love in the idol line: american idol's sexiest performances

it's baaaaaack! well, next week, anyways. as someone who's only voluntarily stopped watching during two seasons (the fantasia fail and the lee dewyze disaster) i will forever love american idol no matter what any haters say, because it's pure entertainment at its best. there are sob stories, success stories, seacrest wearing fake beards, steven tyler making up nonsensical phrases, randy saying "pitchy, dawg" and all sorts of other whimsy and wonder. my previous roommate had never watched before last season, but by the end of it she was proclaiming her love for ryan seacrest and voting feverishly.

forget "glee"...no other show has the power to make me download a clay aiken rendition of "don't let the sun go down on me" and revisit youtube clips years later. speaking of which, there have been some sexified performances that the fangirl within me will never forget (um, not by clay aiken, though). i give you, fine people, the top 3 sexiest idol performances of all time....OF ALL TIME!

3. david cook (season 7) - "daytripper"

i had a mostly hate relationship with david cook, mainly because he seemed super-arrogant during his season. but he brought out the voicebox for this performance and reduced me to a teenybopping mess with his bedroom eyes. ugh.

2. scott dangerfield (season 10) - "dreamin'"

this dude dropped out of the competition before hollywood week because he was a student teacher (aw!) but...DAMN. coulda won the whole thing. this whole clip is fantastic, but steven and randy's reaction at 1:05 is spot-on. love this man.

1. ace young (season 5) - "father figure"

i still remember sitting and watching this with my suitemates during my sophomore year of college. we were chatting and not really paying much attention, but all of a sudden we were all...."whoa. WHOA. why do we feel dirty in a good way?" and proceeded to watch it about 20x on youtube the next day. as someone in the comments section so beautifully summarized: "this song is so bizarre and sexual but hot damn when he sings it.." YEP!