After last night’s Canadian Idol performance show, there is no clear winner. Gary Beals and Ryan Malcolm each performed three songs, and the final votes have been counted. The only thing left to do is reveal the winner, which will be announced shortly before 10 PM ET tonight.

Malcolm started the show off performing “Something More,” which will be the winner’s first single, to be released later this month. The song seems to be about the journey that was, with lyrics like: “Now I have this chance to be everything you saw in me.” It was only at the end of the song when Ryan finally gave the sold-out Toronto audience something to cheer about, but he built it up well.

He later performed “Down on the Cover,” where he was more comfortable on stage than he ever had appeared before. His last performance was “Stand By Me,” which promoted Zack to envision a future headline: “Waiter-boy turned Canadian Idol.”

Beals remained conservative with his sings, taking few risks and not performing anything impressive until his third choice.

He started with the Bee Gees’ “To Love Somebody,” where he was so weak, it looked like Malcolm could have mailed in his last two songs. I got the impression, like I do quite often when Beals sings, that he was singing but not believing his performance. If he wasn’t excited, there’s no way I could have been.

Beals had his chance at the single, where for the first time he looked like he wanted to win, with tears falling from right eye. Despite a few tone and pitch errors, Beals was catching up to Malcolm, but it would take a breathtaking performance to keep in the game. That’s exactly what he did for his third song, performing “A Whole New World,” which might have won him the Idol crown. Beals never sounded better and never looked so into the song as he did to close out the competition.

Other notes:
- Simon Fuller, the creator of the Idol dynasty, was in attendance. Fuller has the first shot at signing the Idol participants.
- The other 9 finalists were also in attendance. They will perform together on tonight’s show.
- Ruben Studdard, America’s second Idol, will also perform tonight and help crown the winner.
- The judges sat on white couches instead of behind their usual desks.
- Will there be a Canadian Idol next year as well? When Jake Gold was critiquing (I use the term loosely) Beals’ last performance, he said he was the “last judge to give the last judgment, this year anyway.”






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