The night is one of my favorite nights of the year: the night that the judges and the producers choose songs for the singers. I like it mostly because I like to imagine the hell that I would put the contestant through if I were choosing the songs that they would sing. Sadly, the judges and producers usually choose kindness in place of cruelty.

But I can still dream.

Jordin Sparks comes out with a wonderful vocal of a marginal song. Nicely done, Jordin. You go girl, and other such leftover idiocies.

Blake’s take on “Roxanne” was alright, but, frankly, he’s no Sting. It takes a special voice to screw up a vocal like Sting does with this song and make it sound brilliant.

If you take my meaning.

Melinda is just sort of boring. Competent. Yeah, that’s nice.

“Are you drunk?” asked Simon. Stupidly, I thought he was talking to Paula.

“She Works Hard for the Money.” Doing entirely legal stuff. Honest.

Jordin’s second song is another snooze--it’s too grounded in the 80’s, too bland to really overcome its moment in history, and Jordin’s take is too straight to make it seem like something fresh.

Question time: did anyone else get the feeling that Blake was channeling his inner boy band with that Maroon 5 song? Horrid song choice, typical vocal.

Melinda’s second song was far better than the first, but, let’s just say, she’s no Tina Turner. Not by a long shot.

The little Sparks is having a really good night. In fact, her third song (a song I’m not familiar with) was a perfect fit for her; she screwed up the ending a bit, but the rest was wonderful. I utterly loved it and, contra Simon, am glad that she did something classic in feel and style rather than something contemporary, poppy, throwaway crap.

Blake, on the other hand, is surprisingly boring tonight. His third song passes like elevator music and I’m already on to something else. Melinda isn’t exactly helping herself, but she didn’t hurt herself, either. She continues to be the best talent in terms of her singing ability and consistency. But she didn’t really light the place up tonight, did she?

At the top of the show, I would have bet on Melinda and Blake in the finals based on their appeal to such different audience. Melinda and Jordin are competing for a lot of the same votes right now. I’m not sure, though, because Blake was definitely the weakest of the evening.

Still, the teen girl vote cannot be ignored, so I predict Blake in the finals. Jordin had the better night, but Melinda has had--by a big bit--the better competition. The goodwill and fan base that she’s built up will carry her through.

Blake and Melinda in the big show down. So sayeth the Zomby.

Update: Kindly linked by Kate, who thinks that Blake is going bye bye. More importantly, though, given her current proximity to Denver, she might want to ditch the kids and take the hubby on a road trip for a very special blogger bash.

Just sayin’.