Jordin, Blake and Melinda Will Perform Together on July 4th

This year's American Idol Top 3, Jordin Sparks, Blake Lewis, and Melinda Doolittle, will reunite to perform a song together on NBC's "Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular."The special will air on Wednesday July 4th from 9-10PM. It has not yet been announced what song the trio will perform.

Martina McBride will also perform at the event, which is being hosted by Natalie Morales and Tiki Barber.

Stay tuned for more info.

Bucky Scores Top 5 Debut, Daughtry and Underwood Also in Top 10

Bucky Covington became the fourth Idol alumni from the show's fifth season to score a Top 5 debut this week, landing at #4 with sales just north of 61K. He is joined in the Top 10 by Daughtry (#6 with about 53K albums sold) and Carrie Underwood (#9 with 45K sold). While Bucky's debut is the highest in the show's history for a contestant who finished outside of the Top 4, his sales were significantly lower than the first week sales of Taylor, Katharine, Chris, and Elliott.

Avril Lavigne tops the chart with about 290K sold, while last week's Idol mentor Martina McBride enjoyed a 30% bump from her appearance on the show, good enough for the #5 spot.

The former Idols are experiencing lots of success on the radio as well -- click here to read Former Idols Account For 15% of Top 40.

He Gave Us Something To Talk About: Sanjaya Voted Off American Idol

All good thing must come to an end. And so too, it seems, must all things that make our eardrums bleed.

Yes, Sanjaya Malakar has been voted off of American Idol.

A plethora of different emotions washed over me during this evening's American Idol. Crippling anxiety, for one, that either Blake or LaKisha (Sanjaya's two co-Bottom 3 companions) would get the boot. Sheer joy when it was announced that it was, in fact, Sanjaya who would be shown the door.

And then, surprisingly...sadness. And a bit of sympathy. And even respect.

Huh?

I wasn't sad that Sanjaya was sent home -- of course, it was way past his time to go. But within seconds of the big announcement, as tears streamed down the 17 year old's face, Sanjaya-the-punchline instantly turned into Sanjaya-the-sweet-kid who we saw in his initial audition. He didn't put himself where he is -- the judges and the voters did. He just did his best to make himelf interesting, and he held his head high in the face of adversity that most people twice his age would fold under. As much criticism as I (and most everyone else in America) has throw at him, he showed up, with a smile on his face, and gave us something to talk about. There is something very admirable about that.

As for the rest of the show, both Fergie and Martina McBride gave entertaining performances, and Simon was given the opportunity to clear up his eye-roll from last night's show. Melinda, meanwhile, handled the George Huff/Bo Bice/Taylor Hicks position of having to choose which group was the Top 3 with dignity and humor, simply sitting down in the middle of the stage. It was charming and totally appropriate.

So, Sanjaya is finally gone. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't slightly gleeful at this fact, as we now have a Top 6 who actually deserves to be there. Hopefully he can take some solace in the fact that he will not soon be forgotten.