I’m not the biggest David “anniversary” person … probably because I’m terrible at remembering dates (just ask Refnaf, lol) … but I’ll make an exception for Ford Day.

There have been a lot of big shows I was sad I missed but I am SO glad I was able to be at Ford Day. Why was it special? Hmmm. Well, it was the first non-Idol Tour show we were able to see. So to go from little David on stage in a huge arena to this cozy corporate theatre with maybe 400 peeps was electric. When he first sat down at his keyboard to sing Angels, a young girl behind me gasped, “He’s. Right. There!” I knew exactly how she felt. Plus, it was his very first live performance of Crush. He was so nervous but, of course, knocked it out of the park.

Nothing against Cook but let me just say that that crowd was mostly Ford corporate peeps, not die-hard Idol fans and they gave our David polite applause at first but by the end of his set the entire audience spontaneously leapt to their feet for an extended standing ovation. *so proud* Whereas Cook finished his set and the MC had to creep up behind him and motion people to stand for him too. Just sayin’.

The whole thing was an out-of-body experience for me. I had trouble processing that I was actually there and David was singing a few feet away.

Then he started singing Imagine. Right there. The whole song. How could I be so blessed to be hearing this?? I literally wondered if I was dying or something… Not even kidding, that actually crossed my mind.

And afterward, we didn’t know that they’d both be coming back out but luckily a lot of us stuck around. He signed stuff from up on the stage for a while then sat cross legged to sign some more then eventually hopped down to take pictures with people and just soak it all in. I swear, his usual glow was glowing. I will never ever forget that day. Ford Day. Thank you, Henry Ford.

This is a recap I came across at MJs that I’d never seen before. I think it’s written by a Cook fan (Kristen) but she does a great job at recounting what our David said between songs and how everything unfolded. Plus, she includes links with her own pics and videos, which is an added bonus.

Enjoy!

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Let me just start by saying it was the best Idol experience of the whole summer for me. Although the Grand Rapids after party comes close since I got to spend so much time with Michael!

Recap photos and videos after the JUMP…

The Night Before

So it started Thursday evening when I picked Kathleen up from the Detroit airport. She just decided to fly in from Atlanta 2 days after getting back from Tulsa because I had an extra ticket. Desi drove in from the other side of the state and we had a good old-fashioned slumber party complete with lots of junk food and frozen strawberry margaritas! We watched the final Mavid Dance compilation and the hour-long video scrapbook I gave to the Idols in Tulsa. Then we made a midnight trip to Kinkos so I could burn a copy of the Mavid video for David since my CD drive wasn’t working. We took Flat Jason along for the ride. FJ had a little bit of water damage from the torrential rain in Tulsa so we renamed him Flat Crying Jason. FJ took a picture with another random cutout. I think it’s a golfer but I dunno. Anyway, we drove back to my place and I tried the CD I had just burned in my desktop computer and it wouldn’t work. I also tried it in my laptop and it made this horrible screeching noise and said it was corrupt. So we had to make another trip to Kinko’s Friday morning on the way to Dearborn!

Ford Day — Prior to Concert

Okay, I’ll fast forward to the actual event. It was only about 30 minutes from my house. We got to the Dearborn Conference & Event Center around 11:15. When we gave our tickets at the door before entering the lobby they had a seating chart that showed the first 7 rows in the center and first 2 rows on the left and right were reserved for Ford execs, Fox officials, and the local news and radio people. So we planned to try and get close on either side.

Lunch was already setup in the lobby. I didn’t know what half the stuff was so I just went for the sandwich roll ups, fruit, and a delicious cookie. It was pretty good but none of us were very hungry. I was bummed that I never saw the free cocktails they promised. They might have been serving them upstairs in the lounge but we didn’t go up there.

So we sat and chatted with a group of ladies mostly from the Chicago area. Then we saw people start to line up around noon so we made our way over there to try and get a good spot. It wasn’t so much a line as a mob. I was starting to feel claustrophobic but it wasn’t as bad as the Tulsa buses. The crowd kept inching closer and closer up the hallway and the security lady kept yelling at us to move back. I was really missing Security Rayand Hot Dave at this point. They would have had the crowd in much better control!

Ford Day — The Show Starts

They finally let us in around 12:30 and it was a mad rush to get a spot. We ended up with on the left side of the stage in the 5th row. I had the 3rd seat from the aisle. It was a pretty good view. It felt like we were on the set of Idol with the way the stage was set. I was just waiting for Ryan Seacrest to come out and say, “This is AMERICAN IDOL.”  I would estimate there were about 400-500 people in the audience. A lot less than I thought there would be. Desi cell-casted for Rickey.

The Adcraft President came out and made some remarks. Then a local DJ gave a news and weather report. That was kind of odd but guess it’s a tradition at Adcraft events. Everyone cheered that our Detroit Mayor is going to jail for 3 months and a new mayor was announced. A Ford Marketing exec was the main speaker. There were a lot of thank you’s. Blah, blah, blah.

At some point they gave away an awesome door prize. It was a trip for two to L.A. to attend all of the Idol finale events next season, including the after party. I would have jumped out of my seat if I had won but sadly I did not win.

They showed a montage of the Ford Videos from the show.

They also showed some of the worst auditions featuring Alexis Cohen, the angry chick that told Simon to “Take it, take it, take it. I’m going for actressing.” James Lewis, the “Let My People Go”  guy and Renaldo were also featured. Desi, Kathleen, and I sang along annoyingly loud to “I am Your Brother.”

