Bir-Ming-Ham!!
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Birmingham Alabana. Home to Reuben Studdard (most overrated Idol ever). Bo Bice. Taylor Hicks (best Idol ever). Can Birmingham break the spell of badness that has been the other audition weeks?? Good God let's hope so.
I don't know what it is about Birmingham and the Idol tradition. Is it the most underrated city for musical talent ever? Are the Triple-Threat of Idol successes an anomaly? We're going to find out in a one-hour show.
Simon's thrilled that they welcome the judges to Birmingham.
Ok. Already the accents are getting on my nerves.
Erica Skye - kinda amateurish. Going from amateurish to pretty bad. Ow!! Flat on the high note. No vibrato. Ugh. Her family thinks she's the bomb. I suspect they're about to be disappointed. Erica forgets her lyrics. Randy looks pained. Back to teh family - they think the feedback will be positive. Simon says she's a hopeless singer, but Erica presses on despite the scathing reception. And then she does it again despite the pleas from the judges to stop. Paula's out of her chair and claims she's shocked. It's a no all the way around. At least she didn't cry when she first came out.
Now we go to all the people crying. So sad. Keep reading for more coverage!!
Katie Bernard. Talking, sounds like a nasal helium person. She's cute, says her talking voice is different than her singing voice. She's right - she sings an all-time favorite of mine - A House is Not a Home. Her phrasing and crescendos are a bit odd, but she really sounded good when she sang. The judges are torn. She's begging. Randy says yes, and lose the affectations (which is good advice). Paula and Randy are on their knees. It's a no from Simon. It's down to Simon. I say put her through, but Paula's leaning no... And she's wavering - sends Katie out to get her new husband. The husband has to convince Paula. Husband just stands there. Simon's falling asleep. Paula puts her through. I think it's a good choice, though I don't predict she'll get much further.
And we're back from commercial.
We're back to pimping Brimingham. Next up:
Tatiana McConnico. A student at a performing arts school. 17. Can't imagine doing anything other than singing, and doesn't want to be there to watch this season of American Idol - she wants to be on it. We don't get to see Tatiana meet the judges - we go right to her singing. She's strong for such a Tiny girl. Her intonation and phrasing are excellent - I"m telling you - it can't be taght. One of the best auditions I've seen so far this season - perfect pitch and great presence. She's unanimously through - not much of a shock. Her family is ecstatic but honestly - they can't be surprised.
Diana Walker. 27 from Atlanta, works in child care. She has a very weird outfit on. There's this weird tank top net thing in pink which doesn't go far enough down, and her gloves are... odd. Oh hey - it's only one glove. Weirder. Saving All My Love is her choice and I'm telling you, it's full-on painful. Ow ow ow!! Someone make it stop. Randy's squinting like his ears are going to bleed - I feel exactly the same way. It's a quick no from all three with very little torturing.
And we're back from another commercial.
Bernard Williams II. Sings Rock With You by Michael Jackson - odd choice. He sings well. This is a tough one to sing without any music behind it. He has nice control of his voice, but he looks like he's passing a stone when he sings. Paula thinks he's totally off key and gives him a NO!! I'm shocked. Her ears must be off tonight. Randy gets it right and puts him through - I thought he was quite good. I don't necessarily see him in top 12, but he could surprise me.
Margaret Thaler. She's 26 and wearing a weird yellow outfit. There's automatically a question about her real age. I can't tell. I didn't need to see her stomach. She's strictly here for Simon. Simon doesn't like her outfit. They ask how old she is. They don't believe her. She lifts the shirt again. She sings. She's awful. Really bad. I suspect verifying her age is going to be totally unnecessary. Simon laments that he has no idea what the show is about anymore. Says she's an Easter Bunny nightmare experiment. She's 50. And now she's crying sorta.
We see a bunch of "welcome to Hollywood's" without seeing the people sing. That's annoying.
Jamie Lee Ward. Another accent. Cute - she's 17. Dad is paralyzed. Would get her grandmother a one-floor house if she won. We find out her Dad shot himself because he caught his wife cheating on him and shot her and shot himself (!!!). She's going to sing Reflection. She sounds good, but has some trouble on the high notes. She's got a very country sound to her, which I don't care for. She slips to falsetto on the next high run and it sounds much better. they think her voice is pretty. Paula tells her not to power through. Simon agrees! Randy says yes. But work on the nasal thing. Paula says yes. Simon would have said no but it doesn't matter - she's through. She's excited. At least she doesn't seem like a bitch.
