Update: Check out our recap coverage of tonight’s American Idol Top 4 Results Show.

Last night we saw the Top 4 for American Idol 2007 perform double duty as they each took on 2 songs from the Bee Gees catalog. Barry Gibb, part of the trio of brothers which made up the Bee Gees (The Brothers Gibb, see you learned something today!), is the visiting musical coach and will be performing live tonight. Barry did a decent job of working with the remaining performers. I’d nearly put him up there with the effort Jon Bon Jovi gave last week, but probably closer to J Lo, which isn’t bad at all. Barry seemed very interested in the group and really tried to help massage their plans to give them the best performances.

The results show tonight will send only one person home this week, unlike last week’s dual vote-off, so that will leave us with this season’s Top 3. Earlier this week I mentioned Blake Lewis’ chances of winning this season as I thought he’d have an easy time this week and we’d likely see LaKisha Jones get sent packing. After last night though, I think the gap has narrowed between these two.

Since we’re down to just four contestants and only one of them is male I’m going to stop picking a best male and best female performance and just focus on the best performer, worst performer, and my prediction from here on out.

Best Performer: Without a doubt it had to be Jordin Sparks last night. This was quite the climb back up the mountain for her after last week’s disaster. During the first round Jordin had the luck of coming in right after two disappointing performances (Blake Lewis and LaKisha Jones). I think she could have just stood up there and burped and still sounded better than those two. Thankfully though, she did not just stand up there and burp. Instead she had a fantastic performance of “To Love Somebody” and she received a wonderful compliment from Barry Gibb that she had the best performance of that song he had ever heard. My wife noted during her song that she almost sounded like Mariah Carey, and Randy later shared that same thought.

Jordin’s second performance was of “Woman In Love” and I thought she did even better here. The judges noted she was a little pitchy, but it didn’t phase me. Overall Jordin Sparks had the smartest song selections and greatest performances last night. If that had been the final show I think Jordin would have walked off the winner of the season. She’s got a real shot at winning this and I’m starting to have a hard time believing she won’t. What she does need though is to be consistent. Melinda Doolittle has been able to provide consistently solid performances. She might not always get as high reviews as Jordin, but she hasn’t had the bombs either.

Worst Performer: Although LaKisha Jones had weak performances it was Blake Lewis with the worst performances last night. I thought the beatboxing and record scratching was annoying before, not it’s just plain old and detracting. When he sings he sounds good, but pretending to be a sound effects box isn’t singing. Barry Gibb seemed pleased, or at least complacent, with Blake’s beatboxing, but the judges sure weren’t. After he mangled “You Should Be Dancing” the judges told him: “Didn’t work for me… Very corny.” “Little Shaky… Your pitch was off.” “It was absolutely terrible.”

So after that feedback I thought, “Blake is a smart guy and will hold off on doing it again in round 2.” Seems reasonable, right? Wrong. He comes back out with “This is Where I Came In” and takes another on-stage dump. He made it nearly all the way to the end and then hit his scratching sound effect. Maybe he’s OC. Well the judges liked it almost as much as I did: “Don’t gotta do the beatbox on every joint dude… It gets old.” “Completely tuneless… These have not been good performances.” To be fair, Paula didn’t have the same view on the second song. I suspect she slept through it though as she had this to say, “Spot on key.” Well that was useful. Thanks Paula. So much for my thoughts on Blake Lewis’ chances of winning this season.

My Prediction: As much as I’d love to see Blake Lewis g-g-go-go-g-go home tonight I doubt I’m that lucky. He got demolished by the judges commentary and the wise, wise readers here at WildBluffMedia.com have voted against Blake staying tonight by 3:2 over LaKisha. However, I’m going to go with my initial expectation from the start of the week and say that it’ll be LaKisha Jones going home tonight. If her performances had been stellar last night I’d say she did enough to overcome the odds and step out of the way as Blake slide down the slope, but I don’t think it happened. Simon told her that she didn’t earn her kiss this time and he was right. She was good and enjoyable, but it’s just as though she left her heart behind weeks ago. I think the turning point was back when she was sure she was leaving but instead the heavens opened and Sanjaya Malakar was sent packing. She never seemed to recover from that night and those expectations. As a result it’s deeply influenced her chances here.

I’m expecting to see LaKisha Jones go home tonight.

Top 4 for American Idol 2007 Season 6:
• Jordin Sparks
• Lakisha Jones
• Melinda Doolittle
• Blake Lewis

Come back tonight after the show for our American Idol Results Show recap.

Check out the rest of our American Idol coverage.

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