May 6, 2003 and it’s the final four!  And for Season 2 of American Idol, that means Clay Aiken, Ruben Studdard, Kimberley Locke, and Josh Gracin. All four singers have survived many weeks of singing, dancing, humility and hard work.  Which ones will be going on and which one will be going home?

The show starts with the group of 4 on stage with Ryan Seacrest as he introduces each singer.  Ryan then announces that all the songs tonight are courtesy of the BeeGees and that Robin Gibb is the guest judge for the evening.

The idols and their songs were sung in the following order:

First Song:
1. Josh Gracin – “Jive Talkin”
2. Clay Aiken – “To Love Somebody”
3. Kimberley Locke – “I Just Want T Be Your Everything”
4. Ruben Studdard – “Nights on Broadway”

Second Song:
1. Josh Gracin – “To Love Somebody”
2. Clay Aiken – “Grease”
3. Kimberley Locke – “Emotions”
4. Ruben Studdard – “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart”

Josh started the performances with a country-styled, “Jive Talkin”.  He roamed through the audience as he tried to please the crowd and the judges.  The judges all agreed that the performance was good.

“To Love Somebody” is a beautiful song and when you add Clay Aiken to it, you have perfection.  His voice was full of emotion and it was soft when needed and when needed, he belted out the song with passion.

All 4 of the judges were so complimentary to Clay and his performance.  The words, fantastic and brilliant were used more than once.  Simon even said it was one of the best performances he had ever heard throughout the entire competitions in both the USA and England.

Kim Locke, looking good in black, got mixed reviews from the judges.  Simon called her performance “sweet and ordinary – nothing special.”

It was Ruben’s turn, but before he started, Ryan let the TV audience know that the audience members had thunder sticks that had Ruben’s name on them.  Somehow, that didn’t seem too fair to the other contestants, but……it was Ruben!!

The judges were excited about Ruben’s performance of “Nights on Broadway.”  Each judge had only positive remarks to make.

The second round started with Josh singing “To Love Somebody.”  The judges loved the touch of country Josh added to the song and thought his second round song was better than the first round.

The most “out of the box” performance of the evening was the second song by Clay Aiken.  Singing “Grease”, Clay dressed the part with tight jeans, a tee-shirt and a red leather jacket.  AND, who could forget the “hip shake.”  Clay had fun and took a risk which worked with the audience and three of the judges.  However, Simon was not happy.  Leave it to Simon to say “HORRIBLE”!!

Kim was next, singing “Emotions” and the judges were pleased with her performance although Simon thought it was just not her night.

The words, brilliant and fantastic were back when the judges critiqued Ruben.  Simon even threw in a “sensational.”

Ryan started the results night by announcing that there were 22 million votes last night.

The group performance of the evening was a medley of BeeGee’s hits.  Each contestant had one song that they were featured on……the harmonies were great.

The bottom two for the night were Kim and Josh.  But, before the results, there was a Ford Commercial.  Remember the one where Ruben is dressed like a pimp and “Nerd” Clay joins him at the end?

When the time finally came to announce who was going home, Ryan didn’t waste words.  It was a quick “Josh, you’re out. Kim, you are safe.”  And, the Final Four is no more.

We have 3 videos for this night.

1.  To Love Somebody
2.  Grease
3.  Group Performance

Click here to see the videos: Continue reading →