Though I like him, I didn’t expect to see Kris Allen in the final two of American Idol.

I assumed Pink 2.0 or the Michael McDonald remix would be battling the second coming of glam rock Adam Lambert in the finale.

But I underestimated the power of the J-14 crew who no doubt helped propel Kris all the way to the finals.

Both he and Adam were pitted against each other in three rounds of performances last night.

Adam kicked off the show with a performance that was very much him: energetic and captivating. Yet for once he almost seemed a bit restrained (for him anyway), which gave us the opportunity to pay closer attention to his voice than his theatrics (minus his costume coat).

The always-restrained Kris gave a good effort in the first round as well, but in the second round he seemed to be a bit too blasé during his rendition of “What’s Going On?”

If we were all sitting around a camp fire with the Full House gang, perhaps I would’ve enjoyed it more.

Paula Abdul and think-a-like judge Kara DioGuardi loved it, however. I’ll call them DJ and Stephanie from this day forward.

Adam continued to make me feel like the ’80s will never die in his last performance of the night. He can certainly sing and is quite the performer, but as Randy Jackson once put it, he’s a bit too theatrical for me.

On the other hand, Simon was right in pointing out that Adam is one of the most original contestants in AI history. He possesses a certain oomph that previous contestants took years to develop.

Judging from the thunderous applause from the audience at the end, many seem to see it. Still, Kris has his fans, too, so your guess is as good as mine as to who will win tonight.

Who do you think will be crowned the next American Idol?

In last night’s episode of Americal Idol, “the three amigos” vocally sparred, singing two songs each. In seasons past, the top three were allowed nine individual performances but where the music was scarce last night, the judges picked up the slack with excess banter. By the way, if I hear one more “dawg” from Randy Jackson, my head is going to explode, but I digress.

Danny Gokey performed “Dance Little Sister” and “You Are So Beautiful,” Adam Lambert performed U2’s “One” and “Cryin,” and lastly, Kris Allen sang “I Apologize” and “Heartless.” Yes, “Heartless” a la Kanye West. It sounds like an odd cover when you think of Kanye’s non-singing Auto-Tune version but Allen’s version was the highlight of my night. He added a rock spin and used his natural voice. He strummed the heck (for lack of a better word) out of his guitar and sang the song the way it should have been sung. Sorry Kanye, but you should have just played the writer/producer role with this one and passed it to someone else from the start.

Allen got love from all of the judges and for the first time this season, I paid attention to someone other than Lil Rounds. Tonight, we find out who will be in the final two. My money is on Kris Allen and Adam Lambert.

What do you think?