'Idol' Speculation

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

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.