The Final Three Hit the Stage on May 12 American Idol

This is what the American Idol fans have been waiting for all season. We are down to the final three and let's be honest, the right three people are here. You knew you were going to see some incredible performances and each and every one of these contestants gave it their all. The question of course is who fell short and which two are going to make it to next week's finale?

Danny Gokey kicked off the show with a great version of Dance Little Sister. He fell right into his groove with a bluesy/jazzy version that he seemed to have a lot of fun performing. He will be the first to admit that he is not the best dancer, but somehow he manages to pull it off.

This was every bit a concert performance. It was loaded with energy and the vocals were dead on. He managed to avoid the debacle of last week when he tried to hit a note that he had no right attempting. He stayed within his range and absolutely nailed the performance.

His second song, You Are So Beautiful, was not my favorite arrangement, but you cannot argue the performance that he put out there. Once again, he stayed within his vocal range and was about as close to perfection as he could be. It was nice to see him finally let loose and not worry about anything. With two solid performances behind him, you have to think he is going to move on to the final.

Kris Allen started his night off with Apologize. He was back behind the piano again and while I really liked the arrangement, he missed a couple of notes in the middle of the song and that is going to hurt him. The judges made sure everyone was well aware of this and all but wrote him off with their comments.

It was nice to see him come back strong with this second number, Heartless. He took about as big a chance as you can take at this point by getting out there with nothing but his own guitar playing behind him. This is what makes Kris, Kris. The arrangement was perfect and his vocals were dead on. He got himself back into the competition with this number, but it is unlikely that it was enough to keep him alive for another week.

The third and most anticipated performer of the evening was Adam Lambert. The buildup given to his song by Simon was in my opinion a little unfair. In fact, you could make the argument that their gushing over Adam all night long when critiquing the other contestants was simply not fair. You can understand their point in that they are trying to make sure that the best contestants get through to the final, but they went a little overboard.

Adam's first song was One. It was a great song choice for him and he slid back into his ballad mode for a bit and gave a performance that had both the judges and audience on their feet. The reviews were of course gushing once again. The praise was well deserved as he once again showed a remarkable range. While I actually did not like the arrangement, you cannot deny the vocals.

The song that he chose for the evening was Crying and after One, you had a feeling that this is where he would go for his second choice. Once again, his vocal were impeccable and he continues to hit notes that the others are simply not capable of. In both songs he hit a note that just set him apart from the other two competitors.

While it is a pretty safe assumption that Kris is going to get sent home, you have to respect the touch of class that Adam showed at the end of the show as he was the one to reign in the judges and the assumption that he will be moving on. He followed up the begging of votes for Adam by Simon with a great compliment to both of the other contestants. It was almost as if he was embarrassed by their lobbying for him and got the show back on track. It was a classy move on his part.

In the end, the hiccup that Kris had in his first song is going to cost him the finals. The support that Danny has is remarkable and unless Kris could give two perfect performances, he was pretty much doomed anyway. It looks like we are headed for a Danny - Adam showdown in the finals and it should be a lot of fun. While I don't think Danny is as talented as Kris, I think he will give Adam more of a fight because of the support he continues to show every week. Say goodbye to Kris and get yourself buckled in for a wild ride next week!