How the mighty has fallen.
Tuesday night on “American Idol,” 17-year-old David Archuleta officially lost his place as the singing competition’s frontrunner. Not only did the Utah native forget the lyrics (always a kiss of death on ‘Idol’) to The Beatles’ “We Can Work it Out,” he never recovered from the mistake. Judge Randy Jackson dubbed his uninspired performance “very forced,” while Simon Cowell bluntly called it “a mess.”
To make matters even weirder, Archuleta said in his pre-recorded interview that he had been nervous about having to choose a song from the Lennon/McCartney songbook because he “wasn’t too familiar with the songs.” Seriously.
For Archuleta, the performance was a dramatic about-face. Just two weeks into the competition last month, the Los Angeles Times dubbed Archuleta “the Chosen One” and said “the competition is on the brink of collapsing in the face of a talent who lays 
waste to all before him.”
Unfortunately for the baby-faced Archuleta, his fall from grace happened to coincide with a downright shocking reversal of fortunes for a 22-year-old Californian contestant who goes by just one name: Chikezie.
The affable Chikezie had been shrugged off by many as a bore, narrowly missing elimination last week. But on Tuesday night he bounced back with a passionate performance of “She’s a Woman” that started with a bluegrass twist and morphed into an all-out rock song. The judges were floored, with Jackson asking “Who knew?” and Cowell saying Chikezie had changed in just a week.
One fan on the ‘Idol’ message boards summed it up best:
“Chikezie was HOTT tonight!”
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He’s a great singer!
Congratulations …
Léo Brasil…
- Posted by LéoDavid i was in tears when you didn’t win i voted and when i say voted i mean voted I voted for u at least 200 times until 12:00 cause that night you were awesome simon couldn’t have said it better himself. You rock! And your still my Idol and the 44,000,000 other peolpes Idol! Best of Luck!
- Posted by AnnaDavid you have a voice of an angel and those songs that you sang last week were awesome. Everyone of D.C. fans thought that you were going to win and got really nervous. I was crying when I heard that u didn’t win. Your still my Idol and the 44,000,000 other peoples idols! David You rock! Best of luck!
- Posted by AnnaComments on here suck wind.
All I can say is go for it David…
You are talented!
- Posted by Mikelike he said b4 his performance of shop around” what a feelin’!”..b/c there sure is everytime he sings and everyone who’s trying there best to get as many votes for DAVID A…keep on doing ur best and keep trying as much as u can
- Posted by katieOmg!! Well, (4 those who missed it on thursday) david archuleta DID NOT go home on thursday… not that I thought he waz going 2. I LOVE HIM!!!! He has SUCH a good voice! I love singing myself, and I know talent when I see it (im only 13), but I, like, voted for him four times. (On other peoples fones including mine…) David will make a HUGE comeback, and every1 will LUUUUUUVVVV it!
- Posted by Gabrielladavid is still the best idol ever, and always will be. everyone makes mistakes. he’ll bounce back on Tuesday. his performance was still great even after he messed up.
- Posted by vanessaI mean, everyone loves him. If you don’t, someone’s gotta knock some sense into you.
- Posted by Megandavid will keep on rockin’ and he did not save chikeze! i wil mail this to both of them! so i hope u feel bad! The bottom three WILL be David C, David A, and Carly! David forgot the words! SO WHAT??? We have had alot of great idols forget the words!!! And david will be around for a while so watch out! We got ur backs guys!
- Posted by Anonymousi think this performance was for a reason; now he is gonna work twice as hard and he’s gonna own it!!! this way its not like he’s gonna lose momentum like they were predicting..he’s gonna have to climb back to the top WHICH HE WILL…he’s not going for a long time!!! and i hate chikeze. david archuleta is gonna own it on tuesday and then EVERYBODY is gonna love him again. even if he gets voted off american idol..i swear they are gonna lose so much ratings and he comes out with a CD its gonna ROCK THE BILLBOARDS. i have a feeling about this..haha its like i have espn? hahahah
- Posted by AlejandroWow!
I didn’t realize that out of 29 million votes tuesday night David received 10 million of them. That has to be unprecedented especially for someone who had an off night. I guess his fan base panicked and went wild voting for him basing everything on his prior track record. He truly is a gifted person and has such a luvable personality how can you not like him?
It is also nice to see this blog has intelligent constructive and mature comments about David. There is another Archuleta blog out there that is an absolute nightmare that I have decided not to go to anymore since it has gotten way out of hand with the most absurd comments.
Anyhow David… keep on truckin and don’t ever give up singing … you are an absolute gift to the world.
Canada has your back!
- Posted by MikeI think it’s hard to remember that all the American Idol contestants are human. David was probably performing on the biggest stage of his life- I’d be scared to death too. He’ll get used to it. My friend’s sister went to the rehearsal taping and said he did great and didn’t forget the lyrics. He was obviously extremely nervous. He also had strep throat last week.
- Posted by DaniI think all the AI contestants are extremely talented. They wil all have their off days-it’s called being human. Whether or not he wins AI, I David has a large fan base and I think he will be successful.
Remember, he is more than 10 years youonger than some people on the show, and it’s natural for him to be nervous.