin Sparks in season 6 — of “American Idol.”

Tonight ”American Idol” said goodbye to a tearful Brooke White, and so we shall also say goodbye to the Idol Speculation blog.

It has been a wild ride over the last couple of months, watching Brooke advance her way into the Top 5 on the popular FOX singing competition. We took in every second of every show, every Tuesday and Wednesday evening for over two months, since Brooke made it in the Top 24, and she had a remarkable run during a season seven where controversy reigned over whether “Idol” producers had brought in “ringers” (Kristy Lee Cook, Michael Johns and Carly Smithson, all eliminated before Brooke, had been previously signed to major label record deals) to spice up the competiton.

Brooke had released an independent album, “Songs from the Attic,” a couple of years ago, but as Paula Abdul said (one of the few words of wisdom the judge uttered all season), all that meant was that the artists were trying for success before “Idol,” and there’s surely nothing wrong with that.

Brooke was in tears tonight after her elimination (it came down to either her or Syesha Mercado being given the bad news), but we certainly have not heard the last of Brooke, a talented singer/songwriter/guitarist/pianist, as she will almost certainly sign a major label deal and begin a solo career.

And as Chris Daughtry, Clay Aiken, Bucky Covington and Kellie Pickler have proven after being eliminated durings “AI” seasons past, you don’t have to win the competition to have a successful solo career.

So here are our predicitons for the rest of season seven on “American Idol:”

The next to go will be Syesha Mercado, who always seems to find herself on the verge of elimination. Great voice, but maybe a little too “Broadway” for voters.

Jason Castro will be next. Pleasant guy, cool dreads, good voice, but just won’t be able to compete with the two Davids. 

So it will come down to David Cook and David Archuleta in the finals, pitting a dude with a great voice against a kid with a great voice and a rabid teen following.

David Archuleta certainly has a nice, trained voice, but he’s a little too much of a “cruise ship/Disneyland” performer for my tastes, and he’s been slipping a bit as of late, his performances not as strong as they were in the first few weeks of the Top 12.

“Idol” missed the boat with rocker Chris Daughtry, and David Cook is a lot like Daughtry — great voice who can sing anything from pop to hard rock, and a likable guy who can be marketed a bunch of different ways.
Archuleta just may be the second coming of season 2 runner-up Clay Aiken. Not a bad thing at all, but I don’t see him selling records to rockers and pop fans alike.</p

David Cook will win.

But I could be wrong…

So long, everybody, and thanks for reading!

Tune into my music notes blog, where I dish on everything from local to national music — the biz, the happenings, the CDs and the performances. Hope to see you there!

Chris

Hello Everyone

Tonight on “American Idol” the Top 5 contestants (pictured below, courtesy of FOX), including Mesa’s Brooke White, took on the tunes of pop legend Neil Diamond, who was conveniently on hand to be guest vocal coach on the top rated show on television just as his latest disc, “Home Before Dark,” is due to hit stores on Tuesday, May 6. Hmmm…

And because the FOX folks want to keep their ratings cash cow on the air for as long as possible, the contestants got to sing TWO of Neil’s tunes, allowing the network to flesh out the show to a full hour and thus reap in some more advertising revenue.

We at Idol Speculation believe in brevity, however, so we’ll spare you the filler and get right to the goods.

Brooke’s two tunes tonight were “I Am I Said,” which the singer played on guitar, and the Diamond-penned Monkees hit “I’m A Believer,” which Brooke rendered on piano (points for versatility!).

Of course after last week, when Brooke stumbled over the lyrics to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s “You Must Love Me,” when she stopped the band and then started up again, everybody wondered whether Brooke would suffer a similar stutter Tuesday night. But the singer was able to get through both tunes without any unintended drama.

Brooke’s upbeat version of “I’m A Believer” found judge Simon Cowell telling the singer the version was a “nightmare” (after which Brooke blurted “No!”), but the ballad “I Am I Said” (she substituted the Diamond lyric “well, I’m New York City born and raised” with “Arizona”) went over better, with judge Randy Jackson telling Brooke she did a “nice job” and judge Paula Abdul liked that Brooke showed her vulnerable side behind the piano, telling the singer that “everybody loves who you are.” Cowell said that while he hated Brooke’s first number (“it was like girls night out at the karaoke bar”), the judge said the singer’s version of “I Am I Said” was “the Brooke that we like.”

Brooke should be safe for another week (if the singer’s lyric-forgetting gaffe didn’t knock her off the show last week, then it’s conceivable that Brooke could wind up in the Top 3), as Jason Castro suffered through a tough night with the judges and Syesha Mercado, who always seems to (somewhat unjustifiably) wind up in the bottom two, might find herself there again when the results are announced during Wednesday’s “American Idol” elimination telecast.

The affable, dreadlocked Castro, whose “aw shucks” demeanor has won over (judging by “Idol’s” live audience)  plenty of young girls, struggled tonight with “Forever in Blue Jeans” (after which normally positive judge Abdul told the singer he was “not fighting hard enough to win”) and “September Morn,” which Jackson called a “whatever performance.”

Mercado’s performances of the ballad “Hello Again” and the gospel-tinged “Thank the Lord for the Night Time,” drew the praises of Abdul and Jackson, but Cowell told the singer that “you may be in trouble tonight,” saying her second performance wasn’t as strong as some of her competition’s latter performances.

The two front-runners to win the season 7 “AI” crown, David Cook and David Archuleta, did nothing to diminish their chances on Tuesday, with Cook drawing praise from the judges for his takes on “I’m Alive” (judge Jackson said he was a “huge fan” of the singer’s) and “All I Ever Really Need is You” (which Cowell called brilliant), and Archuleta got the thumbs up for his versions of “Sweet Caroline (“that was the bomb,” said Jackson) and “America” (”smart choice of song,” said Cowell).

Tune in tomorrow to find out who is out, then visit the Idol Speculation blog to get the analysis on how it all went down.

Hello Everybody

As season 7 of “American winds down to its finale, fans of “AI,” and in particular, Glendale’s Jordin Sparks, can relive the teenager’s victory last year on DVD.

On May 13, Koch Vision will release the two disc “American Idol: Season 6 Final Performance Show — The Top 2″ set, and (cue “Infomercial Announcer Voice” here) it can be yours for just $19.99.

The disc features the ”AI” season 6 finale in it’s entirety, when Jordin squared of with Blake Lewis, additional behind the scenes footage, features on the two contestants and even a “How to Audtition for ‘American Idol’ Guide,” complete with advice from the top 12 season 6 finalists and the judges. Disc 2 contains “American Idol” bloopers (!).

So experience the magic of season 6 all over again on May 13!

Chris