Top 12 American Idol Finalists Performed
Last night, the top 12 finalists performed on American Idol on a new stage and from a new songbook, as it was the first time the show’s gotten the rights to the John Lennon-Paul McCartney songs.

David Archuleta, who managed to pull some great performances in the past, has totally botched the Stevie Wonder version of The Beatles' "We Can Work It Out." In fact, it didn't quite work out for Archuleta, who missed the song's opening note, botched the second line of the first verse, blanked on a few words and again ruined a line.

Surprisingly, the former security screener at LAX Chikezie managed to wow both the judges and the viewers. His rendition of “She’s a Woman” was arguably the best performance of last night. That was quite a long way from his past performances which almost sent him home last Thursday. Great job!

David Cook was the other heavyweight of the evening, winning him Simon's praise: "if this show remains a talent competition rather than a popularity competition, you could actually win." Indeed he sang Eleanor Rigby to near perfection and marked his second strong week.

As expected, Brooke White maintained her strong record and played the piano instead of the guitar for “Let It Be” which was considered by Simon "one of the best performances of the night." Carly Smithson also did a great job with Come Together and Simon said she reminds him of Kelly Clarkson.

Overmyer, my personal favorite, who also is the Vote for the Worst female pick, performed well and rocked “You Can’t Do That,” winning her praises from Simon who said he considers Amanda a breath of fresh air on the show. Indeed, she is, and without her American Idol would be a real monotonous bore.

The Votefortheworst.com site was started in 2004 to support "the entertaining contestants who the producers would hate to see win on American Idol." Their current pick is Overmyer:

She mumbles through her song, does crazy dancing, and basically makes a mockery of the competition by singing every song the same way. This is why we love her. She couldn't care less what people want her to do. So vote for her, because doing things "Amanda style" means "VFTW style", and we love it!