Syesha Mercado must have had a "Fever" when she chose that song

Next round is the contestant's choice and David Archuleta is up first. He chooses to sing Chris Brown's "With You."

He's a smart kid - he chose a song that's current, that's still being played on the radio. I'm not sure it's his thing, though. He seems really uncomfortable throughout and he's doing this weird swaying motion - I don't know if it's his attempt at dancing, but it looks a little weird. It's a cute performance and I'm sure it was meant to show that he is young, fresh and current, but I think it backfired a bit - it actually showed that he's not - he does better with the old-fashioned ballads - these uptempo songs don't suit him at all.

Randy says he applauds the fact that he tried to do something hip and young since that's the kind of record he thinks David should make, but he's not sure this was the right song, that seeing him sing "my boo," he just didn't believe it. Paula says he should be singing songs like this, that he's so used to singing ballads, but he needs to work on shortening his phrases, not extending them so much. Simon also applauds him for not doing a ballad, which he would have expected, but it was a little bit like a chihuahua trying to be a tiger, in so much that it's not really him - he thought the dancing was a bit awkward.


Syesha chooses to sing "Fever," by Peggy Lee... Whoa... big mistake and here's why. First off, that's an older song and she really should be trying to do something more contemporary to show the judges the kind of album she would like to make. Second, I can already envision her slithering across the stage, trying to be all sexy, and that angle has never worked for anyone for very long. Oh boy - she's planning to use a prop - she's got a chair onstage - is she planning to do a striptease or something? This is getting to be just a bit nonsensical.

Plus, is it just me, or did Syesha just become very annoying almost overnight? She's talking in weird voices, trying to be funny and it's just coming across like she's trying too hard and it's getting on my nerves. Anyway, she couldn't be any more predictable in her performance of this song - she starts with her back to the audience, sitting on the chair, and then turns just enough for the camera to get a profile of her making some wannabe sexy face. Then she gets up and starts walking around the stage and actually walks around a bass player and kind of caresses him, before slithering back to the chair. Just horrendous. Notice, how I haven't even mentioned her singing - that's how ridiculous she looks. It's like her voice doesn't even matter - she ruined the whole thing trying to be sexy. Definitely a bad move for her.

Randy tells her it was a very interesting song choice at this point, but what he highlights is that she sang it amazingly well (I'm surprised he was able to focus on the singing with all her theatrics going on). Paula says she's surprised Syesha picked this song because it doesn't show her who Syesha is as an artist. Simon says she will probably regret that decision tomorrow because she had a chance to prove that she is a contemporary recording artist with her own choice of song, but instead, she did quite a lame cabaret performance.


David Cook chooses to sing "Dare You to Run," by Switchfoot. I love this song - I first heard it on the soundtrack of "A Walk to Remember," and it's such a perfect mix of ballad and rock song. Great choice, in my opinion.

Ouch... it's not his best performance - I wonder if maybe he can't hear himself or something, because he's actually just a tiny bit off key in the verses. The chorus sounds fantastic, though, so maybe no one will notice.

Randy says it's a great song choice, but performance wise, it wasn't his best tonight, that it was a little pitchy (I guess someone did notice). Paula says she knows how hard it is to squeeze a song in like 90 seconds, that the key is to have audience feel like they got a beginning, middle and end, and she feels like he just got to the beginning when it hit the end of the song and she wanted more. Simon says there's nothing much he can add to that. He says it was pretty much what he expected, that it wasn't the best melodic song in the world and that the three of them all had an OK middle round.