American Idol is Coming

Tomorrow night American Idol is coming for you whether you like it or not. Season Eight kicks off with back to back episodes on Tuesday and Wednesday night and I could not be more excited. Sure it'll be weeks of crappy auditions, but they swear there will be less this year. An extra week of the Hollywood round will be added in place of one week of auditions.

To get myself pumped up I decided to take a look back at my favorite moments from last season. Starting with my absolute favorite performance:

Syesha Mercado - One Rock and Roll Too Many

Syesha always had quality vocals but it wasn't until she started playing characters on stage that she had a personality. I love, love, LOVE this performance, the studio version of which is the fourth most played song on my iPod. Stop judging me!



"Too much ringing that bell..." *ding*

More great performances and a few god awful train wrecks after the jump!

Kristy Lee Cook - "God Bless the U.S.A."

Holy crap. My jaw hit the floor when Kristy Lee Cook picked this song for "Inspirational Song Week." It's BRILLIANT pandering. She'd had a lot of crap performances up to this point. Though her really spastic double-time countrified version of "Eight Days a Week" has grown on me. This song moved her out of the bottom two thanks to a hoard of teary-eyed viewers in flyover states that couldn't help but vote for her repeatedly.

Simon says it best: "The most clever song choice I've seen in years."

Fantasia - "Bore Me"

A spectacular train wreck of a "performance," the highlights of which are Fantasia's crazy, bestial clapping 2:19 and Simon's reaction to the whole affair at 2:43. I actually have the studio version of this single on my iPod and love it but before I knew the words I used to imitate the performance with random noises: "Bejubba jubujja bejubba jubujja bejubba jubujja jabo!"

Renauldo Lopuz - "I Am Your Brother"

A year later.... I still don't understand. Thankfully he got to come back and reprise this one with a marching band at the finale.

And the Winner is David.... Cook

The most satisfying moment of the whole season was watching little Porkchop's dreams crushed live in front of an audience of millions. Cook certainly deserved it. His brilliant performances are too many to list but some of my favorites were: "Hello" "Billie Jean" "Eleanor Rigby" "Day Tripper" and "Always Be My Baby."