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The teen girls scream for him. Their parents smile at such a nice boy singing so well. The judges praise his performances. The voters have put him at or near the top week after week.

The way things are going, it looks as if David Archuleta - the 17-year-old singing sensation and the pride of Murray, Utah - will be crowned the victor of this season's competition on "American Idol" on May 21.

And, at the risk of speaking sacrilege against a fellow Utah resident, that's a shame.

This isn't a knock against Archuleta, who from all reports (including a profile my colleague Vince Horiuchi wrote last month in The Salt Lake Tribune) is a friendly, charming and good-hearted guy. But for everyone's sake - for fans of good music, as well as for Archuleta himself - it would be better if he loses on "American Idol."

Listening to his performances Tuesday night, on what was ostensibly a tribute to rock 'n' roll classics, revealed everything that's right and wrong about Archuleta's singing.

On the plus side, the kid can sing. He has a beautiful voice, he's technically proficient at hitting the right notes, and his puppy-dog sweetness even had Paula Abdul gushing (OK, gushing more than usual).

But Archuleta suffers from problems common to "American Idol" contestants. One is a tendency to put too many flourishes in songs, never singing one note when a dozen will do. The other is that he doesn't adapt his singing style to the song, but instead brings the song into his personal comfort zone: slow ballads ("Love Me Tender" this week) and midtempo R&B-lite numbers (as he did with "Stand By Me").

His performance of "Love Me Tender" was the most problematic. This is one of the greatest love songs in the modern canon, filled with heartache. It was made famous by Elvis Presley, rock 'n' roll's original sex symbol - the embodiment of carnal desire, wearing a pompadour. And Archuleta sang it as if it were a hymn.

(Compare this with Archuleta's closest rival, 25-year-old rocker David Cook. When Cook prowled the stage and sang "Hungry Like the Wolf," his eyes assured you he wasn't singing about merely a taste for meat.)

A similar disconnect came the previous week with Archuleta's rendition of Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline." That song is about first love - and while Archuleta hit all the notes, he came off a bit sterile and robotic. There's no sense that he truly, deeply understands the feeling of "hands touching hands, reaching out, touching me, touching you" about which he sings.

Yes, he's only 17. But Stevie Wonder, one of Archuleta's heroes, had charted five Top 10 singles by the time he was 17. Marketa Irglova was 17 when she and Glen Hansard wrote and sang the heartbreaking songs for the movie "Once" (including the ballad "Falling Slowly" for which they won an Oscar).

Surely there are moments in Archuleta's young life from which he can draw inspiration and emotion - perhaps his early childhood in Miami, or the paralysis in his vocal cords that threatened to take away his voice in 2003. Why aren't we hearing that emotion in the music?

The old saying goes, "You have to live the blues to sing the blues." What blues has David Archuleta lived?

That's why losing "American Idol" could be good, in the long run, for Archuleta's career.

For one thing, only two of the previous six "Idol" champs, Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood, have attained superstar status. Meanwhile, several "Idol" also-rans (Jennifer Hudson, Clay Aiken and Chris Daughtry, for example) have fared better than their season's champs.

Losing "American Idol" would mean Archuleta would have to try harder, to prove himself in a bigger arena than a TV-show competition. It would give him inspiration. It would give him something to sing about.

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* SEAN P. MEANS can be reached at spmeans@sltrib.com or 801-257-8602. Send comments about this commentary to livingeditor@sltrib.com.