Chris Slighe - weird looking. Heavy, curly hair (really curly). Bizarre glasses. We know from the teaser this guy's great. Looks can be deceiving. Simon says he's Justin Guarini. Chris wants to make David Hasselhoff cry, ala Taylor's win when Hasselhoff cried. They all laugh. Kiss from a Rose is his choice. He's excellent. Flat-out excellent. When he gets the high parts he goes a bit astray but pulls it back together quickly. Paula clearly loves him. Stands and claps at the end. Simon clearly isn't impressed. Randy likes him. Simon puts him through. I totally dug this guy and his whole schtick. He's a funny guy, self-deprecating, and clearly talented.
And we're through with day 1. 15 people went through.
Day 2 arrives and we're apparently without Paula. She had to go back to Hollywood for a family obligation. So it's just the boys.
Here we are with the cousin Its. LOTS of hair. Victoria Watson - never cut her hair. Her hair is 6 feet long. She says she sounds like a Disney character. She's praying Simon is really nice. She and all of her hair enter the room. Simon's not that impressed with the hair. Vitoria thinks she'd be a good role model and touch people. They ask to meet her mother, and in she goes. They look at the hair again. You Raise Me Up is her choice of song. She sings like a church singer. There's nothing wrong with it, but it's all wrong for American Idol. Randy thought it was just OK and it has to be a no from both of them. They are very polite, and the judges are really quite nice to them. She dissolves into tears when she comes out. Poor thing. She wasn't bad, but not good enough.
Lakia Hill. Ow. Is there really anything else to say? I think not. "What the hell was that?" from Simon. That about sums it up. She blames nerves. Randy's quite surprised to hear that people tell Lakia she can sing. Simon breaks to her that she has probably one of the worst voices they've heard in Birmingham.
Now we cut to all the "you're the worst" clips and Birmingham people are incredibly polite in their rejection.
We get a little teaser before the break, however, that the politeness is about to exit the building.
Nicole Gazman . Mom said a long time ago that she had no talent but everyone told Mom she was really good. She's from Oklahoma. Something to Talk About is her choice. Another tough song to sing. I can't say I love her, but her voice is interesting. She's flattening out the tough spots - smart, but it's a trick to cover either nerves or a deficiency. She's 17, Simon says she sings through her nose. Randy doesn't think she's ready, but they encourage her to come back. Mom is supportive. I didn't think she was that bad, and I do hope she comes back in the future.
Birmingham is becoming a bad bad singing place. We get clips of how bad it is - cloudy and bad.
Brandy Patterson. We know she's going to suck from the teaser and then she's going to go postal. She's the only person from her family who is born to be a star, according to her bio. Like a Virgin is her choice. She's really bad. She moves around a lot. She obviously doesn't know she's bad. She whips off her jacket!! Her hips are moving!! Simon stops her. Says her audition was rotten. Everything about it was wrong, according to Simon. She thinks Simon's wrong. She blames the floor. That's a new one. Simon moves her to the carpet. Shoes are off. She switches to Proud Mary. It didn't get better. She's shaking and rolling her arms. She doesn't realize Simon is full of s--t when he says the wooden floor made all the difference. Randy says she was still terrible. Randy thanks her, but she argues. Brandy doesn't know why they're even judging. Simon finds this hilarious and both boys devolve into laughter. Simon leaves the room and sees her, tells her she's terrible again. She pints at Randy in his face and calls him a faker, but she's still kind of laughing. She protests that her singing was find, and she doesn't know what they were looking for. Now she's starting to curse. It's getting ugly. She claims retaliation. She smiles and leaves.
And so Birmingham's in the bag.
My favorite of the night: Chris Slighe with a close second in Tatiana McConnico.
My top two throughout the audition round, so far:
Chris Slighe
Sundance Head
Based only on the auditions, Sundance is a narrow favorite for me.
Tomorrow we're off to Los Angeles. Please God let this be the last audition location so we can get to the Hollywood round next week.
Labels: American Idol, Auditions
posted by RenaRF @ 8:17 PM,
