We finally made it to the finale!  Even though I've been very critical of the show and disappointed by it, it'll still be sad to see it end.  This week the final 3 each sang a duet with a superstar and a "Song to Get Them to the Finals," which in this case turned out to be a reprise of their audition songs.  The whole night was a train wreck, and the only redeeming part of the show was Melanie's final performance.

Melanie Amaro
Melanie (predictably) sang 'I Believe I Can Fly' with R. Kelly joining her on stage.  Out of all the duets it was the only one that actually sounded rehearsed and wasn't forced, but it still let me down.  The song didn't translate well into Melanie's vocal range, and then toward the end I got the impression that R. Kelly was trying to ousting her.  It was very obvious that he was getting upstaged so he did all these vocal runs to try and save face.  It would have been an outstanding duet had they not catered to R. Kelly so much.  This is still about the contestants, is it not?

Melanie Amaro
Once again Melanie swept this round.  I'm sure everyone remembers Melanie auditioning with Beyoncé's 'Listen' from 'Dreamgirls', and she once again sang her heart out.  In my opinion she sings it just as well as Beyoncé herself, which I think is some pretty high praise.  Melanie brought the house down, and if anyone but her wins the legacy of The X Factor will be tainted.

Josh Krajick duetted with Alanis Morisette, and he was undeniably intimidated and scared performing with her.  It was all over his face and thus gave a less than stellar performance.  It was overall just bad.  Then Chris Rene sang with Avril Lavigne, and it was somewhat better than Josh.  Chris was, as always, horrid, but Avril was a nice breath of fresh air.  During their second performances they gave much better performances, but nothing worthy of five million dollars.  Seriously though, if Melanie doesn't win then I don't know what the American public is thinking.