Blog Posts by Lyndsey Parker

Crystal Bowersox seems to have come out of nowhere, transforming from unknown single mom/subway busker to "American Idol" front-runner in a matter of weeks. But she's been performing for years, and a recently unearthed video of a then-13-year-old Crystal singing in 1999 indicates that this raw talent was always destined for greatness.

The clip above was shot at the annual Huron Boat Basin Show in Huron, Ohio, where event organizer Cathy Black traditionally invited young, undiscovered talent to perform. Despite being barely old enough to get into a PG-13 movie, the prepubescent Crystal (playing an original song) comes across as incredibly mature, very Jewel-like, and remarkably poised--hardly your typical tween. Really, all the tweens voting for "Idol" this season should look up to Crystal.

Whether Crystal wins "American Idol" next week or not, it's obvious from this video that music has always been her calling, and that she has a wonderful musical career ahead of her.

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Well, the dreaded depature of Simon Cowell from "American Idol" is finally upon us. The Wednesday, May 26 finale will no doubt feature a heartstring-tugging highlight reel of his meanest insults, fiercest Seacrest arguments, and tightest black T-shirts, and then once the tears have dried, he'll be gone, off to concentrate on the U.S. version of his other televised talent search, "The X Factor." And "American Idol" will never, ever be the same.

This is not good news, people. To lapse into Simon-speak, if I am being honest....it is dreadful. Let's face it, "Idol" may survive the loss of Paula Abdul, the addition of Kara DioGuardi and even Ellen DeGeneres, plus any other type of potential jumping-sharkbait tossed its way...but it is unlikely that it will survive the departure of the one, the only, Simon Cowell.

However, "Idol" will go on sans Simon in Season 10, regardless of whether or not that's such a fab idea. So I have a few suggested replacements for the judge everyone loves to

Season 9 on "American Idol" was supposed to be a girls' season. Randy Jackson, Kara DioGuardi, and even Simon Cowell all authoritatively decreed it so. Promising quirky-girl contestants like Lilly Scott, Katelyn Epperley, Janell Wheeler, Lacey Brown, and Didi Benami were all hyped early on as ones to watch and ones to beat. At one point, a Crystal Bowersox/Siobhan Magnus final showdown seemed quite likely. But sadly, "AI9" hasn't quite panned out in the females' favor. Most of the aforementioned girls all left the competition shockingly prematurely--including Siobhan, one of this season's most interesting, unique, and talented contestants. Now only one female, Crystal, remains in the competition, and despite her popularity, I fear she won't win this season. Season 9 will probably be just another boys' club, after all. I predict Lee DeWyze is going to win in the end, and this makes me sad.

See, over the years, "American Idol" has become an increasingly male-dominated production: We

I admit I've been pretty hard on the "American Idol" contestants this season. But after watching Wednesday's results show guest performers, I have new respect for all of the top 24. Yes, even Haeley Vaughn. Because Justin Bieber and Travis Garland wouldn't even make it through the first-round audition process on "Idol."

First, Travis Garland. A former member of the little-known boy band NLT (which I'd say stood for "Not Likely Talented," except that the group featured future "Glee" star Kevin McHale), Travis is Perez Hilton's latest discovery. Yeah, Perez  apparently is some sort of musical visionary, since according to Ryan Seacrest, Perez discovered Lady Gaga, too. (Um, check out this 2008 Gaga performance on Yahoo!, for evidence to the contrary.) Anyway, Perez salivatingly hyped Travis's upcoming "Believe" performance all week long on his blog and Twitter, and on Wednesday's broadcast he actually dared to declare that Travis is MORE. TALENTED. THAN. JUSTIN. TIMBERLAKE.

Wow. Them's

Wednesday on the "American Idol" top three results show, Casey James was voted off. Yeah, this was hardly a surprise. Office pools and online polls were all heavily skewed against Casey. But still, I applaud him for making it this far.

There was a time when I never even thought Casey James would get to third place on "Idol." Back in the audition rounds, I assumed he was just another pretty face (and chest): a marginally talented Fabio clone, recruited by "Idol" casting execs to titillate salivating admirer Kara DioGuardi (and millions of similarly riled-up female viewers at home) by removing his shirt on command and bedroom-eyeing the camera a la Season 4 himbo Constantine Maroulis. But then Casey started to win me over with stellar efforts like "Jealous Guy" and "Don't," and I seriously believed that if he could deliver more stunning performances like those, he could very well steal all of front-runners Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze's thunder.

Obviously, that didn't happen. Casey

This week on "American Idol," Lee DeWyze performed Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah," a popular perennial ballad handpicked for him by Simon Cowell. It wasn't the first time the song had been sung on the show, and sadly, it probably won't be the last. I say "sadly" because while "Hallelujah" is undoubtedly a fantastic classic, its impact has been lessened by the fact that it has been performed on "Idol" twice this season (in the audition rounds by early frontrunner Maddy Curtis, then by seventh runner-up Tim Urban), not to mention in Season 7 by Jason Castro, whose version arguably set the "Idol" standard and remains unmatched, even by Lee. (Incidentally, Leonard Cohen himself told the press last year that he thinks too many people have covered "Hallelujah.")

Anyway, my point is, there are certain songs than have been done to death on "American Idol." It seems the producers have run out of legally cleared songs for the contestants to choose from and are too lazy to place a few calls to

As loyal "American Idol" fans face the truly depressing prospect of a Simon Cowell-less 10th "AI" season (not to mention a truly anti-climactic Season 9 finale), what they could use right now is some comic relief. So it's the always amazing Norman Gentle to the rescue, here to give Simon a truly memorable sendoff and give "Idol" fans some much-needed laughs.

The flamboyantly headbanded, Bermuda-shorted comedic genius of "AI" Season 8--occasionally known as Normund Gentle, Nick Mitchell, or the "Idol" answer to Weird Al Yankovic--is now also known as the lead singer of the eponymous band GENTLE. ("Daughtry is the biggest male success from 'American Idol.' I did not realize that all you have to do is drop your first name and form a band to sell a million records. Sign me up, America! From now on we are GENTLE," Norman explained on his website.) GENTLE recently released their Cowell-roasting debut single, "Brit Slap" (available now on iTunes! woot!). And I am telling you...it's actually

Everyone seems so sure that next week's "American Idol" finale will come down to Crystal Bowersox and Lee DeWyze, neither of whom have ever landed in the bottom three and both of whom have been hyped frontrunners all season long. But I say don't count out Casey James just yet. Remember, last season's viewers were equally certain that Adam Lambert would face off with Danny Gokey in the finale, but on the top three results show, Kris Allen swooped in and surprised us all. Anything can happen on "Idol."

So how could Casey make it to the finale, and possibly even beat out Lee or Crystal in the end? Well, here's what he's got going in his favor:

He has Southern roots - Six of the eight past "American Idol" champions have hailed from the South. Even the two winners who were the exception to the rule, Arizona's Jordin Sparks and Missouri's David Cook, had Southern ties (to Oklahoma and Texas, respectively). Crystal is from Ohio and Lee is from Illinois, but Casey is a good ole boy from Fort