This Is Jordin's Now

Blake was kicked around by the judges tonight, but he did underperform. Jordin, however, almost completely nailed it and I predict that a year or two from now, she's probably going to be giving Kelly and Carrie a run for their record sales.

Oh and what did you guys think of the winning song, "This Is My Now?" Supposedly, the songwriting contest was searching for something new and fresh but the best song that America's aspiring tunesmiths can come up with is "This Is My Now," then bring back the people who gave us "Do I Make You Proud." The song isn't that bad. However, if the goal here is to produce a viable hit single, then why not let Blake release "You Give Love A Bad Name" and Jordin go with "I (Who Have Nothing)." Because I doubt that any radio station I know is going to play a record with a chorus that goes, "My fears behind me/Gone are the shadows and doubt/That was then/This is my now."

Despite what I think of the song, I'd have to give the "This Is My Now" round to Jordin, hands down. The performance was strong and sure — especially that massive, victory-sealing glory note. I feel that the song's lyrics applied more to her, especially after should could barely sing the last two lines because of the tears in her eyes. That was a sweet moment.

Blake, meanwhile, could barely hide his ennui while wobbling his way through "This Is My Now." The song was not well suited to his style at all, but I still subscribe to the principle that if you're gonna bring it, you better sing it. Instead, as Blake opened the number seated at the back of the stage, his urge to lean all the way back and welcome a visit from the Lunesta butterfly was palpable, at least until he started that spastic bouncing fit. My guess is that Blake's inner hipster was overcome with the desire to infuse the moribund track with some of that beatboxing, while his inner nerd lobbied for a respectful line reading. The result was musical turmoil; it occasionally seemed that Blake was singing in a different key than the backing vocalists, and compared with Jordin's oil tanker of a big note, the spiky-haired underdog's was more of a dinghy.

Jordin also beat him with her encore of "A Broken Wing," which was every bit as strong as her stellar country-night performance of the track. I'd have to agree with Randy's claim that it was "better than the original" and Jordin's emotional connection to the material (not to mention her ability to hit every note) was extremely impressive.

Blake's "You Give Love a Bad Name" continues to be a great performance and one of the few standouts of the season. I was worried that a second helping (on only three weeks' rest) would be less invigorating, but boy, was I wrong. Blake's beatboxing was faster and funkier, he seemed more confident and connected with the crowd. His version of the song stands on its own as a modern, chart-worthy pop track, and not just as a gimmicky performance in the confines of a reality TV competition.

In the contestants' choice round, Jordin chose Christina Aguilera's "Fighter." It was certainly the gutsier of the two. All season long, the perky teenager has struggled with up-tempo numbers, and syncopation has not been her strong suit. She did have some trouble from the very start of "Fighter." However, she proved willing to return to the rock-tinged genre where she failed so absolutely on Bon Jovi night. And while she was really just coloring inside Xtina's lines, she did it well enough. And come on, she sang a Christina Aguilera song and did it very well, props for that alone.

Blake's cover of Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved" wasn't his most innovative performance, either. Granted, Blake's vocal was slightly more laid-back than Adam Levine's original, but as Simon said, it wasn't exactly the showstopper you'd expect for the finals — especially considering Blake had just covered the same artist exactly seven days ago. I mean, is this a man who dreams of, say, winning a Grammy someday or of fronting a Maroon 5 cover band? A lot of Blake fans have been saying their guy doesn't actually want to win the whole thing, but riddle me this: Four out of the five previous Idol runners-up (Justin, Diana, Bo, and Katharine) have all failed to go platinum, so how will second place benefit Blake? Given the fact that Jordin had a more sizable fan base heading into tonight's show, and seeing that Blake didn't do nearly enough to sway the Sparks-pluggers in his direction, I'm guessing we'll find out. Here's hoping Paula's "we're all winners!" mantra extends to the top two or, better still, the top four.

As you all may guess, I agree with the judges that Jordin wiped the floor with Blake and that she should win. We'll find out tonight