For the women, other formidable forces as witnessed last night include the amiable Alaina Whitaker, rockin’ nurse Amanda Overmyer, the luscious Alexandrea Lushington, the effervescent Asia’h Epperson, the little mouse who roared Ramiele Malubay and the “yes” girl Syesha Mercado.

My picks from last night’s competition are the little mouse who roared and rockin’ nurse to go to the finals (of course, Carly could possibly kick either one of these to the curb as well). Kristy Lee Cook has had her ups and down, and though she’s babalicious she had another off night due to the flu.

American Idol predictions for the men, include the dauntingly daring David Archuleta, Aussie ass-man Michael Johns and delightfully demonstrative Danny Noriega. In what could come down to the young lions against the old, expect David Archuleta to battle Michael Johns in the finals.

Of course, as we all know, anything can and will happen so these American Idol predictions need to be taken with a grain of salt. And, of course when the final two are announced, hindsight will be clearer than foresight, so sit tight and enjoy the singing fight in the weeks and months to come.

The usually, surly Simon the Scowl Cowell, gave the Leming an uncharacteristic break by giving the lad a “Yes” vote after an atypical off-performance. This less than stellar performance was preceded by a youthful meltdown the night before.

The lad had a conflict with the band as he was trying to work out a song in the wee hours of the morning. But, lack of sleep, frustration and a feeling of being unprepared on the World’s Largest Talent Show, led Josiah to dismiss the band, in a bit of a grandstand, followed by a forgettable a-capella tune.

The feedback from the judges, lack of sleep and stress brought Leming to tears. It was almost Bad News Baby for the lad, when the American Idol judges decided to give the kid a break. The good news is that Josiah Leming is filled with talent and can be one of the frontrunners as long as he can keep his youthful immaturity in check.

The bad news is that one more mistake like this one and this Leming will follow other Idols off the cliff, jump the shark and end up as fish food as is the destiny for most who venture onto this show. With any luck, however, Josiah could be the Messiah for the fan base that is broadening right now and will not have to go back to living out of his car with that wacky British accent.

I believe that Samantha Sidley will be in the Top 5 finalists with Kristy Lee Cook (who I predicted two weeks ago was in it to win it as they say). The shy Samantha Sidley stood on stage, jonesing a bit as she was ready to sing the daylights out of a Nora Jones song, “I Don’t Know Why.”

She garnered the first ever four yeses from the judges (including Ryan Seacrest). Paula and Ryan did the old switcharoonie, which may have thrown off Sam Sidley just a bit. The 22-year-old Samantha Sidley was timid (to say the least) but endearing onstage and has the likeability factor that Melinda Doolittle had just last season.

Samantha Sidley is a native to Los Angeles and has jazz background as she was named as a California State Arts Scholar for her vocal performances. Samantha has also appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival and Down Beat magazine gave her an award for being a top high school jazz vocalist.

If she can calm her nerves and keep the jazz flowing, Samantha Sidley will be a force to be reckoned with throughout the American Idol competition.

Giving Renaldo Lapuz the little William Hung smile, Simon predicts that the singer’s original song “We’re Brothers Forever” will become a hit song. In the song, “We’re Brothers Forever,” Lapuz belts out, “I am your brother, your best friend forever. Singing the songs, the music that you love” and he then goes on to sing, “Brothers ‘til the end of time. Together or not you’re always in my heart.”

Of course, the session got silly with Ryan Seacrest bowing to the ribald Renaldo and Paula Abdul dancing like a 1960s Go-Go dancer up on stage before him. But, Renaldo Lapuz has something that the Hung-man didn’t when he first shocked and awed American Idol viewers, a voice.

Renaldo Lapuz didn’t have a good enough voice to continue in the competition, but he did, nonetheless, have more decent pipes that at least half of the competition. But, it was the silver cape, fluffy and fuzzy white adornments and big pimpy hat that has endeared Renaldo Lapuz to many households.

Expect to see a Renaldo Lapuz and William Hung buddy tour coming soon to a mall near you. In fact, they may be brothers.

Kristy Lee Cook is one such contestant that just jumped right out. At one time Kristy Lee Cook lived in a log cabin in Selma, Oregon before moving to Dallas, Texas to pursue a little more twang in her voice and a stellar singing career.

