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It's been said for months that this is the most talented season of American Idol ever. That is a pretty lofty claim, would their contestants deliver?

One thing can be said, it is the most eclectic group of contestants in seven seasons. Because of this, there are as many clear favorites as there are dark horses. One of the contestants who gets closer to walking that line of both is David Cook.

At first he came off as a cheap Daughtry wannabe. He even sang a Bon Jovi song in his original audition with almost the same kind of gravely rock delivery. Easily he could have been pegged "the rocker" and allowed to languish in that niche.

But the thing that makes David Cook interesting is that he doesn't languish. He did come out rocking, as we knew that he would. But over the next few weeks he became groundbreaking. This culminated when he took on a Lionel Richie ballad from the 80s and made it his own.

Instead of the cheesy, dated love song, it became current. Hip. Like Simon likes to say, "relevant". He could record a version of that tune today and have a hit, the judges said. The judges were right. That rather metal/emo take on "Hello" was definitely commercial in much the same way Dilana's "Ring of Fire" was from Rock Star: Supernova.

Whereas Daughtry and even season seven contestant Amanda Overmyer were criticized for doing the same thing over and over, David C. manages to do the same thing but make it more exciting every week.

It's a dangerous line to walk, but thus far David has managed to balance it with prowess.

He's also overcome his original problem with "image". He's long since abandoned an ill advised "faux hawk" and instead allowed his hair to return to one color. Up against more conventionally good looking Idol contestants like Australian hunk Michael Johns and young groupie magnets Jason Castro and David Archuleta, David C. had to recreate his image as way more approachable.

Taking a cue from Idols past in playing up to his at home audience with smoldering glances into the camera, which any Constantine Maroulis fan can attest, is enough to make up for a multitude of shortcomings.

In every way, he's demonstrated the will to win; even backing off of arguing with the judges over their critiques and adopting some of the humility shown by a number of other finalists.

If he keeps it up, he not only will launch a career much as Daughtry has done, but might even find himself battling it out for the title this year.

It reminds us once again the name of the show is not "American Singer". It's "American Idol". And David Cook definitely has what it takes to win.

Learn more about this author, Ginger Voight.
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