'American Idol': The Heat Is On!

May 16, 2006

ELLIOTT YAMIN, KATHARINE McPHEE and TAYLOR HICKS: which one will be the next
"American Idol"? There's only one more week to go before viewers crown the
winner, and the tension is mounting. But first the Top 3 have to sing three
songs tonight to charm viewers into voting them into the final night of
competition.

Tonight, Elliott, Katharine and Taylor will each sing a song selected for
them by music mogul CLIVE DAVIS, who will sign the Top 2 to a recording
contract; a song picked by the judges; and one of their own favorites.

JOURNEY's classic "Open Arms" is the song that Clive
chose for Elliott, whom he sees as a fighter, as someone who sang himself
out of the bottom two and into the top two of last week's voting.

"He really came through with the ELVIS PRESLEY material, probably the best
of any of the other artists," Clive tells ET. "What Elliott has to be
careful about is that sometimes he gets too hip for the room. Sometimes he
tries to show, 'I am different from the others,' and he goes into cool jazz,
or he will go into songs that America does not know."

Katharine had a difficult time during Presley week, because the material did
not showcase her appropriately. To improve her chances this time,
Clive has selected "I Believe I Can Fly" for the beauty from Los Angeles, CA.

"When we met and spent time together, I said, 'You've got to reach down now.
You've got to develop your own sound. When you turn the radio on and you
hear WHITNEY HOUSTON, or you hear KELLY CLARKSON, you know when you hear
those artists. You have to develop the Katharine McPhee voice. So when you
are singing "I Believe I Can Fly," when it talks of everlasting arms, where
it is talking of God, you've got to make the audience feel that.'"

For Taylor, Clive reached out to BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, an artist he had signed,
to get permission for the first time ever for "American Idol" to use a song
by the Boss -- "Dancing in the Dark."

"So I said, 'Taylor, you have to understand that "Dancing in the Dark" is
about one thing, it is about sex. It is about the restless anxiety,'" Clive
recalls. "I took out the lyrics and I read them to him. This is about, I am
bored in this town, I am bored with my life, I need some fire to light my
spark. So yes, you can prowl and command the stage, but you've also got to
understand the lyric of what you are singing, and you can't do anything with
artifice that doesn't ring true."

As for last week's voted-out "Idol" hopeful CHRIS DAUGHTRY, not to worry.
Clive has already met with the rocker and the two will meet yet again to see
about working together on a solo album for Chris. Clive has also expressed
interest in PARIS BENNETT, so stay tuned for news from that front, as well.