One Of These Things . . .

One of these things is not like the others.
One of these things just doesn't belong.
Can you tell which thing is not like the others?
Just have them sing you a song!*

Thank you, Sesame Street, for supplying the theme song for American Idol's Final 3.  Here are my scores for last night's performances:

1.  Joshua - 15 out of 15
2.  Jessica - 13 out of 15
3.  Phillip - 6 out of 15

Steven Tyler hand-picked a song for Phillip and begged him to sing the melody, but no go.  Even the eternally perky JLo dinged him a little for messing with the melody in defiance. It's been a season-long battle between judge/mentor advice and his stubborn desire to "be himself" - right down to re-wearing a gray shirt Tommy Hilfiger advised against weeks ago. The reason was painfully obvious (even more so than usual) when Phillip sang Bob Seger's We've Got Tonight - chosen by mentor Jimmy Iovine.  I think Phillip tried to sing it straight, with a minimum of screwed-up facial expressions, backbeats and adjustments to the melody.  Bizarrely, it was his best performance of the night, in my book, but (hopefully) it reminded everyone that this is a singing contest and he just doesn't have the voice.  Compared to Jessica and Joshua, he's a chihuahua among the pitbulls. When the fight starts, no amount of swagger is going to make him as good as the big dogs.


*For those of you unfamiliar with the Sesame Street song quoted above, here's the original: