He just can't help being obnoxious

Chikezie Eze is up next and he says the one thing America doesn't know about him is where his name came from. He says it's Nigerian and pronounced Chee-keh-zee-eh and it means something well created by God in Igbo, a Nigerian dialect. He says that people started mispronouncing his name when he was in kindergarten or first grade and he just let it go.

He sings Donny Hathaway's "I Believe" and I hate to admit it, but he's great. I'm reminded of what I loved so much about him during the auditions. His voice is powerful and strong and his performance is right on - he's confident on the stage and really, he just nails it. I'm actually beginning to think that maybe I reacted too quickly last week to his attitude.

Randy says "Chikezie is back, America!!" He says this is the guy they fell in love with and that it was hot. Paula says very clever to pick a song with a story about remembering his name. She says it was brilliant and fun. Simon says he looks better, sounds better, that the song choice was clever, that it was a million times better than last week.

And then it happens...Simon asks him if he watched himself last week and whether he can admit that it was horror show. He's totally giving him an opportunity here to acknowledge that he wasn't great and to express some remorse for his attitude. But what Chikezie says is, "What I saw last week was, uh, basically, I actually let you get to me, which was the part that kind of messed me up. I mean, I like my suit - I honestly do." Simon then asked him if he would wear it again and he says, "I wore it on TV - you can't wear it twice, you can't do a replay...Only you do that."

And there it is - the unnecessary attitude. Especially tonight - nobody was criticizing him. He just came off a great performance with tons of praise and he still feels the need to try and insult Simon. It was just uncalled for. He quickly realizes that it was stupid and says "I'm sorry" over and over again. And Simon sums up my feelings perfectly when he says, "Just when I'm beginning to like you again, you become obnoxious. You can't help it can you?"


David Cook's unknown fact is that he's a huge word nerd, as he calls it. He likes crossword puzzles and word searches. He says he's a geek for vocabulary and then they show a little montage of him using 50-cent words. It's kind of cute - if I didn't think he and his hair were so creepy, it would almost make me like him.

I actually don't dislike him - his voice is actually rally nice - but he's just not one of my favorites. Anyway, he decides to play his guitar tonight as he sings Free's "All Right Now." I think David Cook is the real rocker of this group, not Robbie Carrico. I mean, not really crazy about his song choice, but even with a pretty repetitive song, he still manages to sound more rock than Robbie did. I thought he was great, and the guitar added a little something, too. I really enjoyed it.

Randy tells him exactly what I just typed - that he's the real rocker of the group this year. He says he really liked it and that it was a good choice of song. Paula tells him he is the real deal, that the performance was fun and relevant and she loved it. Simon says it was solid, but that his interview didn't help him - he says the crosswords thing was boring and that he doesn't have a lot of charisma. David quickly responds by saying, "Fortunately, I don't have to win you over with my charisma. I have to win these people over," meaning the audience. I think he would have been better off keeping quiet, but you can tell that he was hurt and caught off guard by Simon's comment - he probably just reacted without thinking.