Wait! What’s this? Music written within the last 20 years being performed on American Idol tonight? (¡!) Well, we’ll know for certain in a matter of minutes, after Ryan gives an appropriately cheesy intro and the top 9 contestants of season 8 start singing. But the cryptically named (and to this point, unexplained-by-Fox) theme certainly leads me to believe we’ll be hearing  Adam Lambert, Allison Iraheta, Anoop Desai, Danny Gokey, Kris Allen, Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud, Megan Joy, and Scott MacIntyre tackle some thoroughly modern ditties. Anyhow, I’ve got to take tons of notes so I can get my TV Watch done in a timely fashion, but by all means, use this PopWatch post to share your thoughts (liiiive!) about what’s happening on the Idol stage.I’ll be back at 9:30 p.m. EDT to escape that Osbournes Reloaded crap and post my initial reaction to the show, and then again in the early morning with my full TV Watch recap.

Until that time, however, be sure to head to the EW.com Idol Prediction Challenge, where you can compete against yours truly as well as VIP players including The Insider‘s Ross Mathews, season 6 supah-star Melinda Doolittle, and my Idolatry cohosts Jessica Shaw, Missy Schwartz, Annie "DWTS" Barrett, and Kristen Baldwin. (Our prediction challenge widget is embedded below, but you’ve got to register to score points and participate in our superfun bonus questions.) We have leaderboards highlighting the top-scoring players every week of the competition, as well as overall standings (where we currently have a six-way tie for the top spot), so even if you haven’t played the first three weeks of our challenge, that shouldn’t stop you from signing up now. And check out our "Map View" feature, too: There are only four states that aren’t currently predicting Scott’s ouster; Alaska, North Dakota, and Montana are betting on Megan, while Vermont is picking Lil. Controversial stuff, fellow Idoloonies!

Tonight is the enigmatic "Top Downloads" night on American Idol. Which could mean Top Downloads of All Time Ever. Or songs from Billboard’s Hot Digital Songs Chart. Or — holy fantasyland, Batman! — maybe it means the top songs downloaded on my own personal iPod this week. (Literally, someone would have to sing a cover of Tyra Banks’ "Shake Ya Body," which I discovered during a drunken tragic, late-night Google search over the weekend.) But most likely, I’m guessing, the theme will draw from the top 100 songs on iTunes this week, and after perusing the list for a while — and begging this week’s Idolatry cohost Annie Barrett for help in understanding modern-music enigmas like Seether covering my fave Wham! song — here are my suggestions for the nine remaining contestants. Note: "If You Seek Amy," "Stanky Legg," and "Jai Ho!" were not considered acceptable Idol numbers, for obvs reasons.

Anoop Desai: Muse’s "Supermassive Black Hole" (but only if he buzzes his hair and sports a hipster t-shirt)
Scott MacIntyre: Journey’s "Don’t Stop Believin’" (it’s a crowd-pleaser, with a lovely piano line)
Allison Iraheta: The Veronicas’ "Untouched" (Allison FTMFW!)
Lil Rounds: Adele’s "Chasing Pavements" (a perfect pairing, as suggested by Annie Barrett on this week’s Idolatry)
Megan Corkrey: Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat’s "Lucky" (with just an acoustic guitar and a drummer…and no band to overwhelm her!)
Kris Allen: Beyonce’s "Halo" (acoustically, of course…dreamy!) or "I’m Yours" (another Annie Special)
Matt Giraud: Katy Perry’s "Hot and Cold" (as a stripped-down piano ballad)
Adam Lambert: Seether’s "Careless Whisper" (but maybe the superior Wham version, no?)
Danny Gokey: Miley Cyrus’ "The Climb" (weird on paper…but it might actually work!)

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