From the video clip on American Idol, we know that Kristy Lee Cook likes to ride her horse, Midnight and that she had to sell her barrel horse to have the money to compete in the Idol competition. This blonde bombshell of a singer also is involved in kickboxing as she says she’s had to protect herself in the past.

Simon even asked Kristy Lee Cook if she was involved in “cage fighting” and with Jell-o. On the Kristy Lee Cook Myspace page, the singer says she was signed to a contract with the Arista label only to be dropped, when she was 17-years-old.

The Kristy Lee Cook Devoted album has already been released, so it’s easy to see this young lady is no amateur. Besides being a singing diva to be, Kristy Lee Cook is also an actress and was the lead in a 2006 movie shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Look for this tall blonde, Kristy Lee Cook to be around for many rounds of American Idol belting out music and lyrics and likely crying at the end of the competition when her name is announced during the final show.

The winning song will be sung by the winning Idol on tomorrow night’s 2-hour finale. The producers are saying exactly how they are picking the winning song, but it may actually have to do with who wins after tonight’s vote. Blake Lewis and Jordin Sparks both have very different styles, strengths and vocal ranges so that one song may work well for one but not the other.

No matter, though. On the American Idol website you can listen to each of the 20 songwriter finalists and choose your own best of the best. Personal empowerment songs seem to be popular with this group of songwriters, so stay tuned, as they say to see who the final winner is.

The winning songwriter will have their song performed on the finale of American Idol in front of approximately 40 million plus viewers and have their song released as well. The last five winning songs on American Idol’s unofficial songwriting competition have hit the number one spot on the Billboard charts.

The American Idol Songwriter website offers a few tips for those wanting to write hit song lyrics for the competition. They even offer advice for those wanting to record a song for the American Idol Songwriter Competition on their home PC or Mac computers. There is a $10 entry fee, but for the songwriter who hits it big, this will be the best investment of their lifetime.

Then word leaked out and entries came flooding in. Over this past summer, American Idol producer Simon Fuller announced that there now would be an official American Idol Songwriting Competition that would run concurrently with the regular American Idol television show. The producers have just announced, however, that due to the overwhelming current demands of the TV show including the “American Idol Gives Back” charity fundraiser, the songwriting contest has been nixed for now (and that’s not Stevie Nicks-ed).

Hopefully, the shunning of new and experienced songwriters will not be a permanent theme for the popular TV series as Idol has helped bring several unknown songs to the forefront such as last season’s “Do I Make You Proud” performed by winner Taylor Hicks.

Now, back to the least interesting conversation (according to some) about Antonella Barba is her fight to survive on American Idol with the song choices she’s been making. Some of the songs Ms. Barba has been singing on the show include “Because I Love You” written by Diane Warren and recorded by both Celine Dion and Clay Aiken, “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” written also by Diane Warren and recorded by both Aerosmith and Mark Chestnut and “Put Your Records On”, which was last night’s performance, written by John Beck, Steve Chrisanthou, and Corinne Bailey Rae and recorded also by Corinne Bailey Rae.

Simon Cowell congratulated Antonella Barba for putting up with the media frenzy following the posting of the pictures, and also not wanting to patronize her, said that as a vocalist, she basically sucks. Be that as it may, controversy is a double-edged sword that may either break one or propel one to new heights. Hopefully, Ms. Antonella Barba will be able to take the high road, even if she doesn’t succeed on American Idol and have a performing career for many years to come.

Chris Daughtry’s lyrics on his Daughtry album maintain the steady theme of love lost throughout. In the song Crashed there is a particularly well executed rhyme from a lyrics standpoint, “Could’ve been the death of me / But then you breathed your breath in me.”

Another good rhyme can be found in the lyrics of “Gone” in the lines, “Feeling overwhelmed, I take a dive / To a once overfilled but now empty place to hide.” Besides the excellent rhyme there is an a gripping metaphor at work that pulls the listener deeper into the song.

Out of all the songs on the entire Daughtry album, though, perhaps the one with the most innovative lyrics is “All These Lives”, which isn’t about the usual adult love gone bad theme. This song in particular is about child abduction, another kind of love lost theme, that has rarely been explored in the musical realm.

Two drums up for Chris Daughtry and his interesting music and innovative lyrics that have put him number one on the Billboard charts.