Even though Canadian Idol 2 is currently underway, American Idol 3 hasn't been forgotten north of the border.

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On the Nielsen SoundScan Canadian Singles Sales chart, the top two singles for the week ended July 4, 2004 were the same as in the U.S., featuring the final two contestants from American Idol 3. In first, for the second straight week, was Fantasia's 'I Believe' on J Records; in second, in its first week, was Diana DeGarmo's 'Dreams" on RCA Records.

Meanwhile, CTV's Canadian Idol continues to move forward, with 8 of the 10 finalists being selected and 8 more contestants coming back to compete for the remaining two wild-card slots. The #1 topic of discussion, though, was the omission of Ottawa's Rebecca Abbott, 19, who performed Van Morrison's 'Moondance' in Group 4, from the wild-card finalist by the judges (Farley Flex, Jake Gold, Sass Jordan and Zack Werner); popular opinion favors buying them each a box of Q-Tips to clean out their ears. However, this will probably not be the last controversy associated with the show, if last season is an example.

The eight finalists so far are Brandy Callahan, 24, of Halifax and Joshua Seller, 23, of Brigden, ON from Week 1; Kalan Porter, 18, of Medicine Hat, AB, (whom Farley proclaimed "the next Canadian Idol" after his performance) and Kaleb Simmonds, 21, of Dartmouth, NS, from Week 2; Jacob Hoggard, 20, of Abbotsford, BC, and Theresa Sokyrka, 23, of Saskatoon from Week 3; and Shane Wiebe, 21, also of Abbotsford, BC, and Manoah Hartmann, 25, of Regina from Week 4.

The eight potential wild-card contestants are Andrew Broderick, 17, of Sharon, ON; Jason Greeley, 27, of Upper Island Cove, NL (the oldest person in the competition); Elena Juatco, 19, of Vancouver; Bernard Quilala, 23, of Edmonton; Raj Ramawad, 25, of Brampton, ON; Kyla Sandulak, 23, of Edmonton; Ted Senecal, 25, of Calgary; and Liz Titan, 17, of Montreal. Somewhat surprisingly, Jessica Mitchell, the thrid-place vote-getter in Week 1, was also omitted from the wild-card final; the other three third-place finishers (Elena, Bernard and Jason) all made it.

We note that the geographic split of the last 16 includes no Francophones (could this be a result of Star Academie?) but that the Final 8 represents just four provinces (Nova Scotia, Ontario, Saskatchewan (!) and British Columbia) with two contestants each -- virtually ensuring a repeat of last year's geographic voting issues.

We remember that last year's Canadian Idol winner, Ryan Malcolm, made the final 10 as a wild-card (as did American Idol's biggest star to date, Clay Aiken), so we wish the last eight hopefuls lots of luck.

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