I liked the vocal paralysis kid, too. The breathiness in his voice gives him individuality and I’m guessing it’s due to remaining effects of his paralysis. On the other hand, maybe I’m just partial because my labrador retriever had a similar condition.
Anyone else watch him and think, “I think we’ve found this year’s Sanjaya!”? 
Dollars to doughnuts says his story is total BS.
Funniest to me was the Russian guy who sang Engelbert Humperdinck’s “The Last Waltz”. Close second: the Mexican with the mime.
The guy with the nails was just sad.
The girl who brought her sister was just meh. I don’t see her getting past the next round.
Ditto the tattooed girl.
Speaking of which, one thing confused me. She said she came to this country 10 years ago. How could she have visa trouble 2 years ago? She auditioned in Vegas, which is only a 4-hr drive from Hollywood. I don’t see how a visa applies here, unless she didn’t have a work visa. And if that’s the case, how was she here for 8 years?
This wasn’t as much fun as last week’s offering. I’ll see if there is another one on tonight…
Do visas need to be renewed periodically? Maybe she failed to do that, or maybe she didn’t have a job, or wasn’t in school, or whatever the requirement is to stay here legally.
Or maybe she’s lying, and she just chickened out.
Speaking of BS, I think the Mariah Carey girl knew she was no good but knew she’d have a better chance of screen time if she acted like she thought she was. Her comments about not being one of those people who get laughed at sounded pretty phony.
You know what I hate? I hate when someone proposes to sing a song, and then uses the lyrics to sing any melody they want. This was a good example-- there are no screeching Mariah-notes in Against All Odds!
Ditto “Unchained Melody”. Haven’t seen anyone do that this season (though I missed the Dallas show), but every year several people try it, and fail miserably.
It may be, though. I believe she’s the one I heard about on TWoP: Irish girl, favored by Simon, couldn’t be in season 5 because of an issue with her visa or green card. Simon didn’t seem quite as overjoyed now as he was reported to have been then, though.
What always bothers me is how so many of them seem proud of never having any singing lessons. 
Hello? Dancers take dance lessons. Artists take art courses. Why in the world doesn’t someone interested in singing as a career make a point getting some professional help?
It would at least cut down (one hopes) on the number who sing through their noses or have annoying vibratos or gargle every other note up and down the scale at random. 
It always cracks me up when they say, “I’ve been singing since I was a child!” Is that supposed to be meaningful somehow?
While seeing Aretha’s complete shock and disbelief, it dawned on me: if somebody has a reasonably pleasant tone, and (more importantly) enough range to hit high notes – they’re convinced (and friends & family probably feed this) that they can sing. They can be utterly tone deaf, not to mention missing any finer points about technique and interpretation…if they can produce notes from their throat, they’re convinced they are the Real Deal, and are stunned to hear otherwise.
I think you’re right, jsc. And another factor is that these people probably do all their “singing” accompanied by recordings. Singing along with the car radio and so forth. Singing a capella is verrrrrry different.