There weren't as many solid competitors last night, in my opinion. One of the best was 19-year-old Jessica Paige Furney, who came with her own entourage in matching T-shirts. She sang Janis Joplin's "Cry Baby" remarkably well. We should see her in the Top 36.
Lil Rounds should be there, too. She sang "All I Do" by Stevie Wonder, and she reminded me of Fantasia. She's a wife and mother of three little kids who just lost her home to a tornado.
One of the earliest performers, Ashley Anderson, chose to perform a Leona Lewis song coauthored by Simon. A good idea, right? Sure, unless you screw up the lyrics. "Footsteps in the sand", she sang - it's "Footprints". But she has a good voice, and they put her through to Hollywood.
Another solid contender was Danny Gokey, whose wife had died just four weeks earlier of what I think was a lifelong ailment. He sang "I Heard it through the Grapevine" very well. His best friend, Jamar Rogers, bellowed "California Dreaming" a little earlier in the evening. I didn't like him, but the judges put him through.
While I'm on the subject of performers I didn't like who got through, Dennis Brigham takes the cake. He begged and pleaded with the judges, who ultimately put him through to Hollywood, I have no idea why. Probably just to shut him up.
Then there was Casey Carlson, the girl who dashed through Vanessa Carleton's "1,000 Miles" at about 1,000 miles an hour and somehow managed to impress the judges I remain unimpressed.
Last year's fourth place winner, the dreadlocked Jason Castro, brought his little brother Michael to audition this year. Michael (a 20-year-old with pink hair which was fortunately not in dreadlocks) said he'd only been singing for 20 days - a concept I find hard to grasp, since all my kids were singing before they were out of diapers. I'm guessing he meant he'd only been singing seriously, with an eye to a solo career, for 20 days. He must have sung along with the radio before in his life! Anyway, he was passable, and he's going to Hollywood. I don't expect he'll do as well as his brother did, though.
Comic Relief Award to sisters India (the small one) and Asia (the large one), who led off with a rap duet about overeating, "Why'd you try to steal my cookie from me?" (At least I think that's what they were saying). After that, they sang separately. India was good enough to get through to the next round, but I think that's as far as she'll be going.
And what would an American Idol tryout show be without the horrendously bad performances?
- Opera Singer Dude, aka Brian Hettler. He bellowed "Think" by Aretha Franklin. His heavy voice is not at all suited to American Idol.
- Vaughn English, a dorky-looking guy dressed in orange pants and a yellow jacket, singing a vaguely obscene song about a banana.
- Then there's the laughably named Michael Nicewonder. I suppose this could have been an elaborate joke; he's a lumpish guy with obviously fake-butter-blond hair in a bowl cut. Even his own mother told him he couldn't sing, but he still wanted to try out. He sang a song he wrote himself, a mournful dirge he said he wrote for his mother. He could barely croak out a note.
- And how about Andrew Lang, the guy who was accompanied by two cheerleaders? He could actually sing a little, but I think his presentation pulled him down.
- The Queen of them all, though, was Mia Conley. She's the one with pink-striped dark hair and the horrendous attitude. She did Minnie Riperton's "Loving You" and insisted on shrieking out the highest note even though the judges tried to stop her. Afterward, she was shown several times saying that God was going to get the judges for not sending her through.
No comments:
Post a Comment