I'm not much of a watcher of American idol (or TV for that matter) but I've listened to some of their successes via Youtube
Now, I'm not sure if anybody's posted about this yet... (if it has, please forgive me) but this is truly one of the greatest versions of this song I've ever heard!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G6ZXackJnGkThough when Simon made his comment about it being "mushy" I started imagining his head to be a bit mushy >=(
still... a very VERY powerful rendition of that song!