Ford Day — The REAL Show

Then they showed the montage of the David’s from finale night and the Ford guy FINALLY asked us to, “Please give a warm welcome to your American Idol runner up and Ford Escape Hybrid Owner, David Archuleta!” Lots of cheers. David waves to the crowd and sits down at the keyboard. He asked how we were all doing tonight. Um it was about 12:45 in the afternoon David. 🙂 He says, “We’re really happy to be here. It’s just been a fun day so far.”

Then he tells us his first song is going to be Angels on the keyboard. “I hope you guys enjoy it. Here I go then.” It sounded great! Really stripped down with just his vocals and the keyboard. I honestly think he could release this as a single on his album and it would sell really well.

THEN it’s time for his 2nd song. You could tell he was really nervous. The crowd went wild when he said, “This will be my first time ever performing it…. So I guess it will be pretty interesting but I’m sure it will be fun. Let’s see how it goes.” I felt really privileged to see his first performance of Crush. He looked into my camera a couple times (0:57 & 3:18). I thought his vocals were really good. It’s a really difficult song to sing. His smile was so big at the end. I think he was probably relieved the first performance was over. I asked if he would be singing Crush when I saw him in Grand Rapids a few weeks ago. At that time he wasn’t sure. He said it gets pretty high and he would have to get over his cold. He told me he would probably just do songs from the tour because he wouldn’t have much time to practice. I’m so glad we got 2 non-tour songs out of him!

His introduction to his 3rd song was hilarious. He says, “It’s one that doesn’t take as much energy as Crush. But that’s what, you know, I tend to be better at I guess… I don’t know. Ha ha ha. But not like, you know, not like I’m terrible at that stuff. At least I hope I’m not anyway… Anyway I should… Enough with that but um this next song I’ll be singing is actually one of my favorite songs ever and it’s actually one that um uh one of my favorite moments on the show… This song is called Imagine.” I think I literally gasped when he said that. I was not expecting him to sing it. I seriously got goose bumps it was so beautiful. It was great to hear the entire song. He received a standing ovation after his performance.

The Ford guy came back out and introduced David Cook of course as, “Our American Idol and Ford Escape Hybrid owner.”  I loved that he comes out with this puzzled look on his face and casually says, “What are we doing? You guys thought I would come out all guns blazing and be all professional. I’m just hanging out.”  That’s truly what it felt like in that intimate venue and with the way he interacted with fans after the show. I can hear myself make a loud gasping noise after two chords of The World I Know. I was praying he would either do this one or Always Be My Baby. I even requested it in my Tulsa letter. It was truly an AMAZINGINLY BEAUTIFUL performance. It’s one of my favorite songs ever and the stripped down version was haunting.

Then David gave us the choice of My Hero or Hello for the 2nd song. I like both songs but I voted for My Hero. Hello won, instead. David made me laugh when he said, “I know. It sucks doesn’t it?” We suggested he just sing both songs! Hello was good but I prefer the dramatic concert version better. I like it with the rock edge of the electric guitar but it was nice to hear a different version for a change. He hit all the glory notes.

Then his banter about the matador costume had me LMAO. After watching the Ford Video montage earlier I had a feeling he would comment on that ugly green lycra outfit they made him wear. He compared himself to Mr. Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog. Best line of the day, “There’s no moral to this story. Just don’t make me do that any more!”  Then he goes on to say he gave his Escape to his father and plans to buy another one for himself but wants to get the “bro deal.”

He goes right into Time of My Life. I knew he would sing this song since it’s still his single but I would have preferred something else that he didn’t do on tour. Again it was at least nice to hear theacoustic version. It sounds like a much different song than the version I heard in Tulsa. David got a standing ovation when he finished.

Archie came back out and the applause grew louder. Cook put his fedora hat on Archie’s head. It was a cute moment. I like this shot. Archie looks good in it, too. Then the Ford exec gave them both his card and told them to call for the “bro deal.” They waved goodbye to us and went backstage.

After Show Meet & Greet

… After about 45 minutes on Cook’s side I made my way over to Archie’s side. I love Archie and all but I’ve met him at all the other concerts and already had pictures with him. Cook was about finished on his side so he came over and asked Archie if they were on the same flight. Archie didn’t know. Cook leaned down from the stage and hugged him in case he didn’t see him later. I was standing right next to them but I had already given my camera to Kathleen to take a picture of Archie & I. Here’s someone else’s video of it though. You can see the back of my head in the lower right corner. Ha ha. Then I got my chance to take a pic with Archie but Kathleen didn’t realize the camera was super zoomed in! It actually makes me laugh though. Then Dadchuleta came over and said it was time to leave. Archie waved goodbye and it was all over at about 3:00.

Ford Day was such a unique experience. I will never forget what it was like to see the Davids perform in such an intimate setting. I’m so happy they had time to get to everyone’s requests for autographs and pictures. I’ve watched Idol religiously since the first season but I’ve never been obsessed like I was this year. I had never even been to an Idol concert before this season. Ford Day was truly a wonderful event and a great bookend to my Idol tour season. It was so much different than the concerts. I’ll probably go again next year since it’s so close to me. I can’t wait to hit the solo tour circuit.

Thanks for reading!

Photos are here

Videos are here

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