So before everyone crowns a Danny Gokey/Adam Lambert final, we actually get to hear them perform. And they will be performing 2 songs - one selected by the judges, and the other selected by the contestants.

Danny Gokey gets 'Dance Little Sister' by Terence Trent D'Arby from Paula Abdul. Can he make the audience dance to their phones to vote for Danny?
The Good: Vocally, he hit the notes. He did as well as he could with what he had to work with. And I liked the back and forth play between him and the saxophone, even if it was better off on a cruise ship or in a boxing ring during Rocky 3 with James Brown singing 'Living in America'.
The Bad: The problem with the performance was that the song choice was wretched. If I was going to select an R&B song for Danny, this would not be it. This is a boring song from an artist who is admittedly underrated, but this is not the song that I would have selected. If you want to do Terence Trent D'Arby, can I suggest the more popular 'Sign Your Name' or 'Wishing Well' or even 'If You Let Me Stay', all of which not only charted better in the UK, but are much more challenging songs.
The Jason: While the song choice was in Danny's Wheelhouse...I honestly felt the song was not recognizable enough for the majority of the voting audience. And while I know of the song (it came out in 1987 I believe), the song was executed in such a way that was not memorable. He needs to step it up on the 2nd song.
The Verdict: If there was any doubt that the producers are trying to set it up so that Adam Lambert wins the competition, the judges choice should cement it. That being said, Danny did a good job with the song, but I think he needs to nail the second one to solidify his place in the finals.

Kris Allen gets the song 'Apologize' by One Republic. The judges want Kris to have that big moment. Will he get it?
The Good: From a marketing perspective, (and unlike Paula's song choice for Danny), the song works. It was a competent performance of a well-known song.
The Bad: Kris needed to put the song down a step, because he was flat throughout the performance and barely hit the high B-flat money notes. The judges wanted him to have a moment with the song to improvise, and instead, he sang it by the numbers, Karaoke-style. And a special boo to Simon for telling the judges to do the arrangements - that should be up to the contestant, not the judges. The Idolists should be able to do their own work - especially Kris, who's had a history of turning songs inside out.
The Jason: This is a current, very recognizable song #1 pop hit...and I liked the arrangement of it. He sang it straight and this will help him gain fans. He is above Danny in Round 1.
The Verdict: Kara nailed this on the head. Competent? Yes. The lack of him doing anything with the song and not taking chances makes me wonder why he didn't do that now. You have to go for the win and he surprisingly didn't. And no, you don't blame Randy or Kara for doing work that the contestant should have done.

Simon Cowell has decided that Adam Lambert will sing the song 'One' by U2. And since Simon arranged the song, it has to be good, right?.....RIGHT?
The Good: ...he hit the high note. He didn't overdo the makeup. And he made Simon very very happy.
The Bad: This was a bad pitch-fest. Once again we get a sterling example of him hitting the money note and messing up all the other notes first. It's like hitting the home run if you get 3,000 pitches to hit and you miss the first 2,999. And a special boo for a terrible arrangement from Simon. And another special boo for Kara, for crediting Adam for the arrangement when Simon actually created it.
The Jason: Bono will be incredibly pleased with this killer version of the song. The only minor quibble is that he was a bit over the top...but I think this was an incredible performance. Adam wins Round 1 by Knockout.
The Verdict: I hated the performance. One money note does not a good performance make. If America heard what I did, they would agree with me. If America's rock group didn't care what they heard, then they will just dial like were planning to. I think that the response will be somewhere in the middle.

Hey! It's an Idol Give Back blurb! We're going to try to be relevant! That's nice. Next!

It's second round time for Danny Gokey, who gives us Joe Cocker's 'So Beautiful'. How beautiful will it be?
The Good: Now THIS was the R&B song I was expecting. Amazing vocal control on the song. Great song selection. And he sat on the stool, which means that there was no reason to go after the choreography.
The Bad: My mom is a huge fan of this song. And she had the same thought as I did on the beginning - weak. Sure, he picked it up, but the beginning made the song very, very scary. Additionally, the key that he selected is very hard to maintain and could cause some pitch problems, which would explain his weak start to the song.
The Jason: This was the right choice to come back to. I liked the adult contemporary vibe to it...and the arrangement was pretty. And Danny nailed this.
The Verdict: Definite improvement over the first song. We finally get a good performance. The competition starts now with this set. Let's see how the other 2 vocalists react.

Kris Allen gives us the second song...with Kanye West's Heartless? This ought to be interesting...
The Good: Once again, I'm wondering why we don't have this much creativity on the first song as the second. Here's a sterling example of altering the song to fit your genre. That was a really great idea...
The Bad: ...that unfortunately, didn't live up to it's potential because of all the pitch problems in the song. I also wanted him to do more with the range and make it more challenging than how it turned out.
The Jason: Holy Smoke--this is good. This was about the biggest risk in this competition...and it paid off. Kris's song's choices have been on the money tonight. This was brilliant.
The Verdict: Definite improvement over the first song. I loved the idea of him turning the song inside out. If he kept the song in pitch, he would have had a moment on the song, but I'm wondering if he did enough, performance-wise.

Adam Lambert finishes the night off with Aerosmith's 'Crying'. Will we be crying in disbelief or in agony?
The Good: You could not have lobbed an easier softball for Adam to crank out of the park. It's a perfect song if you're looking to rock out the vote, and if Adam was saving this for the round of 3, it's a great move on his part.
The Bad: Unfortunately, this was a musical nightmare for me. And let me explain why. It wasn't as much that Adam was off-pitch (though he was). The problem was that his back up singers were not in tune with Adam, which made the song dischordant. In fact, I think it's the back-up singer that was more out of tune, and that was a big disservice to Adam.
The Jason: Going right back to the wheelhouse of big theatrical bombastic rock and roll. This is what Adam is about. And he is saying...you will vote for me whatever you want. And I loved it. And I think the audience will too.
The Verdict: Definite improvement over the first song (hey, it's the broken record speech tonight!). That being said, this was a brutal mess, but a mess that unlike last song, will send Adam's fans over to the phones to vote.

Overall Verdict: This pretty much went the way I expected it to. The judges choice songs, which felt like the performers worked on it for an hour or two before spending the rest of the week working on their own songs, were dreary. Their own song renditions were ok, bordering on good. I think this is going to be a very close vote. I also think that since no one blew the roof off the building, it's going to boil down to what the audience felt like before tonight's performances...

...but that's because no one represented themselves. I think any of them could go home, because Danny (awful song selection and no songs outside his safe R&B circle), Kris (lack of emotion, fire and performance technique that Adam and Danny both have) and Adam (really out of pitch - really bad off-night) all committed fallacies that could get them voted off. Like last week, I think that this week will boil down to established fan base, and with Allison's fan base going directly to Adam, he should be safely into the finals. Since neither Danny nor Kris overwhelmed me this evening (which makes this a virtual coin flip), and since I know Jason selected Danny to go home, and since I'm in a contrarian mood...

OUT: Kris Allen

The Jason: This was one of the better nights in the season...as it should be. So, who goes to the Kodak Theater? Obviously, it will be ADAM LAMBERT. His performances tonight were spot on. So who joins him? Who stepped up more...believe it or not...Kris Allen. Danny Gokey stayed in his blue eyed soul zone...but it was Kris who expanded his voting range by taking two current pop hits and making them his own. The upset that everyone is expecting is not going to happen the way they think.

OUT: Danny Gokey

Join us in 24 hours to see who's see which one of the three is going to be too much of a crowd.