Vote for Haley!

Kelli and I have been American Idol junkies for some time now. Our favorite Idol ever was Kris Allen, who defeated the judges' heavy favorite Adam Lambert in Season 8. We usually like underdogs, especially on a show where the judges often have a difficult time hiding their bias.

This tenth season of the show has been rather interesting, from Kelli and I's perspective. Early on we singled out Haley Reinhart as our favorite, a twenty year-old smoky-sounding songstress. Her big voice has lots of range, lots of edge, and lots of growl.

Throughout the top 12 performances, Haley has been somewhat of a punching bag for the judges, which only fueled our admiration for her. It's not that she's always the best performer and it's not that she's above criticism, it's that the criticism she gets seems to always be the harshest while other performers are given free passes on mistakes made. The judges have essentially written her off on a number of occasions.

Yet for two weeks in a row, she's bounced back from ridiculously off-base critiques to belt out a number that brings the judges to their feet. With performances of "Bennie and the Jets", "Rolling in the Deep", "You and I", "House of the Rising Sun", and "I Who Have Nothing" she's been responsible for some of the more memorable performances this season and it was hard imagining a top 3 without her.

And thankfully last night she sailed through to the top 3, as America sent overrated rocker James Durbin home. Kelli and I were going to be happy enough just to see Haley make it to the top 5. But now that she's in the top 3, we want her to win it all!

So if you're reading this, tune into Idol on Wednesday evening and then call in a few votes for Haley so she can take down the two country kids.