American Idol - Week 12 - Semi Final.

ROUND ONE: Judges' picks.

1. Joshua Ledet - I'd Rather Go Blind (Etta James).
Keeping things amazingly restrained for as long as he could, he more than made up for it in the second half. Hellish.

2. Jessica Sanchez - My All (Mariah Carey).
Demonstrating a very impressive lower register (not to mention the high too), she easily sang this better than Mariah, who opts to part-whisper, part-bellow instead. She kept the showboating down to an absolute zero, especially compared to Joshua's turning it up to 11, and sounded so much better for it.

3. Phillip Phillips - Beggin' (Madcon).
Hearing an acoustic/bongos version of this song was certainly a novelty, and he traversed the song's melody nicely, giving it his own twist rather than indulging himself. A bizarre choice for his gravelly voice though.

ROUND TWO: Contestants' own picks.

1. Joshua - Imagine (John Lennon).
How. Fucking. DARE. He.

2. Jessica - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing (Aerosmith).
After singing it pretty much note-perfect (with a slight tweak of the melody), she suddenly hit a big, massive note at the end that went a bit all over the place. Uh-oh. The judges didn't seem to notice though.

3. Phillip - Disease (Matchbox 20).
Acoustic, with bongos. Sigh. Whatever it did in the first 5 seconds is pretty much all it did. Yawn.

ROUND THREE: Jimmy Iovine's picks.

1. Joshua - No More Drama (Mary J. Blige).
I have run out of things to say, in the same way Joshua has run out of ways to interpret songs. I'm hoping the title proves prophetic.

2. Jessica - I'll Be There (Jackson 5).
I've also run out of things to say about Jessica, as "vocally perfect" gets repetitive. Unlike Randy, I'm loving the absence of runs.

3. Phillip - We've Got Tonight (Bob Seger).
Something about this song brought a gorgeous, soulful tone I've never heard before. Behind that growl is a beautiful singer. Wow, consider me impressed. Performance of the night by a mile.

RESULTS
Through to the final are...

Jessica Sanchez
and...
Phillip Phillips

It's a genuinely pleasant surprise, as I expected a Joshua/Phillip showdown. Oh, how happy I am to be wrong. Which means we FINALLY say goodbye to the screeching of Joshua Ledet!!!! My heart is actually racing in excitement! He "treats" us to another dry-eyed "emotional" rendition of "It's A Man's Man's Man's World". Whatever. Ding! Dong! The witch is dead!