The natural ability this 17-year old (can that possibly be right!?) young woman has is quite rare. She is a phenomenon. She is a statistical anomaly. The vast majority of people in this country have no particular gift for music or singing whatsoever. Just a fraction of the population can sing or play an instrument well enough to avoid embarrassment in front of a crowd. And only a fraction of those people will ever be able to make a decent living at it. And an even smaller fraction of those people can become commercially successful stars. But the number of people in this country who have the complete package Jordin has could probably all fit comfortably into the men’s room of your local corner gas station.

I don’t, in any way, mean to diminish the achievements of the other five contestants remaining on the show. They are all extremely talented and unique, and each one has given at least one performance on the big stage that was worthy of any AI winner. Melinda is, as Randy Jackson says, “the resident pro” and has performed flawlessly every week. Lakisha and Phil both have very powerful and compelling voices. Chris and Blake, while not as strong vocally as the others, are still great entertainers in their own right. But all five of them are just one step shy of having that immeasurable, unteachable and undeniable “it” that Jordin has.

She has the grace and poise on stage of a seasoned professional, and a natural light and energy surrounding her every move. When she concludes each performance, her innocence and youthful exuberance shine through. I simply melt every time I hear her sing; words cannot do her voice justice, but it is nothing short of dessert for your ears.

How good is she? I am reminded of a great quote from the movie Searching for Bobby Fisher. (Great movie. See it.) Joe Montegna (sp?) plays the father of a pre-teen child chess prodigy named Josh Waitskin. At a parent-teacher conference, the teacher does not really understand Josh’s chess abilities, to which Montegna responds:

“It’s called ‘chess,’ not ‘chess thing,’ just ‘chess.’ When you say ‘chess thing,’ you diminish it and you diminish him. My son has a gift, and do you want to know how good he is? He is better at this than anything I have ever done in my entire life. He is better at this than anything you will ever do in your entire life.”

Jordin Sparks is blessed with a special gift. It has been growing stronger, along with her obvious confidence, with each passing week. Somewhere around week I don’t know what, when the theme was also I don’t know what, she had her coming out party. I felt like most of the contestants were bopping around the stage, playing to the crowd, and so on. Nothing wrong with that. Jordin wore a plain black dress; she stood at the back of the stage; she sang a song, (I think it was called “I Who Have Nothing”, how ironic), that most people, myself included, have never heard of. The audience would not be engaged. She did not dance or even move at all. She stood alone on that stage in front of 30 million people and armed herself with absolutely nothing more than the power of her own voice. And she nailed it. It was flawless. A few weeks later, she did “Broken Wing.” My daughter and her cousin burned it onto a CD. My daughter now thinks I am a freak, because of how many times I’ve listened to it. I can’t get enough.

The only logical and just conclusion to this season’s sequence of events on AI is the following:

1. 1. Jordin Sparks makes the finals.
2. 2. She sings “Unwritten”, by Natasha Beddingfield, a great soulful pop vocal appropriate for a 17-year old on the verge of an amazing journey.
3. 3. For her second song in the finals, she bucks the conventional wisdom of the judges about song choices and sings “I Have Nothing”, by Whitney Houston, leaving Randy, Paula and Simon all speechless and bawling like babies.

Some might say “you’re just writing this so people will vote for her to win.” Sure I want her to win, and I want to hear her voice and see her smile illuminate my TV for a few more Tuesday nights as well. But truth be told, it doesn’t even matter anymore if she wins. Her song choices, her performances for the rest of AI, the judges’ comments, the votes. They no longer matter. She has won already. If she were to go home tomorrow night, (NOOOOOOO!), record producers will be leaving a trail of drool to her front doorstep before the stroke of midnight, and deservedly so.

What I like most about Jordin, and what I hope the music industry does not try to change, is that for the most part of this competition, she has not been selling sex, sass or style. Frankly, it would be beneath someone with a voice as remarkable as hers to do so. I know she is only 17, but I don’t think you could slide a dime through the gap between her abilities as a vocalist and the abilities of the finest female vocalists of our time, including Whitney, Celine Dion and a few other rare talents. I’ll admit that that may be a bit premature and over the top, but definitely not by much. A few years from now, if AI is still around, we will hear the judges critiquing the contestants saying “you just can’t come out onto this stage and sing a Jordin Sparks song because the expectation level from the original is just too high to live up to.

Am I alone in this overwhelming admiration for this young woman’s abilities? I don’t think so. Last week, when Ryan Seacrest told Chris he was safe, the entire arena went dead silent. There were not the usual moans, sighs and maybe a scattered boo, just dead silence. Why? Because they all know, like I do, that there was no possible way that this star, that’s what she is, was ready to stop shining on this competition yet. Jordin’s potential as a performer and vocalist is virtually limitless. She is bound by nothing other than her imagination and her choices.

Although I believe she no longer needs it, best of luck to you Jordin Sparks! Thank you for sharing your blessings with us.